Have you ever had a conversation with someone and a passing comment just caused you to pause, hit rewind, and drill down on what was said. That happened recently in a conversation Tammy Bjelland founder of Workplaceless and I were having around competencies necessary for success as remote workers. Here is peek into where we landed.
Sometimes in life we come across oxymorons…a phrase where we put two seemingly opposite ideas together to describe something. We’ve all heard them…an open secret; pretty awful; friendly fire, unbiased opinion…you get the idea. As we learn more about what is required to be a successful remote worker, we come against such a concept: successful remote workers need to be independent AND interdependent. How can this be? Let’s take a look at the world of music to shed some light on this.
Individually, musicians need to master their instrument…they need to be able to independently perform beautifully, to know their specific instrument as well as they know themselves, to practice scales, to accurately read and interpret the score, to understand tone, to conquer breath control, to communicate the meaning of the masterpiece they are playing. Only when they have risen to a certain level of proficiency are they able to meld with other musicians in an orchestra and together make beautiful music. Only then can they perform as one, to listen intently to those around, to take the lead when the score calls for it, and then fall into the background as another instrument takes the piece to new heights. At the end of a performance, the orchestra takes a collective bow…no individual hero, just one finely tuned team of interdependent musicians bringing the best of who they are to the whole.
Ok, so you aren’t trying to be the next great maestro, but I would bet you are wanting to be the best remote worker you can be so that your contribution to a team is nothing short of masterful. What does that look like? You need to know yourself, to practice the strengths and skills necessary to thrive as a remote worker, to accurately read and interpret the details of a task, to understand people and how to best communicate with them, and to grow in your emotional intelligence. You want to master your trade whatever it may be. Then, when you join together with others to work on a project, you know the strengths and expertise you bring to the team, you know how to listen intently to your team mates, to take the lead when called for and fall back into a follower role to let someone else use their strengths to take the project to another level. The end result is a finely tuned team of interdependent remote workers bringing the best of who they are to the whole.
Daniel Pink describes a similar process in his book Drive: autonomy leads to mastery, which in turn leads to purpose. We gain autonomy when we successfully
work independently, the growing of our skills lead to mastery, which in turns equips us to contribute to the greater good knowing our purpose.
Probe and Ponder…learning from life & travels with Roberta Sawatzky 