Nix The Negatives

Big tasks tend to lead to procrastination if we don’t immediately choose the first steps. Study past similar tasks, the necessity for it and how to achieve it.

Having a time and a place when you know you’ll need to present your ideas to an audience is a good way to force you to structure your approach.

Breaking your big picture into specific doable goals will make it much more actionable. Especially if they come with a finite timeline.

Big questions are worth asking but they should be framed in a way that doesn’t feel burdensome or insurmountable. 

Working from home does not mean you are a remote worker. For a lot of people “working from home” is synonymous with not really working, but instead sitting at home in comfy clothes and doing anything but working. Because no one is really watching you.

• Assume remote, even if you have only 1 person that is not coming to the office. So make sure to share all the information from meetings in a written format.
• Have a private, quiet, dedicated space for working in your home. Preferably with a door that closes.
• Have the right digital equipment.
• Over-communicate.
• Make sure you get to actual meet your colleagues face to face.
• Have a time overlap with your team.

The goal of an effective 1:1 is not an update from your direct report or for you to lay down some instructions. It's a conversation. It's a chance to hear about your direct reports' ideas for your product, their career goals, and possibly their opinion of their performance.

Keep a list of three potential topics ready for discussion. When they say they have nothing to discuss, you can jumpstart the conversation with one of your items.

Your most precious resource is your own time and energy. When you spend it on your team, it helps build healthy relationships.

Your job as a manager isn't to give advice or 'save the day.'' It's to empower your reports to find the answer themselves. If you want to understand what's going on, ask. Let her lead the conversation while you listen and probe.

There is a need for conflict in teams for their effective functioning.

• It allows team members to see difficult situations.
• It helps put forward alternative solutions and diverse perspectives.
• It acts as a strength test for the solutions found.

A nice person's self-image is based on pleasing and agreeing with others.

Instead of just agreeing and being nice, one should add unique value and perspective.

If you only agree with everyone, you may even not be that valuable to the team.

If you fail to meet them, you probably set difficult ones for yourself.
Goals should inspire you to stretch yourself. If you hit all of your goals every time, they might not be ambitious enough.

• Set clear expectations and make an effort to be a good listener.
• Set clear boundaries. Establish a preferred time for communications so you feel respected and acknowledged.
• Get to know others. Remote workers often have purely transactional interactions. Listen to people and get to know them.
• Update people on what you’re working on and your availability. 

A co-located office develops its own personality through inside jokes, shared experiences, and a collaborative environment. A remote team needs to develop something similar.

Creating specific Slack channels based on interests and book clubs where the company funds the books are the easiest ways to do this for remote workers.

Virtual teamwork places greater emphasis on communication and organization.

Over the short-term, newly formed virtual teams experience more negative outcomes, such as team conflict, lower satisfaction, less knowledge sharing, and poorer performance. But, they will adapt and improve over time.

At an individual level, some people will find it easier to adapt than others.

• A study revealed that when people are imaginative and enjoying a new challenge, they are happier to embrace virtual teamwork.
• Extroverted individuals prefer face-to-face work, and virtual work may lessen the energy they get from social interaction.
• Introverts are better at adapting to a virtual environment as it involves less face-to-face interaction.
• Those who like to make quick decisions prefer virtual teams.

• Asynchronous communication is when we send a message (such as emails) without expecting an immediate response. The recipient can take hours to answer it.

• Synchronous (or real-time) communication is when you and the other person are engaged in a face-to-face audio or video conversation, like a video call or a phone call. The information discussed is responded immediately.

Instant messaging tools like Slack or Teams are synchronous, and in some companies, email is also used as a real-time communication tool.

Team communication has increased by 50 percent in the last 20 years. We spend an average of three hours a day working on emails. On an average, Slack users send about 200 messages in a day.

This near constant communication hampers work productivity, with video calls, one-on-one meetings, e-mail and team chat leaving little room for actual work.

• Use of caps lock, emojis, italics and tildes (~) to make your language flowery, fun and human is a great idea for remote working. You can also use memes and gif images, provided they are not offensive to anyone.
• Robot speak is not a good way to freely collaborate with your remote peers. Use simple words, and keep it on the casual side, skipping the inaccessible and stilted language. You can also opt for contractions like writing isn’t instead of is not.

• Do not obscure your message by words that are there to decorate the sentence and make it sound wordy while camouflaging what you mean.
• Make good use of qualifiers ("I think, In my opinion") while not coming across as a perpetually confused person. Don’t use qualifiers while making a strong point.
• While writing documentation, it is prudent to avoid jargon and acronyms.
• Use complete words and sentences. Shortcuts and acronyms block any actual communication, acting as roadblocks. On the same lines, avoid cliches, idioms and any idiotic sounding phrase that catches the ear well but doesn’t really do any good to anyone.
• Remote working is often on a global scale, and certain expressions will not be understood by some participants, or worse, will be misunderstood.
• Your words and tone should be tailored according to your audience. The words are different when you are writing to a client, and when you are in a small group chat with your peers. More people in chat also means adopting a polished, professional tone.

Start by taking a bird’s eye view of your life and slowly nail down more specific goals.

Identify your big goal. Then get more granular and identify specific goals along the way.

Each goal you set should be S.M.A.R.T. — Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely.

• Specific: The more specific your goals are, the better chance you have of achieving them.
• Measurable: Can you identify milestones to hit along your way to success?
• Attainable: Are you willing and able to make the necessary sacrifices to achieve your goal?
• Relevant: A goal that you care about.
• Timely: Make sure every goal you set is time-bound.