Wisdom from 10 Remote CEOs
Last week, Mark Zuckerberg spoke publicly for almost an hour about the shift to #RemoteWork
He explained that Facebook plans to
“get to about half of the company working remotely permanently”.
Remote working has long been seen as a luxury reserved only for the generation-z #digitalnomads we see working from their campervans on instagram.
.CEO has embraced remote working for many years, with a team distributed across North America, Australia, the UK and Europe — I myself have worked remotely for 5 years.
While our CEO typically tries to be in the same place as team members between meetings and events, the challenges of a distributed workforce are still real as it comes to cross-timezone scheduling, business intelligence transparency, instant and reliable communication and round-the-clock collaboration.
Fast forward to 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic has forced the hand of many businesses (read: those lucky enough to be able to continue trading) to go from 0–100, transitioning their entire workforce to work from their homes.
The demand for apps that connect our teams is now greater than ever (in March, App Annie recorded over 90% more downloads across the entire Business Apps category, while Zoom alone said daily users spiked to 200 million in March, up from 10 million in December.)
Many CEOs with remote teams (including our own) have experimented, failed and succeeded with platforms, techniques and tools that promised to make running the business easier, cheaper or faster.
I plan to release a #RemoteWorking CEO Score Card and a series of blog posts based on the feedback received from the thousands of executives using .CEO.
Below is wisdom from 9 top remote CEOs:
WordPress Founder believes remote teams can:
“consistently perform better than any in-person organization could”
Matt.CEO — Matt Mullenweg, Founder of WordPress
Matt Mullenweg uses his Matt.CEO domain for his personal blog, where he frequently writes and shares his podcasts about remote working and distributed teams.
“Virtual has become the new face-to-face”
JeffreyHayzlett.CEO — Jeff Hayzlett, Former Eastman Kodak CMO and CEO of the C-Suite Network
In a recent story about leading your company through a crisis from home, seasoned executive and C-Suite media thoughtleader, Jeff Hayzlett said that “It’s important to be a shining light that supports others.”
Focusing on connection and collaboration, Hayzlett says to “draw on the support and ideas from your community, whether its peer groups, mentors or an affinity group.”
Jeffrey uses his .CEO Domain to tie his social identities and apps to a single, memorable web address — JeffreyHayzlett.CEO
eGroup Employees are N-E-S-Ting for a better Remote Work experience
MikeCarter.CEO — Mike Carter, CEO of eGroup
eGroup provides IT consulting services to multiple sectors, including security and collaboration solutions for remote companies.
A dedicated Remote Work category on the eGroup blog shares tips for successful remote working, including N-E-S-T (Neutral positioning, Eyes and Elbows, Space and Taking breaks).
“We may be on the verge of a revolution!”
Mastermind.CEO — Salman Lakhani, CEO of Cubix
Cubix CEO Salman Lakhani uses Mastermind.CEO for his company website, sharing products and solutions for remote and distributed teams. Salman’s team shares insights on remote work on their blog where they “an increase in productivity and efficiency as well as improved teamwork and collaboration with remote teams than in-house employees”
The 130yr old Mississippi Bank ranking 100% for Remote Work
Trustmark.CEO — Gerard R Host, CEO of Trustmark Bank
Trustmark Bank has provided banking, wealth management and risk management solutions for an admirable 130 years.
Led by CEO Gerard R Host, the Mississippi cornerstone earns an outstanding 100% Remote Work score on FlexJobs:
“I value communication and want to make sure you’re always able to hear directly from your leaders, including me.”
JohnFurner.CEO — John Furner, CEO of Walmart US
Walmart US CEO turned podcast host, John Furner brings his distributed team into the spotlight on a regular podcast, called The Huddle.
Brunswick credits Furner as an exemplary executive, championing his employees as his company’s greatest asset across channels including his verified Instagram account.
“We have shifted our engagement strategies to digital platforms and virtual collaboration tools so we can remain in touch with one another and our customers”
GarySmith.CEO — Gary Smith, CEO of Ciena
Ciena CEO, Gary Smith talks about Openness being Ciena’s guiding principle on their blog: https://www.ciena.com/insights/articles/Openness-Cienas-guiding-principle-for-customer-choice_prx.html
“Be the Leader You are Meant to Be — Even from Your Living Room”
RobertCJohnson.CEO — Robert C Johnson, CEO of TeamSupport
Mr Johnson is the CEO of TeamSupport, who on their blog, released a series of posts to help executives “Be the Leader You are Meant to Be — Even from Your Living Room” (part 1 and part 2).
CEO of tech giant, Intel, says “I think people will make sure in the future that they’re able to do real work for extended length of time from multiple locations,”
Intel.CEO — Bob Swan, CEO of Intel
In his March 19 letter to customers and partners, Intel CEO Bob Swan predicted that more services “will be further digitized as the creativity of a massive work-from-home population gets rolling.”
“we are witnessing what will surely be remembered as a historic deployment of remote work and digital access to services across every domain, including medicine, education, government, entertainment and more,”
“Work From Home Will Be ‘Permanent Feature’”
Dell.CEO — Michael Dell, CEO of Dell
Michael Dell (Dell.CEO) has embraced remote work for over 10 years, with more than a quarter of the Dell workforce working from home.
Dell’s commitment to his distributed team is ongoing, with his Connected Workplace Program and flexible work initiative, and, like Zuck, Dell is targeting up to 50% his team working remotely.
