The Remote Manager

Introduction, Issue 1

In the first of their predictions for 2023, LinkedIn boldly claimed that “hybrid work will be here to stay.” (Big Ideas 2023). The rabid, public debate between the no-office club and the only-office club belies the fact that work as we have known it for the last one hundred years or so has permanently changed. The trend towards hybrid and remote first workplaces has been developing for years; the pandemic simply catalyzed changes that were already occurring, forcing many companies to adopt or die. Software and hardware changes through the last twenty years are enabling previously impossible levels of remote collaboration and productivity. A short list of those changes include:

• High speed internet
• Web based video conferencing
• Connection on the go (cell phones, laptops, tablets)
• Death of long-distance charges
• High resolution on-board cameras
• Seamless screen sharing
• Real time editing and tracking tools
• Ubiquitous wi-fi.

Coupled with seismic shifts to high-value knowledge / innovation work in most industries, these innovations have slowly but steadily moved us towards new ways of working.

While the exact contours of where and how we work will likely be in flux for some time still, the reality is that the people manager of the (very near) future needs to develop effective, flexible interpersonal and supervision skills that allow them to seamlessly shift between office and remote work with ease. Competitive advantage will go to the leaders and the organizations that can integrate, direct, support, and grow their people, regardless of where and how those people work.

What is the Remote Manager?

The remote manager is any business leader whose team is not co-located in the same building every day. I use the term remote manager to describe those whose team is 100% remote as well as those who have any combination of on-site and remote team members. The remote manager can apply to any version of hybrid work:

1. teams that are co-located part of the week and at home the rest of the week,
2. teams with some people in the office and others at home some or all of the time,
3. teams that report into an office but then do their work independently at other sites,
4. teams who work primarily remote with occasionally in person meetings, or
5. businesses with no dedicated office with ad hoc in person meet ups in local coffee shops or co-working spaces.

This article is the first in a series designed for those who are still struggling to develop effective remote working strategies, as well as those who are doing well but want to challenge themselves to do better. My goal is to give you the advantage of my years of experience before and during the pandemic as a remote manager so that you can develop your own tactics to fit into your specific operating environment.

About Me

Most of my career has been in non-traditional office settings. For almost twenty years I was an individual contributor in a hybrid department of an otherwise typical on-site company. Before the pandemic, I took over an international team that had never been in the same country at the same time, let alone in the office together. In fact, when I was hired the company had never even had a physical office. I’ve also had positions that required on-site work with daily face-to-face customer contact, as well as the typical office scenario of working on-site in a cubicle or behind a closed door.

As a result of this diversity of experience, I am often asked about improving remote management by frustrated or overwhelmed business leaders. I have deep empathy for these leaders and their direct reports who are caught in this cycle of anxiety. Remote management can be challenging. Largely because it requires a different framework than in-person management does.

We have been running business in pretty much the same style for over a century: go to work, greet the team, have a few meetings, observe the work in progress, write a report, go home. Most of our in-person management is unconscious, the product of years of habits mostly inherited from the managers before us. So much of what we know about our team’s work and their progress has been based on our physical observation of their performance in action. The pandemic forced a high stakes transition with little preparation and even less meaningful oversight for so many companies. Many business leaders found themselves scrambling to stay in the loop and incapable of confirming the right work was getting done. Too many “bosses” found themselves in a trust vacuum because they couldn’t see what was being done and when.

In this series, I’ve tried to distill the essence of over 20 years of remote experience into meaningful strategies that you can customize to your situation. So you and your team can take advantage of the new, flexible ways of working and be prepared for the continued evolution of work.

The Right Mindset for the Remote Manager

Effective remote management starts with mindset. The right mindset is critical for the remote manager. As you read through the list below, you may notice these components would make for a great manager in the analog world too. And you would be absolutely right. The right mindset for the remote manager is good management, period. The elements that I have listed below are critical because no software or technology will solve a mindset problem. These philosophies inform the success of the strategies we will explore in upcoming issues of this series.

Be Intentional

To create a natural, organic environment for your team, you must be intentional in every interaction. This is perhaps the most counterintuitive aspect of being a remote manager. The remote manager must create a structure that supports and surrounds work and individual growth, but that structure need not be rigid or formulaic. Neither can it be lackadaisical or haphazard.

Being intentional means thinking carefully about how you can structure interactions to gain insight, understand obstacles, support progress, and grow thriving team members. These interactions will evolve as work and people change over time so the remote manager is always assessing and making adjustments in the best interest of their people and their organizations.

This constant assessing brings us to another facet of intentionality in the remote manager: purposefully pursing new skills for himself and his team. New skills may be required to facilitate familiar outcomes based on the new team dynamics, changes in technology, and shifts in cultural and social expectations of customers and employees.

Remote management requires thoughtful attention and intention to develop the best working conditions for those in their charge.

Focus on the Big Picture

While focusing on the big picture is not unique to remote managers, it is vital to their success.

For the remote manager, focusing on the big picture means constantly running every tactic, direction, and interaction through the filter of “what are we trying to accomplish?” and “why does it matter?”. In answering these questions both for the overall mission as well as the individual activity, the remote manager will gain clarity over priorities and requirements.

Productivity, not busyness, is the new yardstick. For many years, a busy workforce was a productive workforce. Seeing people complete well-defined activities with predictable outcomes worked in the traditional office operating in a traditional market. But the same forces that created today’s remote workforce also reshaped the market that businesses operate in. Today innovation and creativity drive organizational growth. Both of these activities are mental, rather than physical. Both are unpredictable. Today’s knowledge work and the organizations that rely upon it can not mistake busyness for productivity because busyness undermines the deep thinking needed for innovation and creativity. look for ways to measure relevant output that drives the mission forward.

Step back from what has always been so that you may think of new ways to make the bigger picture work. Let your team bring their creativity and expertise to the effort to find new ways of fulfilling the mission.

Prioritize Relationship Development

The expectations around professional relationships are shifting. Fewer people are willing to accept the anonymizing, impersonal interactions of yesteryear.

Reasonable concerns over mental health and work-life balance are eroding the compartmentalization between personal and professional that have been unquestioned for decades. Particularly in the remote working environment, the lines between work and home blur.

Remote work can be isolating, even lonely. The remote manager must be sensitive to the whole lives of their people. Prioritize relationship development by intentionally developing positive relationships with healthy boundaries and nuanced awareness power dynamics with each member of your team.

Strong relationships drive more positive outcomes for teams that work remotely. They create the trust and accountability that remote teams need to work effectively. Strong relationships also raise warning flags early.

Innovate Ruthlessly

Much of the debate around office-only hides a deeply rooted unwillingness or inability to innovate. Innovation is simply new ways to solve old problems. It starts with taking a fresh look at the situation and understanding all of its complexities, as well as its opportunities.

Attempting to replicate the “old” environment in this present moment is lazy. The old ways are dead. Even if everybody went back to the office tomorrow, we will never return to the pre-pandemic model completely.

It’s time to blank slate everything. Think about the problem(s) in front of you with fresh eyes. Look beyond symptoms to the root cause. Reframe the root cause so that you can see new opportunities in the challenge. Innovation isn’t just technology, it’s also technique. Approach solutions holistically, considering all options. Be willing to be radically low tech or hands-on.

Upcoming Topics

Future installments of the Remote Manager series will dive into specific strategies that will upskill your management game. These practical strategies will give you actionable insight that you can start applying immediately to support your team. They will inspire you to think differently about how you can make remote work better.

1. Know Your Team’s Work
Avoid micromanagement by moving towards micro-understanding and servant leadership. Support your team by keeping work visible, limiting work in progress, assisting in prioritizing.

2. Develop Healthy Relationships
Some practical thoughts on how to translate the mindset of Prioritizing Relationship Development into healthy, meaningful relationships that drive progress and support growth.

3. Connect Human First
Incorporate the value of human connection in the virtual workplace in small, powerful ways. Make space for those human moments that make remote work meaningful.

4. Make Time for Unstructured Engagement
Create an environment that stimulates spontaneity and serendipity in a way that makes sense for a remote team.

5. Be Accessible
Make an open door policy a reality: identify and remove barriers, use tech to welcome, and create virtual signposts that guide and support.

Jennifer Columbe is the lead Operations Guru at Blue House Solutions. She blends her experience in operations, project management, product development to help business leaders build processes that work for their people.

She writes and speaks about issues impacting operations and building people centric businesses.

Reach out if you want to chat about how ideas in this article can work for your business.