Productive in the Remote Workplace

When we're in the office, it's easy to see who's there – who's working hard, who's leading teams and meetings.

It might be the owner, in the corner office, in before everyone else. Or, the diligent programmer working late at night.

But in the remote workplace, the workplace that exists without an office, across time-zones, and without and physical presence, well, it's much harder to tell what is being done, and by whom.

It might be that flashy, showy work gets rewarded here. The visual kind that everyone can see, like a social media post, or the end state of a new site.

Or, maybe it’s your telepresence, and constant availability to be on Slack, or be in a Zoom call.

The problem is that these signals alone do not point to the real work that needs to get done to move a company forward.

We trade presence for productivity. Social media wins for deeper understanding of our customers.

When everyone is on their own, expected to show up separately, it’s easy to point a finger and wonder about what someone is up to all day. But it might be better to first audit our own engagement, and understand our own consistency in choosing the important over the present.

Instead we can focus on shared outcomes, we can communicate our vision and break it down so that someone else can handle the details.

And we can connect with those we're excited to work with, instead of spending time signaling that we're showing up in an office that no longer exists.