Many of us have been unexpectedly thrust into remote work. There are those who love this change. Others, however, struggle working from home.
There are many challenges that come with remote work including feelings of isolation, lack of communication, and issues with technology. Particularly for those who are doing remote work in their Encore career, adjusting to working from home can be quite difficult.
So on Leading the Factory Forward I provided 15 things to consider when you’re doing remote work in your Encore career. Here are some of them:
Be Easy to Work With
Instead of assuming you know it all, be willing to acknowledge what you do know and what you don't know. Along with that, be open to others’ ideas. Explore the ideas of other people that you're going to try and work with. This will make you much easier to work with.
Use YouTube
YouTube is a treasure trove of knowledge. People post videos on all sorts of things and those videos contain tons of valuable information. They can help you be successful when doing remote work.
Start with the question, “How do you…” and then fill in the blanks. You can use this to find the answer for any tech question you have while working from home.
Master Video Calls
You will likely be on your computer all day long when working from home and a lot of that work will involve video calls. Therefore, you need to learn video call best practices.
Firstly, your headset and microphone are extremely important. You want to be heard clearly and you want to hear others clearly. Make sure you invest in high-quality mics and headsets. I suggest wired headsets specifically. If you use AirPods or other wireless headphones, they'll run out of battery quickly and that could be very embarrassing in the middle of a call.
Secondly, look professional. You're going to be presenting yourself on video calls and the other people may or may not know you very well. So make sure you have a professional background and a professional look. This involves avoiding distractions in the background, as well. You don’t want family members walking behind you or your cat walking across your computer.
Finally, on video calls sit like you’re at a conference table. You don't want to have your laptop on your lap because people will be looking up your nose. Instead, sit like you're at a conference table and as if you were actually meeting these people in person.
Acknowledge People
Especially with remote teams, you have to acknowledge people. It’s really nice for someone to hear themselves be acknowledged.
On Zoom or other video call platforms, the names show in the call so you can easily say something like, “Susan, thank you for that question.” In sum, acknowledge people as they're interacting with you.
Introduce Yourself Clearly
Don’t just recite your resume. Instead, when you do an introduction, only say a little about yourself. Rather than droning on about yourself, think of a story that relates to the work you’re being asked to do and add that example into your introduction. This is a great practice because when you talk about yourself, it's usually helpful to have a story about what you've done that has or could help someone.
Be sure to tune into this episode to hear all 15 tips. I hope they get you off to a great start and lead you to success as you navigate remote work.
