WLP267: Mindset Changes For The New Remote Manager
Today’s podcast episode brings you a conversation with agile coach Mark Kilby, in the context of a reflective overview of a recent article from Pilar - so join her as she dives deeply into the important theme of mindset changes needed for remote team management.
Remember that this all applies to hybrid teams too, because whenever one person is remote, then we all are - because when not everyone is in the same place, the organisation has to work remotely. The office is just another one of those places, that some of us may be, and a remote-first mindset means avoiding hierarchies of one location over another.
Pilar’s article Key mindset changes for the new remote manager was included in the publication Best Agile Articles 2020 , so we hope you find it useful too.
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1. Adopting a coaching mindset
This ability should be a key skill in any modern manager’s skill toolset. If we help people to solve their problems and find their own solutions, we build resilience and capacity - and in the online space these self-management resourcefulness skills are vital.
Naturally it’s often much easier and quicker to just tell people what to do, when we know the answer - so cultivating the ability to coach and guide instead of fixing things requires proactive intention. The solution they find might be different to the one you’d have offered, but this is part of the process (and might just surface something really new and useful).
Coaching moments are everywhere, if you pay attention to them and look for them. But they can certainly get overlooked in a crisis, like a global pandemic. So, it’s important to consider this mindset shift, as you develop your sustainable remote team management approach.
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2. Embrace delegation and avoid interference
If we do visible teamwork well, there will be a great deal of input a manager could be paying attention to - so we need to filter, just in order to get through the day and do our own work, apart from anything else.
When everyone is working out loud, it can be a lot “noisier” (for those in a supervisory role) than it is in the office. Making the work visible digitally is very important, so that you can see what’s going on and identify progress, any bottlenecks, etc - without having to stop people doing it, in order to tell you about it.
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3. Make friends with your technology
This may be the point of greatest resistance for some, but it’s unavoidable. We have to see our collaboration tools as positive supports for our interactions and relationships, as well as doing the work. So, we need to master them and make them work for us, instead of the other way around - take the time to learn, and to adapt the way you use your apps to the way you work and think (like tailoring your notifications, for example).
As discussed in the point above, we have so much information and communication coming at us, that we need to find ways to see what to pay attention to. Sometimes very high-level analytics are what the manager needs most.
You can’t see the big picture unless you zoom out to the right perspective, and Pilar enjoyed a recent newsletter from Mark Kilby about team communications - which lead to a conversation about chart analytics and more:
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Conversation with Agile Coach Mark Kilby
It’s been a year since Mark was on this show - but that’s been a lifetime, in the history of remote work!
The newsletter Pilar wanted to talk about discussed disengaged remote teams, and reflected on recent conversations Mark had experienced. The manager felt that people ‘had stopped talking’, with public chat and webcam use declining. But after referring to chat logs, it was clear that the conversations had moved out of the public channels and into private threads and messaging instead.
Mark Kilby
Of course private messaging has its place, but an abrupt shift like this can indicate a range of concerns for a manager - such as a decline in psychological safety, or trust in the leadership. And you need to get to the bottom of what’s going on for each person involved, in a non-threatening, non-judgemental way.
A framework Mark proposed called ESVP might be helpful, for an anonymous temperature check: In this meeting are you an Explorer (happy to get anything you can from the interaction); a Shopper (happy to come away with one good bargain); a Vacationer (just passing through, perhaps needing a break from something else), or a Prisoner (who is forced to be there even if they find no value in it.) We might feel different roles on different days/in different meetings.
The proportion of each category will tell you a lot about what mood to expect, and really why should there be any prisoners at all? It can be a way to open the conversation or reflect on the dynamics, of a given meeting or the team interaction as a whole.
Showing vulnerability as a leader is very powerful, and asking for help and the input of others is a good start. So is mixing up the ways you check in, and breaking out of routines (eg of weekly one-on-ones). Connecting around non-work issues matters always, as we discussed in the previous episode (266), and this can be done in groups or individually. And we’re going to have to look out for new issues impacting the team dynamic, when we move towards a more hybrid way of working.
Keep in touch with Mark at his website (and you can sign up to his newsletter and buy his book there too).
Remember that one thing we can try to replicate from the colocated space are those fleeting, informal interactions (group and one-to-one) which happen outside of the meeting schedule. When times are stressful, we may be less likely to share and ask for help in formal or group settings.
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4: Get Intentional
Remember we need to PLAN for interactions in the online space.
Which is why we talk a lot about planned spontaneity, in the form of interactions like virtual coffees and so on. We have to make space for unstructured things to happen, which includes the surfacing of difficulties and learning experiences.
Being intentional is always required. Check back on the episode with Chris Coladonato (262), for some great examples and ideas for this, including the intentional building of relationship in the online space.
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Finally, 5: Don't make yourself indispensable
We all love to feel that our role is pivotal… but at the same time. we all need to be able to take a holiday, or time off sick. So we must empower our teams to survive without us, and be resilient and capable, particularly during times of change.
In an emergency we throw ourselves into being there for everyone all the time, but a self-organised team is a stronger one, and we risk being a bottleneck of emotion, process, and decision-making if we try to put ourselves in the middle of everything.
So, inspire your colleagues to help and learn from each other instead, and your team will be richer for it. How would they cope if you disappeared for a month? A thought exercise worth exploring, and putting some contingency measures in place against.
Wherever you are in your journey to remote or hybrid working, see if the above points are helpful, in reflecting on your process and practice. What small changes could you make, to make things better? What could you do, or stop doing?
Remember, we love your feedback - please contact us, or you can tweet Virtual Not Distant, or Pilar and Maya directly, with your thoughts and ideas, and do let us know if you try out any of the ideas for mindset changes that were discussed in this week’s episode.
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