50 Minutes

Leading a distributed workforce requires a new set of skills and mindsets to drive success and avoid proximity bias. Learn more about how traditional management methods need to be updated for virtual work environments, including productivity tracking, emotional awareness, online meetings, and more.

Questions for Group Discussion/Reflection:

  1. How do you boost intrinsic motivation so your team members care more about the work they are producing? How do you equip them to help themselves?
  2. Laurel talked about the importance of unifying your team through sharing goals, information, activity, and emotion. How do you do this? What’s one way you could start?
  3. Laurel shares a couple strategies on how to share information more effectively to minimize that feeling of isolation. What was your favorite tip? How do you share information, including updates, progress/milestones, answers to questions, goals, etc. effectively?
  4. One key idea was minimizing meetings, ensuring meetings are short and effective, and more async check-ins. Also, meetings OR one-on-ones can include these topics: recent accomplishments, current focus areas, challenges/roadblocks, needs (i.e. what you need from me and vice versa), and a miscellaneous category. Do you agree? What will you do to tweak your meetings/one-on-ones based on this advice?
  5. How do we empower our employees to do more work, with less supervision?  How can we equip them to be self-managers in their virtual, independent environment? 
  6. Laurel shared 8 critical skills needed in remote workers. Which skills do you screen for and how? How do you develop and nurture these skills in your employees?
  7. During Q&A, Laurel stressed that we need to help our people feel SAFE disconnecting, to minimize overwork and burnout. One suggestion was setting rules of engagement around specific boundaries and expectations on work hours/daily schedule and response time on communications. How do you help your team/s feel safe? What expectations do you communicate to set boundaries? What else do you do to minimize burnout/overwork?

*If you have a certification from PMI, you can claim .75 PDU through 7/13/2023!*

  • Self-report under Digital Media/Webinar
  • .75 Leadership PDU 
  • Long Distance Leadership
  • Provider: Apex Systems
  • Talk URL

*For anyone with a certification from IIBA (International Institute of Business Analysis), you can claim/self-report 1 CDU under category 5 (self-directed learning) and “Other Education Providers”. NOTE: Your claim may be validated by IIBA at the time of recertification, so please keep a copy of the confirmation email you receive after you register for each live or on-demand webinar.*

Speaker Laurel Farrer

As the Founder and CEO of Distribute, a virtual organizational development think tank and consulting firm, Laurel Farrer is an internationally-renowned thought leader on the topic of remote work. For the past 15 years, she has been unlocking the power of distributed workforces to create impact in corporate and socioeconomic infrastructures.

She and her team of fellow experts collaborate with the world's leading businesses and governments on three primary topics: how to convert business operations from physical to virtual, how to build products and content for the remote work market, and how to leverage workplace flexibility to solve global concerns. In addition to being a regular Forbes contributor, Laurel’s subject matter expertise has also been showcased by brands like Zoom, VMware, Gallup, NPR, Logitech, BBC, New York Times, Office Depot, Abbott, Fast Company, and Upwork.

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