Leadership in fully remote teams

Original by A. Douglas, That conference 2019, Pluralsight, 2019Hamster_gagarin_linkedin
hamster writter This summary note was posted on 23 April 2020, by in Management #, #, #, #

Pluralsight training

  • Find out what drives your team
  • Make hiring a priority for people who are doing the hiring
    • Make sure your onboarding is available and including remote working lifestyle guidelines help
    • have a checklist that is reviewed every time someone joins including day 0, week 1, 1 month etc..
  • Need a lot of one on one video call with your team individuals
    • Lasting about 35 min
    • Ask them how they want to do the one on one. What is there preferred mean of communication
    • I have those slots available in my calendar, pick the one that works for you
  • Help find out where the bottlenecks are and connect people
  • Establish and give trust. Without trust people are not treated as adults
  • Provide a psychological safety environment (watch out for the micro aggressions)
  • As a team lead create an environment where it is ok to fail
  • Open conversation with a colour signal. Which colour are your today? (green, yellow, orange, red)
  • Consider what it means to be vulnerable in your team
  • Feedback is important
    • Do not wait for one on one for critical feedback. Give it immediately
    • Never do the poop sandwich (good news, bad news, good news)
    • turn feedback into actionables
  • Have a place to record, for example Use P2 theme for threaded discussions, use slack#, This way emails are not clutered
  • After holidays erase message back logs. You should be able to get the important info afterwards
  • Plan for meeting in person. Disconnect from work. if people can not make it so be it.
  • Give your team focus
  • Give goals that are well documented and the meaning of their work
  • Harder to estimate times for projects. Make sure there is space for being incorrect. There is lower emotional cost to being more loose that precise and not making it
  • Everyone in the team should feel accountable for their work. Have them know what is coming next, how their work fits with other people tasks. When extra is provided without asking is when you know the team is working
  • Identify when the team is running of course
  • Take care of yourself
    • Take vacations and encourage your team to do the same
    • Cost of burnout is much more than having a holiday
  • Turn off the green dot. The green dot is a liar anyways
  • Have coaching for team leads. Well worth the money
  • Practice mediation
  • Delegate ! Train the team so it becomes self sustainable.
  • Make yourself obsolete so you can concentrate on the horizon
  • Ask people: “What do you think I do as a team lead?”
  • Find your own leadership style. However your own team lead might not match yours.

Recommended books

  • Radical candor, Kim Scott
  • The coaching habit, Michael Bungay Stanier