Can you be successful working remotely?

During a recent one-on-one with a member of my team, the question came up as to whether someone can be successful when working remote.  I'll start with the answer.  Yes…..assuming your work can actually be done somewhere other than the office and if you put in the work, you can be successful working remote.  But that caveat -- if you put in the work -- is the important part.  So, for the rest of the episode, I'm going to dive into that in more detail.

Obviously, the first question is are you able to complete your actual work when you work remotely.  If you need the structure of an office environment or if you have too many distractions at home, you may find it difficult.  But, if you have a way to remove the distractions such as having a dedicated office and have sufficient discipline completing the tasks regularly assigned to you shouldn't be an issue.

Regardless of where you are in your career, your success when working remote will be predicated on your ability to build relationships with others at your company.  The types of relationships will differ based on the phase of your career, but ultimately, it will boil down to building and maintaining relationships across your company.

To start, humans are visual creatures.  Utilize your webcam as often as possible.  There's something to be said for the adage of "out of sight, out of mind".  By working remotely, you aren’t going to be there for others to observe.  By using your webcam in every meeting, you can offset some of that perception.  If you're worried about people seeing where you live, look for a way to position your camera so that your room is shielded, either by putting a wall behind you or hanging some sort of backdrop like a sheet --- or even purchasing a green screen.  They have products that include a stand so that they can be easily put up and taken down if you don't have the ability to keep it up all of the time.

When you are early in your career, you are learning.  Learning how the company works….how to do your work…..what are the processes you need to follow.  When this information is not readily available in the SOP documents provided by your team, you will need to be able to reach out to more senior members of your team to get their insights; this will require that you have a good relationship with those senior members.  When you work in the same office, these types of relationships can be fostered through casual conversations that happen during down time such as lunch of a coffee break -- or even just in the hall when passing.

In a remote world, you can build these casual relationships by being ACTIVE in every team and project meeting.  If you're quiet, can be overlooked or forgotten; make a point of speaking up and providing input.  If there are non-work conversations -- either before or at the end of a meeting -- participate.  Pay attention to the answers given by the group and reference them in the future.  If you show an interest in people, they'll take an interest in you.  Don't be afraid to schedule regular virtual coffee breaks with members of your team.  It may be awkward at first because they don't have the impromptu nature of in-person coffee breaks, but over time, things will normalize and they can be productive in building relationships.  Lastly, be helpful to others.  People will reciprocate when they receive help.

As you transition from a more junior role to a more senior role, you'll still need to build relationships within your team, but you also need to begin building and maintaining relationships with people outside of your team.  When those people are still peers, building those relationships is still just a matter of the same guidelines as before -- participate in project meetings, schedule virtual coffee breaks, and in general, show an interest in the other people.  However, when the people you need to build relationships with are leaders or executives, you might need to take a different approach.

Many leaders sponsor or champion initiatives within the company.  These initiatives often fall into categories called Diversity Councils or Employee Resource Groups.  They have other names, but these groups are often "extracurricular" groups that gather to support various sub-groups of the employees at the company.  If you can determine which groups the leader is involved with, you can join those groups and BE active.  This will lead to visibility and can be a catalyst to creating the relationships with those leaders.

If you have the ability, even when working remotely, try to schedule some days that you can travel to the office, even if it's only once or twice per month.  Schedule your in-office days to maximize your in-person meetings with those you need to engage with.  Schedule a lunch with someone you don't have project related meetings with.  In the days that you are in the office, put a priority on relationship building activities -- even over completing actual work.

As you've seen, there is a lot of work in building relationships remotely, but by putting in the effort, you can still build real meaningful relationships.  With strong relationships, you can be successful while still working remotely.  I'd like to hear from you about how you are maintaining relationships while working remotely.  Go to ManagingACareer.com and leave me feedback telling me the strategies you are using.