It’s 2021 and, as the pandemic refuses to peter out and
the world tries to adapt, remote work is proving to be a popular alternative to
the traditional office environment.
Working remotely comes with numerous benefits. For one, you
don’t have to contend with a long and essentially time-wasting commute to and
from work. You can also craft your work environment to your liking with a
freedom that you wouldn’t typically enjoy in an office cubicle. You also get to
spend plenty of time with loved ones. Even though you will be busy during
normal working hours, you can spend your breaks with them, and the feeling of
knowing you’re around, albeit busy, can be crucial to your bonding. For a lot
of companies, remote work also comes with new ways to measure performance. A
growing number of companies are measuring output, rather than time clocked, to
determine productivity. So as long as you get the job done, and gives you even
more freedom.
But remote work also comes with its own set of challenges.
One of the most prominent is communication. With the lack of proximity, the
bandwidth for communication is severely limited, and it is necessary to learn
new skills to communicate as effectively as you did before. If communication
has never been your strong suit, now is a good time to learn to communicate, as
effective communication can make or break a remote team.
In this article, we will help you do just that. We will
go through some of the most useful tips you can use to advance your
communication as a remote worker. And now, without further ado, let’s get to
it!
Maybe one of your colleagues prefers to communicate via
formal emails, while your manager prefers WhatsApp messages. Your CEO might
like video calls. While many companies like to streamline communication, it can
be beneficial to adapt to different people’s preferences, as it makes them more
likely to quickly respond in case you need them. It warms them up to you. A
good first step is to figure out what kinds of communication channels everyone
likes, and then work to meet those needs when communicating with them.
This works as a sort of corollary to the point above. If
you’re going to try and cater to different people’s communication preferences,
you may as well learn and be fluent in as many communication technologies as
you can. Start by learning about all the communication preferences the company
itself promotes. You don’t necessarily need to be a guru in every single one of
them, but at least be skilled enough to use them well when communicating.
One particularly prominent method of communication,
whether in the office cubicle or at home, is writing. If you aren’t a good
writer already, you should start learning. Even if much of your communication
happens via phone or video call, the vast majority of your communication as a
team will be in written form. You, therefore, owe it to yourself to become a
better writer and editor (since you will need to edit your own writing before
you dispatch it).
One of the major advantages of written communication is
that it can easily be parsed by a search engine and is therefore searchable
internally and externally. It also forces us to think more critically about our
ideas and formulate them more clearly. While you linearly organize your thoughts when speaking, writing allows you to explore other kinds of
construction, since you can always go back and edit earlier parts of the
thinking process. It is therefore much easier to create a thought masterpiece
when you write it down than when you simply speak it.
The 3 C’s are your friend, no matter what kind of
communication channel you’re using. To be concise means to be efficient with
your words. Don’t put fluff into your communication, whether it is a formal
email or a phone call, especially with everyone’s busy schedule. To be clear
means keeping things simple and sticking to the facts. To be consistent means
knowing in advance the time and method of communication, as well as the message
you will deliver.
While it is good to handle your business formally and effectively, the fact is that you’re still working with humans, and should therefore put in the effort to build a connection with your colleagues to make for better communication. The best place to do this is on an online chat channel. Ask your boss to make one if it doesn’t already exist, and use it to talk both about work and casual stuff. Get to know each other – it will make it easier to work together.
Time management
You might be in a different time zone than the rest of
your team. This can make working together with a little tricky, but not necessarily
impossible.
At the heart of it, communication is about sending
messages. On the one hand, there is the message sent, and on the other the one
received. Focus your energy on the message received to be a good communicator.
That way, the focus is more on the sender and not on yourself, and it will save
you a lot of misinterpretation.
Communication at a distance is a breeding ground for incorrect
assumptions, so try your best not to fall into that trap. A good rule of thumb
is to always assume positive intent from the other side.
The above two points are about taking the most forgiving
stance about the messages sent by others. With yourself, however, you must be a little more exacting. Try to make your own messages
as clear as possible to minimize the possibility of the receiver
misinterpreting them.
While all of these tips help you communicate better at a
distance, there is still value in face-to-face interactions. Try to look for as
many opportunities as you can to meet your colleagues face to face. This helps
build your rapport and makes for even better communication in the future.
These valuable tips can help you succeed as a remote
worker and multiply your productivity at work. Try to apply them, step by step,
and see yourself become a better communicator and more valuable employee.
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