Remotely Possible

Photo by me

I've just listened to David James (@DavidInLearning) & Perry Timms (@PerryTimms) on the excellent 'Learning & Development Podcast', discussing Remote Working and was particularly struck by their conversation on Remote Leadership; what are the opportunities and challenges for the permanently or mostly remote worker to develop and/or demonstrate leadership when other colleagues or team members are either centralised or are, indeed, remote workers themselves? Can a leader lead others from a remote location? Can L&D support the development of remote workers and leaders inclusively and effectively?

This got me thinking, because for the last ten years of my corporate working life (which I moved on from nearly four years ago) I was being managed, was managing and was part of different distributed teams. As such I experienced many of the highs and lows that David and Perry discussed. 

In a UK-wide organisation, with regional offices and locations across the country, I started out as a one-man department, living on the South Coast of the UK, but reporting to a Director in Scotland, and was initially based in the South West. I drove down on a Monday and back on a Friday. I travelled quite a lot. Then an office opened up in London and I became a commuter. I made the case for and got the budget for a small team, which I recruited, but who were based at their home locations in Wales and Manchester. Although they were working from local offices, they were remote from me and each other. 

Given that our remit was to upskill staff in IT and digital tools country-wide, we used those tools extensively ourselves. My instant chat was always on. My Blackberry was always at my side. My email hummed. We had weekly conference calls and daily IMs, sometimes just to check in and say hello. Every couple of months, either we would travel to a central location for a catch-up or I would travel to them individually to check in and review performance, plan their development etc.

Then we got hold of the corporate Webex account. We never looked back. Our conference calls and one-to-ones became less hassle, cheaper and more effective. We reduced our travel and carbon impacts to the only necessary and in so doing made sure that we got the maximum value out of any face-to-face meetings. We introduced virtual classrooms into our corporate learning mix via a need to socialise a new data protection strategy (pre-GDPR) and train up new DP Managers and on-the-ground officers. Group Legal liked it so much they asked to be trained up themselves and took over and further developed their own DP training offerings. We moved on. Others in the org liked this approach and we were inundated with people wanting to learn how to host their own meetings and learning events with remote colleagues via Webex.

Meanwhile, I was still flying up to Scotland to attend Senior Management Meetings. Occasionally, I'd get an email from my Director demanding to know where we were on such-and-such, usually sent late in the evening and waiting for me, like an unexploded bomb, in the morning. There never was an organisational policy or strategic direction about remote working. So we proceeded until apprehended - which, paradoxically, never happened. And the team grew; again, all remote from me and from each other.

Sometimes tho', I failed. I'd get an email from one of my team wondering where I'd gone, if they'd done something to upset me, why hadn't I been in touch since last week? Or my IM would be received as terse or impatient. Sometimes it was. Sometimes I'd forget to just pick up the phone because I was too busy. Because I was dealing with other stuff. Like Managers do. The positive point tho' was that the team felt able to call me out on it. Sometimes messages got diluted or misinterpreted. Sometimes, it turned out I didn't know everyone as well as I thought I did, nor they me. Ironically, it usually took a face-to-face chat to resolve any misunderstandings. But the work got done and the wheels kept turning.

Ultimately, this approach to team remote working and my management therof proved itself over four years ago when I was suddenly taken ill and admitted to hospital for heart bypass surgery. In my absence, my team stepped up, got on with the work in hand, indeed, took on more - and more innovative - work in my absence.

In conclusion then, thinking about David and Perry's podcast discussion and the questions raised, my view and experience is that remote working, remote leadership and remote learning are all different carriageways of the same two-way street. They can be empowering and effective if thought about and managed empathically from a top-down AND a bottom-up perspective. Office-based and remotely working colleagues, managers and aspiring managers have to take responsibility for their own and their teams' effectiveness when not everyone is in the same room. Trust is a key element in making this work, transparency, inclusion, commitment and yes, courage, as opposed to command and control and digital presenteeism, with the focus on individual, team and organisational performance and business results, should be the watchwords here.

Recent Reflection #1 - An Opportunity

This is the first of the promised "quick and dirty" blogs arising out of my previous blog Reflection? I don't have time for reflection wherein I undertook to blog more often and more quickly, on three different topics.  This blog captures my quick thoughts on a recent personal management development opportunity at work. 

What did I do?

I recently took over resonsibity for the delivery - and the team leadership - of our Management Development training and, in doing so, amalgamating the MD Training team with my small Learning Technologies team at the same time.

This is as a result of a temporary (18 months) reorganisation of our HR leadership team responsibilities, to enable each of the HR Heads to to focus our efforts on better supporting the organisation's key strategic objectives.

 

What did I Learn?

By meeting with the MD Team Leader regularly and speaking with each of the team members individually, I have learned that there is a wealth of knowledge, talent and enthusiasm in the combined team. Individually and collectively, they have expressed excitement and/or interest in exploring how we can deliver a relevant and effective learning programme in support of the strategic objectives - by working and training smarter - and in further developing their skills to be able to do so. 

 

What am I going to do with this learning?

Both teams bring with them a previously agreed set of objectives and a delivery plan, which has to be honoured while we finess the integration into one cohesive team, the upskilling - where necessary - of the individual team members therein and we identify the 'quick win' opportunities to develop and deliver learning that's relevant and accessible to the business.  I will lead the team quickly through this forming/storming period, ensuring that everyone is engaged and empowered to participate and collaborate.  I will carefully manage my own workload and calendar and ensure that I pay attention to my own health and wellbeing during this period as well as monitoring that of the team. By the end of the calendar year, we will be 'normed' and performing.

P.S: On another 'lesson learned' note, I previously updated my social media feeds about my new responsibility in such a way that it could have been interpreted that I had been promoted at someone else's expense, and this led to some awkwardness for another colleague and some guidance for me from my own line manager.  I am pleased to say we have cleared the air around this and I have clarified the temporary nature of the reorganisation. I learned to be more sensitive to the impacts of discussing internal matters externally where there may be ambiguity, and I will self-check more attentively before posting in the future - this blog being part of that process.

Appraising Appraisals

It's that time of year again, when people across organisations - Managers, Supervisors and staff alike - wake with a song in their heart, looking forward with eager anticipation to their annual appraisals. Managers thrill with anticipation at the prospect of conducting those deep and meaningful conversations - that they have so diligently prepared for - with their enthusiastic and motivated staff; whilst those same staff have assembled their evidence and documented their progress against the specific, meaningful, achievable, realistic and timely objectives which they agreed with their managers at their previous annual and then their interim review 6 months ago...

Hang on a sec! If there were a soundtrack attached to this blog, this would be where you would hear the record player needle scratch across and fall off the vinyl record, wouldn't it?

I am a big fan of Appraisals. I think that , done effectively, they are powerful tools, engaging and empowering managers and staff alike. I have been conducting them for over 14 years now, and being appraised for longer than that. I have worked with different appraisal models. For me, it's not the model itself which is important - it's the conversation, the human face-to-face interaction - that matters!

I particularly like the concept of a Professional Development Portfolio, whereby everyone has their our own folder (physical or virtual) into which they file their reviews, their agreed operational objectives, their development plans and their record and evidence of achievement. This is very effective, generating a real sense of ownership and personal responsibility amongst staff at all levels. It becomes a living document, reviewed formally twice a year, but updated by the owner throughout the year as they achieve objectives and gather the evidence from both planned and unplanned activity.

I've also found a simple Leadership Model - 'Set the Direction; Enable; Monitor' - to be the key to managing my team's performance, and being managed myself. I use the same approach in applying any appraisal system. Let's just look at that Model in more detail, by posing some questions that are particularly relevant whilst the annual appraisal round is in full flow everywhere (remember, this works bottom-up just as well as top-down):

'Set the Direction' - Did your manager set your direction for this year? Did you agree your objectives with him or her? Were they SMART objectives? Did you understand how your objectives contributed to the departmental and organisational strategy and plans? Did you agree with your manager what measures you would use to determine weather or not the objective had been met? Did you discuss whether or not you had the skills required to achieve those objectives, and if not, how you were going to acquire them (this leads us nicely on to...)

'Enable' - Did you have the right amount of time, the proper tools, the skills and the motivation, to achieve your objectives? If not, did you discuss this with your manager during your appraisal? Did you agree an under-pinning personal and professional development plan to ensure that you could? And did you take/were you given the opportunity to get that learning and turn it into the delivery of your objectives?

'Monitor' - Do you and your manager have formal or informal one-to-one's in between your appraisals? Do you talk to him/her if you have any issues between times? Do you keep him/her informed of your successes? Do you record them for inclusion in your Appraisal discussion? Does your manager know what else is going on in your life which may or may not be having an impact on your ability to do your job, and is he/she making provision for that? I guess the main thing for me here is - do you have an open and honest relationship with your manager?

I'm not sure that I can honestly say I have been able to answer all of these questions effectively as a Manager (Appraiser) or as a member of staff (Appraisee) this year. But as we all complete our appraisal forms and prepare for those discussions with our managers, I encourage you to think about those questions, and to consider the Leadership Model I have outlined above. Remember, good leadership is something we can ALL demonstrate, whether or not we are actually managing other staff, and thereby ensure that this year's appraisal conversations are authentic and meaningful.

What's been your experience and your thoughts on appraisals?