Issue No. 471 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting delivers (no extra charge) a cut-and-paste memo ready to send to your remote-working team members. No question: Remote, Inc. is the most practical book you’ll read in 2021.And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and click here for my review of Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home and School. (See also the Brain Rules videos here.)
The authors of Remote, Inc. note that when you manage remote workers, you're like Ginger Rogers—doing everything Fred Astaire is doing, “except backward in high heels!” Enjoy this 2 ½-minute video.
Work From Home:
Good News and Bad News!
Raise your hand if…when you began working from home a year ago, you immediately read a book on how to work from home.
Raise your hand if…you’re much smarter and more clever than your colleagues (and your competition), so there’s no need to read a book about working remotely.
Raise your hand if…the next person you hire or supervise will be magically gifted with all the skillsets needed for the hybrid future (working remotely and at the office).
Hmmm. I thought so. No worries because I’ve got just the book (or audio book) for you. Remote, Inc.: How to Thrive at Work . . . Wherever You Are, by Robert C. Pozen and Alexandra Samuel, is already the Most Practical Book You’ll Read in 2021, maybe even the decade.
As a public service to my faithful readers, just cut-and-paste this memo and send to your work-from-home (WFH) team members today!
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MEMO TO: All Remote Team Members
#1. Good News! You can continue to work in your PJs! It looks like remote working will be here for a while, according to the hot-off-the-press book from Harper Business, Remote, Inc.: How to Thrive at Work . . . Wherever You Are. (Your new best friend, the Amazon driver, will deliver the book to you this week.)
#2. Bad News! A year ago, none of us were prepared to work at home, or at Starbucks, and (how shall I say this graciously?), many of our remote working skillsets need improvement—especially our meetings. (I’ve already picked up a dozen practical pointers on improving my competencies.)
#3. Good News! You’ve been promoted! Robert Pozen and Alexandra Samuel, the authors of Remote, Inc., recommend you launch your “Business of One.” It’s a brilliant concept and I’d like your help to rethink our “notion of productivity so that it’s no longer defined by the dated concept of a workday.” You’ll love it! (See Chapter 1: “Your Business of One.”) I’m asking ______ to give us a 10-minute summary of Chapter 1 at our next weekly staff meeting. (Who would like to volunteer to review Chapter 2 the following week? Sixteen weekly staff meetings—16 chapter reviews!)
#4. Bad News! You’ve read the surveys. Micro-managing bosses (not me!) and our ill-suited remote workspaces created instant burnout for team members. (One survey found that “45 percent of employees were feeling burned out”—after just one month of remote working.) Couple that with what the authors call our “obsession with the eight-hour workday…an obsolete leftover from a previous era,” and it’s no wonder that ______, ______, and ______ exited our organization during COVID. (Yikes!)
#5. Good News! Fewer and better meetings ahead! (Did I mention “good news?”) I skipped right to Chapter 10: “Making the Most of Meetings” and you’ll see some new features—already—in our next weekly staff meeting. This 20-page chapter is a must-read. Start with the 10 “Takeways” on pages 161-162 (the takeaways are a brilliant feature of every chapter), then read the “From a Remote Worker” testimonial (the book has 16 windows into real life remote workers), and note what they call “The Three Stages of a Meeting” (appetizer, main course, and dessert). Important! Please skip the section, “Three Ways to Avoid a Meeting.” (LOL!)
#6. Bad News! Let’s face it, our PowerPoints go on…and on…and on. As ______ recently observed, “Death by PowerPoint!” So…please also read “Five Alternatives to a Slide Deck” and to go deeper, read Chapter 15, “Presentations: Making an Impact,” including “Three Slide Mistakes—and How to Avoid Them.” Be honest now—have any of us ever read even one chapter on slide decks or PowerPoints? The summary has nine takeaways and there’s a short recipe for creating a universal deck. Plus this breaking news: “Not every presentation needs slides!”
#7. Good News! Based on my last 360 feedback, you’ll be ecstatic to learn that I’ve already read Chapter 3, “Managing a Remote Team.” My goodness! I could have used this practical wisdom a year ago. (I can hear the “Amens” already!) This might be my favorite blurb:
“There’s a reason people talk about the ‘art’ of management. It’s never easy, but managing a remote team makes it even more complicated. Being an effective manager means knowing how to delegate, how to foster team collaboration, and how to motivate individual employees.”
The authors add, “Managing all of that for a distributed team makes you Ginger Rogers to the conventional workplace’s Fred Astaire: you’re doing everything he does, except backward in high heels.”
#8. Bad News. Chapter 3 was convicting—and I need to apologize (which, I guess, is good news!). The authors suggest we leverage four tools/expectations. So, a year late (did I mention I’m sorry?), let’s talk about:
• Ground Rules (pages 49-50)
• Hours and Contacts (see Chapter 7)
• Meetings (see Chapter 10)
• Email and Messaging (see Chapter 13)
Note: I’m asking ______ to be our champion for “Onboarding a Remote Team Member” (per pages 51-52). I love the suggestion to “give your newbie a digital welcome pack.” No whining, ______, the book says I should delegate more!
#9. Good News. Whew! This book is absolutely jam-packed with just-in-time wisdom, practical ideas, and dozens of productivity apps I’d like us to try. The street cred of the co-authors is impressive! Robert Pozen taught law and economics at NYU Law School and then rose to the president’s role at Fidelity Investments (where he helped grow assets under management to almost $1 trillion). He’s also the author of the bestseller, Extreme Productivity: Boost Your Results, Reduce Your Hours. I’m asking ______ to read and report on his book, and especially his insights (mentioned in both books) on “OHIO” (Only Handle It Once) and how to focus on results, and “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff.”
Alexandra Samuel, author of Work Smarter with Social Media (HBR Press), has worked remotely for most of her career, juggling work, marriage, and two sons. She describes herself as “a passionate technologist who has worked with some of the world’s biggest tech companies.” With a Ph.D. from Harvard, her writing on digital productivity appears frequently in Harvard Business Review and The Wall Street Journal (see “How to Manage the Hybrid Workplace,” March 22, 2021). More than 7,000 have taken her Skillshare course, “Email Productivity: Work Smarter with Your Inbox,” and I’ll pay the course fee for the first person who implements one new idea from Remote, Inc.
Does email drive you nuts? View this 90-second video (and therapy!) from Alexandra Samuel on her Skillshare course on email productivity.
#10. Bad News. Oh…if only our team had read Remote, Inc. sooner! We would have made better decisions about what the authors call the “Goldilocks Plan.” Some surveys document that 65 to 77 percent of workers expressed a preference for the hybrid model—"not too much time at home, and not too little.” (Read the “Ten Reasons to Go to the Office” and the “Ten Reasons to Work Remotely.”) And don’t skip the conclusion with “Seven Quick Wins for Remote Workers” and “Seven Big Wins for Organizations.”
Warmly,
Your New-and-Improved Boss!
P.S. When Amazon delivers your copy of Remote, Inc.—please take a photo of yourself, and your dog, while reading this book in your favorite WFH setting—and text the photo to all of us! (Warning: Do not read page 113!)
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Attn: All Bosses! To order this book for your team members from Amazon, click on the title for Remote, Inc.: How to Thrive at Work . . . Wherever You Are, by Robert C. Pozen and Alexandra Samuel. Are you a listener? Listen to the book on Libro.fm (8 hours, 32 minutes). And thanks to Harper Business for sending a review copy.
YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS
1) After you read Chapters 10, 11, 12 in Remote, Inc. (essential skills for remote workers: Meetings, Reading, and Writing), re-read 15 Minutes Including Q&A: A Plan to Save the World From Lousy Presentations, by Joey Asher. Maybe—we’d have less “Zoom fatigue” if our presentations included the author’s “three bumper sticker points” and all of us would “take our faces out of park,” as Asher admonishes!
2) In the extremely practical chapter, “Email and Messaging,” the authors of Remote, Inc. suggest you “unsubscribe from at least one email list every day. It will keep your email volume in check, and it’s incredibly satisfying.” (But do NOT subscribe from Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews!) Who will volunteer to read and report on Chapter 13 (email) and Chapter 14 (social media)?
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MEMO TO: Neighbors, Dog Walkers, & Cell Phone Talkers!
Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook
LOL! The co-author of Remote, Inc. commissioned this cartoon for John’s front yard sign! (Read why below.)
This is funny! Last December, I read Alexandra Samuel’s insightful WSJ article, “How to Protect Your Privacy When Working From Home.” It suggested you walk around the neighborhood and make your office calls then. I couldn’t resist—so I submitted a letter to the editor with a tongue-in-check mention about listening in on my neighbors’ calls when they walked by my WFH office!
The author emailed a hilarious response to me and she commissioned her husband/cartoonist to create a cartoon! LOL! (So, naturally, I erected a sign in my front yard—to needle my neighbors!) That prompted several more laughs—and I met more neighbors, including Harsh and his friendly dog, Rufus!
Click here to read my “Bonus Blog.”
SOCIAL STYLES REMINDER! Each of the four social styles likely view remote working from different perspectives. Analyticals and Drivers (more task-oriented) might be thriving at home. Amiables and Expressives, likely, are missing the day-to-day relationships. To download two social styles cheat sheets, click here for these resources in the People Bucket.
BREAKING NEWS! On April 20, 2021, Tracom announced the release of SOCIAL STYLE® v3, “The Best Behavioral Skills Model Updated for the Virtual Workplace.” Click here to view the five-minute video.
View the new 5-minute video on the four social styles assessment, “The Best Behavioral Skills Model Updated for the Virtual Workplace.”
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JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Pearpod’s creative descriptions for the four social styles include: Info-Sponges, Just-the-Facts, Heartfelts, and Share-Meisters. Do your communication and online strategies address all four styles? Need help? Check in with Jason Pearson at Pearpod Media (branding, digital, print, and video).
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