Leading Remote Workers and Excelling in Remote Roles

People management is a challenging role within an organization. Managers are required to identify, onboard and develop new talent, align the interests of said talent to the company's strategic direction, and still maintain timelines for major initiatives. With all of these hats and requirements set down by leadership, it begs two questions: How do managers accomplish all this when workers operate in a remote setting-- and how do remote workers excel to continue advancing their careers?

Leading Remote Workers

Depending on your operating environment and function, leading remote workers can be challenging or quite simple. Certain job functions perform better in a remote-first setting while others excel with face-to-face contact. The trick to leading remote workers effectively is understanding how to build roles that capitalize on remote work and to then attract the talent that is comfortable performing with excellence in the role.

"Telecommuting" was first coined as a term in 1972 by Jack Nilles, a NASA engineer who was working remotely on communication systems. His book, "The Telecommunications-Transportation Tradeoff: Options for Tomorrow" originated this concept of remote work.

Consider these strategies:

1. Identify and gather insights from managers who have previous experience managing remote workers. They may have valuable feedback for your organization and may already be accustomed to developing remote talent.

2. Understand what roles may perform well remotely and have a strong justification for each case. The pandemic showed remote work can be successful, it offers a strong differentiator to maintain this flexibility for your team members. You may even have employees already requesting to go fully or partially remote in these roles.

3. When converting roles into remote opportunities, recognize an employee's needs during the conversion. If an employee is requesting remote work to move near relatives and have better support for a growing family, this is a clear example of how remote work can show empathy and build confidence in your team. Recognizing how and when to allow remote work can lead to better employee engagement and employee satisfaction well after they leave the office setting.

4. Finally, if one member of the team is already excelling in a remote position, consider opening the same opportunity to the entire team. This builds confidence in remote work without singling out whoever may be in a remote-first role.

Excelling in Remote Roles

Whether this is your first remote role or you are a virtual veteran, performance is going to be top of mind as you make the transition. You're thinking to yourself: How do I advance my career if I'm not at the office and networking? How do I know if I'm performing well? Do I get enough face time with my manager? Am I being passed up for new opportunities?

Here's how to take your remote role to the next level:

1. Understand what your manager's expectations are. If your manager wants a more hands-on approach, setting aside a little extra time to meet regularly may help you display progress and improve your career opportunities.

2. Make sure you (and the team) are recognized for the work you are doing. It is no secret that recognition helps career prospects, but this is even more important when working remotely. Conversations in passing are infrequent and your deliverables may be the only thing highlighting your contributions to the team.

3. Seek out networking and connection opportunities. Have 1:1s with teammates and other colleagues to maintain your engagement and learn about what may be going on elsewhere within the business.

4. Ask for more responsibility. Can you lead the next team meeting? Is there a cross-functional team that needs your team's input? Does your manager need help with the budget or interviewing talent? Expanding your job scope is a great way to advance and show that you can handle the work assigned to you and more.

Remote work has distinct differences from traditionally working in-person, however many of the qualities that set top talent apart can be developed and even enhanced in remote settings. Remote work isn't going anywhere, and is becoming a key point of differentiation in the war for talent. As remote opportunities become commonplace, workplace culture will have to adapt and overcome the growing pains that accompany them, but the good news is that it is entirely within your grasp to achieve.