11 ways to stay close remotely
I believe staying close to your teammates is hard even in the office, where you have the chance to share your coffee breaks, go to a quick lunch or just lean on someone’s desk for a friendly talk. Often we don’t get real with our thoughts and feelings, so being physically in the same room doesn’t mean that real communication is happening. In a remote environment, people tend to put more effort into communication as they know it’s already more challenging, but there is always room for improvement and most of the time it isn’t about the tools we use or the workflows we have. It’s all about plain and simple communication. Working remotely for around 6 years have taught me quite a lot, so here are some of my ideas.
Communicate your doubts and insecurities
Share your thoughts when you’re unsure about the project you’re working on or you feel you might not be able to meet the expectations. If you share this kind of experiences and insecurities, it automatically lets other people know that it’s okay to feel that way. Once they realize it, I’m 100% sure they will share their doubts too.
Communicate when you’re lacking motivation
Let your team or your manager know when you have a hard time motivating yourself. We’re not robots. We all have hours or days when we just can’t get it going. It’s a big chance that they will help you feel more motivated or share some ideas from their own experience. Just remember — n o b o d y is always motivated.
“When communication starts to fade. Everything else follows. “ — unknown
Communicate your opinions
I think it’s rather often that we feel our opinion isn’t worth sharing. You’ll need to remember that your opinion can make a large difference and literally nothing happens if it doesn’t. If your exact point of view isn’t the one making the change, it could start building up completely separate ideas and solutions. It’s worth a try!
Communicate your results
Let others know when you have reached a checkpoint. It doesn’t have to be a big goal, it can just be a smaller success. This way you’ll give others a chance to give you a “cheers!” and once again you’ll feel supported and closer to your teammates.
Communicate your concerns
Tell your teammates when you’re worried about a project, about your team’s workflows or anything else that doesn’t want to leave your mind. Maybe someone has thought about the same thing and hasn’t had the courage to say it out.
Communicate your failures
I think we don’t do enough of this, because shame comes into the game. Sharing our fails is as important as sharing our successes, because there is no success without failure. We should discuss more what went wrong — to be able to improve, to be able to learn and to not feel alone. We all make mistakes and admitting and talking about it makes us only better and stronger.
Communicate your questions
I think it’s very important to make sure everybody in your team knows that there are no stupid questions! When they keep that in mind, they’re never afraid to ask questions, even if they might know the answer, but just need a confirmation. A lot of misunderstandings happen, when instead of asking something to be clear, people start assuming things.
Communicate to see each other face-to-face
You don’t always need to have an agenda for making a video call. At times, you just want to see the other person, hear their voice and simply have a real time conversation. It’s completely normal and all of us feel that way. You don’t need to have a meeting for that. Just tell your workmate to grab a coffee (or pizza), have a call, spend time together and work together.
Communicate to have overlapped working times
A lot of remote companies have people working from all around the world. This of course equals with a lot of different time zones, which therefore means that people work on completely different times. Even if your work isn’t closely related to your teammate, it’s still okay to request few working hours, which would overlap. Just to feel more connected and be able to have a talk in real time.
Communicate your expectations
I believe you shouldn’t really feel disappointed, when you haven’t made your expectations clear. Make sure that if you’re open and honest about all the communication, you expect that from others too. If you all put an effort into making it happen, it’s a bigger chance you’ll feel like a super team who is tight not only when things are good, but also when things get hard.
Communicate on topics that are not related to work
I think it builds trust, empathy and so many other positive emotions if you’re able to share your life with your coworkers. Let them know something funny your dog did, let them know what you ate for breakfast or how hard it was to go jogging last night. It’s all about small things. If you know this kind of things about each other, it creates a whole new vibe in your team.
In conclusion, I’d say that it might be difficult to acknowledge the importance of communication when things are going good. You’ll see the impact of a non-existent or good quality communication when things get hard. You either aren’t close enough to get through the tough times, or you’re strong as a rock, know each other's superpowers and weak sides, which will give you all the right tools to overcome any difficulties.
