- Now this is a very growing topic nowadays.
After the pandemic, a lot of things changed,
and the acceptance on the market and from the companies
to have remote worker just grew substantially.
Matter of fact, nowadays most of the companies
they are hiring, prioritizing remote worker
for many of their positions,
so it's a very interesting trend that I believe
will continue.
But the remote worker is a type of job
that in order for you to have an impact
you need to understand how to express your ideas,
'cause communication becomes extremely critical.
You need to make sure that you still be able
to influence others remotely,
which can be challenging because you don't have
that physical presence,
we don't have the water cooler conversations,
you don't go out for lunch,
so you don't build that bond
that usually you do when you go to the office.
Of course, there are different methods.
You can turn on your camera, you have the body language
and things like that, but it's not the same.
But it's possible, it's extremely possible.
There are different methods that you can accomplish
to do that, and for a remote worker
what we are talking about here is effective
methods of communication such as e-mail.
For a remote worker, it's important to be active
on e-mail, to express
things clearly.
Don't just reply without clarity.
Don't give the opportunity for the person on the other side
have a different interpretation of
what you're trying to say.
Make sure that you attend online meetings
with your camera on, and you are active there,
and you are talking and you are expressing yourself
and you are engaging with others.
Online chat is another method of communication,
and this one is actually what will happen
most of the time, because it's gonna be chat.
If your teams are there, too,
that is a favor for you to have that chat conversation.
Sometimes the chat conversation is what leads into a call.
Oh let's jump in a call to clarify this.
So make sure that you are communicating effective as well.
There is also the fact of how to influence others
as a remote worker, because, again,
you don't have that physical presence
to build that relationship.
One thing that is hard, is a bit hard for introverts,
that (indistinct), because introverts
they tend to be shy when they try to talk,
or it takes a lot of effort for them to do that,
but I will say I'm an introvert myself.
You may not believe but yes I am.
And remote work actually enabled me to do more,
because when I used to go to the office,
the entire interaction, daily interaction,
there's a lot of people and different things,
it drained me a lot that physical connection.
Remotely, I feel great.
I can interact with a lot of people.
I can, because I have this control in my
workplace, I can turn on the camera,
if it is not necessary, I can go to the kitchen
and drink water.
You know, I feel more in control of my life
when I'm working remotely.
So try to think about that.
Try to say okay, it's time to engage.
Let's turn on and let's do it.
And then when it's over, you are at your own
place in your home feeling comfortable and everything,
so that's a tip that I use myself
and maybe it will be good for you, too.
The other thing is with time you need more
soft skills to influence than technical skills.
So if you look to this diagram,
as the time goes on
that you are in a role
and you become more senior in that role,
the expectation is that you have a bigger impact.
This trajectory means that with time
as you continue to grow in senior positions,
your technicality is not
what is really going to make you get there.
If you look to this diagram,
it's pretty clear that in the beginning of your journey,
being extremely technical is important
and you have some sort of influential aspect in there.
But when you reach that peak,
you become way... The expectation is that you are way more
influential, that you can influence more of the decisions,
that your words can be interpreted
by stakeholders as this is something important to do
because this person's saying so,
and this person has a really good reputation.
So, you have to continue to develop this muscle over time,
and not only be fully emerged
on all the technicality of the job and of the role.
So think about that.
There are some very important skills
that you need to develop to get there.
One of the skills is to active listen
to what people are saying.
Don't interrupt.
Many people they have this habit of listening
already processing and thinking about an answer.
Don't do that, because many times when the person
finish a sentence, you immediately jump
in with a conclusion.
You don't need to be that fast.
Take the time to digest
and to elaborate a proper answer.
Try to understand what is behind that
statement that the person is saying.
Don't jump into conclusions.
Don't have bias.
Active listen, be empathetic.
If you are not able to put yourself
in the other person's shoes, it's really hard
for you to understand the feeling.
So if someone is coming to you saying,
I really have this difficult situation, I need your help,
and what can I do?
Try to understand what that person's going through
at that moment, because sometimes this might not
even be your area.
Let's say you are responsible for (indistinct) assessment,
and this person is having a problem
that requires someone from the incident response team.
Are you just going to say,
"Go to the incident response," without any empathy?
No.
All right, tell me more about what's going on.
This is not my area, but I know people
that are in the incident response team,
so let me help you to facilitate this transition.
You are welcoming the person, not just dumping the person
into a different team because it's not your responsibility.
That's how you build the relationship
and the level of influence.
Use problem-solving skills.
Many times you can do a little triage on something
just by using simple problem-solving skills.
Make sure that you continue to motivate others.
People need to feel empowered, motivated
when they talk to you, so be enthusiastic.
Always have a smile on your face.
It works, people feel welcome.
You know, the most terrible thing
is when you're trying to, you know,
have a conversation with someone and that person is like
looking at you with that face,
and you're like well you're not present,
or it feels like you're not listening to me.
So, it's very important that you motivate people.
It's very important that you always have this go-to
attitude to say let's go do it, let's go fix it.
The other thing is help to create an environment where
you are empowering people to grow.
I've been talking about this in different lessons,
and I will continue to talk because
they're important skills.
You need to enrich the knowledge of other people,
teach what they don't know.
Try to stretch their knowledge in a good way.
If you see an opportunity for someone to do better,
share professional feedback.
Be respectful.
And you actively seek for feedback.
Very important.
Actively seek for feedback.
Feedback is gold.
If you are not willing to receive feedback,
it's gonna be really tough for you to evolve.
You have to ask for feedback and you have to take actions
to improve based on the feedback.
Stay active.
Stay engaged.
Make sure that you are transparent.
Make sure that you are telling the truth
and that you are not hiding anything
that you shouldn't be hiding in the first place.
Of course, if it is NDA information you are not gonna
be transparent with that, but be transparent
about the circumstances, be transparent about
what is going on.
There's no reason to hide things
unless it's mandatory because of an NDA agreement
or privacy or something, but in a relationship
with your co-workers.