Council Post: Six Tips For Staying Connected With Your Team While Working Remotely

Founder of Averity, a team-based technology recruiting firm for Software, Data & DevOps. Father, husband, cook, golfer, baseball fan, pilot.

Many companies are quickly realizing the benefits and cost-savings of remote work, but the jury is still out on whether in a post-pandemic world we will see more people working from home permanently. Will we rush back to offices, coffee machines, water coolers and conference rooms or settle on something in between?

The advantages and disadvantages of remote work have been extolled repeatedly: For some, no commute might mean more quality time at home, better exercise, better eating and sleeping habits or an improved work-life balance. Many companies have reported greater productivity with people working remotely.

However, are we seeing fatigue? Because work is always at your fingertips, it can be easy for some to get wrapped up in working at all hours and deviating from the typical eight-hour workday, which can potentially lead to fatigue and burnout. The feeling of missing in-person, human interaction is especially pronounced in the workplace in both formal meetings and “water cooler” chats.

Since the workplace might not shift back to the office for many for the foreseeable future, companies need to continue to adapt to the dynamics of a remote workforce. Many companies have adopted the practice of a daily company-wide or department-wide check-in so that everyone maintains that sense of connection to colleagues. But in these unprecedented times, companies and leaders must consider the more fundamental concepts of organizational health.

Those who have established trusting relationships with their colleagues will likely thrive because those foundations have already been established. But consider newer employees or those who were hired after remote work began. How can leaders and colleagues help to foster trusting relationships with these people? It requires awareness and participation. The concepts around doing so are not much different in the online world from the in-person world. Here are a few of my suggestions for building trust in the workplace, wherever that workplace may be:

• Share a bit about yourself. When you open up about your situation and interests outside of work, people learn more about who you genuinely are. Sparking quick “nonbusiness” conversations over video can have surprising results. The opportunities for conversations of a more intimate nature do exist, especially in one-on-one meetings. The key is to maintain interest, curiosity and focus so the exchanges are genuine and without distraction.

• Understand your team’s individual needs. It can be difficult to put ourselves in other people’s shoes, but there are a number of ways to proactively inquire about what’s most important to your team. For example, do you under-communicate, or are employees perfectly fine on their own just plugging away? A couple of suggestions for better understanding your teams’ needs include taking a behavioral assessment or encouraging employees to look at their seven human needs and communicating their top two to three needs to you. The important thing to remember is that it’s not about us, the leaders; it’s about them, your team.

• Practicing active listening. Admit it: You’ve likely been in a video meeting with your email or social media open on the same screen. You might think it’s easy to get away with these distractions during a virtual meeting, but the truth is that people will notice. It’s easy to miss some signals such as facial expressions or body language on video, which is why it’s important to try harder, pay closer attention and avoid getting distracted. Missing the last two sentences of what your colleague just said because you were busy replying to a message can quickly erode trust. It also makes you look bad.

• Respect the messaging hierarchy. With so many available ways of communicating and the distinction between home and work continuously blurring, it’s important to pay attention to how you are delivering messages to your team. You might think the most important communications warrant a phone call, while less urgent information can be shared via text message or email. But you also need to consider the time of the day. While you are enjoying your morning coffee, your team might be racing around their homes trying to get breakfast for their kids and set up their virtual classrooms.

If necessary, drop a simple one-line email or text message as a heads-up and suggest a time to reconnect that is not right now. A word to the wise: It’s not recommended to cold-call someone over a video platform. You should also be clear about your expectations around responses to messages sent during off-hours.

• Be proactive about connecting. Think about what it might be like to sprinkle some 15-minute check-in calls across your calendar. These calls don’t need to have an agenda but can help people feel less isolated and more in touch, as they give the opportunity to connect in the same way you might if you asked someone to join you on a coffee run. These types of calls also don’t need to only occur between manager and employee. Reach out to your peers or colleagues in other parts of the organization. Keep connections fresh and consistently growing. With a little forethought and effort, this can be a feel-good moment for some and a real lifeline for others.

• Cut some slack. People’s emotions and thoughts are all over the map these days. The range varies from people who are getting through this situation without skipping a beat to people who feel anxious and are struggling to find their motivation. Practicing your empathy skills becomes really important here, especially if you are preoccupied with your own needs at the moment. Taking that step back and putting yourself in someone else’s shoes will help you both.

The bottom line is it’s essential to create flexibility, consider individual needs and be willing to adapt. The suggestion to connect more proactively might be highly appropriate for some colleagues, while others might actually need fewer touchpoints. Every individual is unique and has unique needs. Learning to adapt your own behavior and meet people where they need you most can help you all stay connected.


Forbes Business Council is the foremost growth and networking organization for business owners and leaders. Do I qualify?


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