Humans are social animals, evolved over millennia to communicate face-to-face, so it’s hardly surprising that we find remote communication more challenging.
Synchronous and Asynchronous Communication
You can break down communication in the workplace into two broad categories, asynchronous communication, for example messaging and e-mail and synchronous communication such as meetings, video and audio conferences. In a flexible or fully remote workplace, if you’re working efficiently and not just replicating the poor habits that tend to rule in offices then you’ll put more emphasis on asynchronous communication. Synchronous communication should be limited to resolving complex issues or coming to a final agreement having carried out most of the discussion asynchronously. Working this way prevents remote workers from getting trapped in an exhausting daily cycle of end-to-end video and audio conferences and getting little real work done.
Why your style of communication is important
In flexible or remote work, styles of communication become more important regardless of whether you’re communicating synchronously or asynchronously. In fact, your communication style tends to shine out stronger and be magnified more in written than verbal communication. You can counter this by thinking about the way you communicate and asking yourself if it is still effective in a flexible or fully remote workplace.
There are a variety of communication styles. Everyone’s style is a little different and this is an area that psychologists have taken a keen interest in with vast swathes of literature written about it. I’m not going to cover well-trodden ground but do want to emphasise that being a remote presence tends to exaggerate your existing style. You need to be aware of this and may want to reflect on your communication style. You will find with some thought and effort you can use words, phrasing and tone to counter this and so communicate more effectively.
What style of communication to adopt remotely
Think about how you’re getting information over. Be clear and ask questions if you have any suspicion that you’ve been misunderstood. Avoid aggression no matter how wound up you might feel. Keep it calm and polite and have a good scream in private. Politeness not only keeps people happy but it’s also more likely to achieve the desired results. Aggression is never a good idea but if you’re working remotely then I’d go as far as saying it’s a disaster. It’s that much easier to turn people off and that much harder to repair the relationship after an outburst.
Without going over the top, try to behave in a way that is rewarding to the people you’re interfacing with and try to take care of their self-esteem by praising effort and success.
Try to meet people face-to-face at least once
While this is easier in flexible work, working fully remotely means in many cases you can’t meet all of the people you’re regularly interfacing with, but if it’s feasible to meet any of them then I’d strongly recommend you do this and as early as possible. It adds a personal closeness that is hard to generate in any other way. We just seem to be able to communicate and get on better with people once we’ve had at least one face-to-face meeting with them. It seems to leave an imprint of intimacy that never goes away.
Conclusion
So, be aware of your communication style and that when you’re working remotely it’s likely become exaggerated. Be prepared to compensate. It’s surprising how quickly people can start to understand each other from even a single meeting face-to-face. We advocate for flexible work which removes offices as the centre of gravity for work, but promotes meeting for a purpose and meeting face-to-face as essential parts of working life.
Gren Gale is a consultant and speaker in Remote Work and Project Management and has been named as one of the top 19 Key Opinion Leaders globally in remote work in Who’s Who in Remote Working? and and one of the top 50 Project Management Leaders worldwide by Leaders Hum He is author of the Remote Project Manager and Remote Work The New Normal.
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