Competencies & dexterity for Digital Nomads
How Digital Nomads travel and live, is often written about, with many destinations and operators writing about and promoting their locations, packages and experiences. However, little is written about the remote work skills and competencies that underpin effective and sustainable digital nomadism. Let’s take a deeper look at the various competencies and skills needed to be an effective remote work whilst “nomading”, weaving the two areas together:
Acknowledging the tension between remote working whilst “nomading” - Many people (myself included) can travel and remote work, combining the two seamlessly. But, often for newbies nomads, we need to emphasis that self-discipline and routine is paramount in combining the two worlds together. Those experienced in the nomad way of life, will have learned valuable lessons about;
tax residency, status and visas - are you legally entitled to work, earn and stay in your chosen location? Interesting solutions are appearing, like “WorkFromAnywhere” platform, where you can check your tax status for various locations
connectivity in destinations (and suitability of locations for meetings and events), is vital and often a non-negotiable for certain profile remote workers
timezones - can impact work-life-balance and also longer term productivity dependant on team connection needs
cultural etiquette & integration - mentioned lots during "international business management training" but often glossed over in the deliberations needed on both being culturally aware, sensitive and integrating fully in local communities
workstations - ensuring comfortable and adequate work stations is vital, especially for longer stays
community and risk mitigation - having a community and support in your destination is important but even more so when there are problems with your hardware, access to wifi etc.
career progression for employed digital nomads - worth considering that there could be an onward impact to your career progression
individual worker status - if you are employed, you may need to keep the balance needed with your employer. Whereas, individual freelancer type remote workers have more autonomy, they also may have more pressure and responsibilities in terms of generating and keeping business and clients
Photo by Andrew Neel from Pexels
Competencies for effective Remote Working - next, there is the actual skills needed to execute your remote work, which are influenced by your individual type of worker status i.e. are you employed or independent freelance of some sort? But also your exact skills, as knowledge workers the focus is often on technical skills, but the breathe of skills has to be wider and take into account personality traits and interpersonal (sometimes called “soft skills”) skills and competencies.
Workplaceless, have a fascinating Remote Work Competency Model which has layers of lower level detail on the various digital, behavioural, managerial and functional skills needed to be an effective remote work team member, manager and leader. It is worth looking at the breakdown in this model to review and reflect on those various skills areas and exact detail.
On the behavioural and personality traits, there is also evidence based research, which outlines the key personality traits; conscientiousness, adjustment (flexibility) and curiosity. Many people are not aware of these wider considerations and that honing in and improving your approach and understanding of for example “adjustment” - which can be reviewed and considered via reflective practice or journaling - can mean a more sustainable (personal and professional) approach and also could impact career progression, underpinned by self-awareness and ongoing peer support.
Sustainable? In all senses of the word - so far, all of the above considerations can impact our effectiveness in our day-to-day work as a remote worker, whether you are in nomadic mode or not! What about our impact on our wider wellbeing, mental health and disposition? Ideally we need to consider those impacts too and ensure we are taking stock, asking for support and possibly seeking expert support where needed. Insured Nomads have recently launched counselling support with their insurance policies to support talking therapies and mental health supports where needed.
I also mean Sustainability from a planet and environmental impact too. Many destinations are beginning to address and take this into account. As an individual Remote Worker, I try to take this into account in my choice of destination and also my own self-responsibility (e.g. recycling whilst on location, where possible) comes into play while I try to make a soft impact on the local environment.
Thanks for reading this far - I am working with my mentoring team on a 1-2-1 service offering for the Digital Nomad Community - mentoring future and existing nomads on the skills outlined above to support their effectiveness with accountability and personalised training on the aptitudes that really matter! (register here for a demo from Remote Work Mentor)