Emotional Intelligence & Remote Work
Special guest blog contributor: Lorna Lacey, Remote Work Operations Specialist
Given the rapid expansion of Remote Working due to the Covid-19 crisis, this webinar shines a light on the core competencies which can improve the experience for the individual and the effectiveness of the overall team.
Our expert panel features:
Ryan Roghar – Founder and CEO of Teammate Apart, a company whose focus is to help remote workers and companies who hire them, better work together by improving human relationships and interactions.
Rowena Hennigan – Remote Work lecturer at TU Dublin and founder of RoRemote, a consultancy centred on remote work education and best practise. Rowena is passionate about using E-learning techniques to help companies and individuals develop skills and competencies required for the burgeoning ‘Future of Work’.
Sandra Thompson – Emotional Intelligence expert, Goleman EI certified coach and Customer Experience educator at Exceed All Expectations, a company that helps businesses create more valued experiences for their customers and more enriching experience for their employees.
Overview:
Rowena takes us through the evolving development of Remote Work (RW). Beginning with NASA in the 1970s, we are introduced to Jack Nilles, thought to be the ‘father of teleworking’, who was in charge of the first documented teleworking project.
Fast forward through the various business and technological advancements of the noughties, we meet Matt Mullenweg, CEO of Wordpress.com, and learn about his vision to move away from centralised workspaces and build a remote-first technology company. Matt’s company along with other trailblazers such as Github, Gitlab, and Basecamp made the conscious decision to build teams that worked together whilst being physically apart.
But how did these new agile ‘location independent’ businesses succeed? and how can we build our own resilient and effective distributed teams?
We discover that communication is a key driver of success in RW and those organisations that master clear and concise internal communications, as well as virtual collaboration, achieve great things.
We also learn about the importance of promoting a culture of trust and transparency, which is supported by a framework of communication assets – such as employee handbooks, communication charters and continually expanding process documentation.
Rowena emphasises the benefits of written skills, not only for the vital task of information sharing but also for self-reflection and enhancing self-awareness and emotional management.
This leads us to the area of Emotional Intelligence.
Sandra highlights the importance of Emotional Intelligence (EI) in achieving optimum team performance, particularly when working remotely.
Photo by Helena Lopes from Pexels
We learn from the prominent neuroscientist, Lisa Feldman Barrett, that emotions are as individual as your thumbprint. So if emotions are so varied and individual how do we truly understand how other people are thinking or feeling? According to Lisa, emotions are shaped by 3 main factors: our life experience, the context of the specific situation, and the way that we have been raised.
By using smart questioning and allowing the person to feel heard, you will discover the reason why someone is feeling a particular emotion.
Sandra clarifies that EI is about our ability to recognise and understand emotions in ourselves and others and how emotions drive behaviour.
In a remote environment, we can see cohesion between the competencies required for effective RW and those acquired through EI: adaptability, accountability, curiosity, and empathy.
Sandra provides practical advice as to how you can cultivate better emotional intelligence. Namely: to cultivate a daily practise of reflecting on what you're grateful for each morning, recognising what went well each evening, using breathing techniques to tune in to the present, and creating a 'Noble story' to foster empathy towards someone you're having difficulty with.
Key Points:
Remote Work
Master communication and virtual collaboration
Value productivity versus presenteeism
Promote a culture based on trust and transparency
Develop a strong emphasis on documentation
A requirement of excellent written skills
Emotional Intelligence
Understand your emotions
Recognise emotions in others and build connections
Nurture your curiosity, adaptability, empathy and communication skills
Create safer spaces for people to use EI
Closing Thoughts:
As countries begin to lift the sanctions imposed by the Covid-19 crisis, it's clear that not everything will be as it was before the pandemic. As a society, we have faced radical changes that have disrupted almost every aspect of our lives, whilst we long for the reversal of many rules, many of us will not want to relinquish our new found autonomy at work.
Remote work is here to stay and individuals will need to continue to adapt their skillset and employers will need to evolve their business practices to remain relevant and attract talent.