People skills are important for everyone, even remotely. It may sound a bit odd considering you’re not actually face to face with people when you’re working remotely, but that makes people skills even more important. To communicate well enough to thrive remotely there are some people skills you might need to work on…
Celebrate People’s Accomplishments
Celebrating the accomplishments of the people you work with shows that you’re genuinely interested in them as a friend, coworker, or employee. Showing interest in others is a vital people skill that can become more difficult when you’re all working remotely. You can’t bring in a cake to celebrate your coworkers birthday. You can’t hug your coworker after they told you that they just got their dream home, but you can still celebrate in other ways.
Chat with your coworkers online. Send them a big congratulations in all caps! Send them some mail or post about them on social media (if they’re okay with that). It’s important to celebrate each other in any way that you can to create a thriving remote culture.
Practice Good Communication
Sometimes good communication is a struggle for people in non-remote workplaces, so working remotely adds a whole extra barrier to that communication. That’s why it’s important for everyone on your team to work on their communication skills and communicate clearly.
“Communication goes 2 ways: it’s not just about transmitting messages to one another, but about listening and being heard. Teams that are comfortable communicating will develop their own group personality through shared experiences. For that to happen, you need to create a place where people feel like they can bring their whole selves to work, be honest, and feel valued.” – Inside Design
When you’re communicating remotely, via Slack or any other messaging system, it’s easy to see a message tell you to do something and just do it instead of responding. You might feel like you’re making things simple by just getting the work done, but it’s vital that you respond. If not, the person who gave you the tasks has no clue if you’re actually doing them or not. Remember, if this person told you to do them face-to-face, you’d nod and say “Yes.” Make sure you’re always responding!
Practice Honesty
Honesty is a vital people skill in any workplace, be it remote or not. Remotely, though, it’s a lot more difficult to be honest and true to yourself. When things are digital, they seem less real, even when they’re not. That’s why it is vital that you work on making sure you’re being honest with your coworkers, your boss and yourself.
“The saying, “honesty is the best policy” is not only true, it’s essential in building trust among your colleagues.” – Forbes
If you’re having a hard day, say so. You don’t need to hide it behind some online persona. This is your job. Hiding yourself and your difficulties only turns a job that you like into something miserable. It’s true, honesty is the best policy.
All the best companies have thriving cultures, be it remote or not. A thriving culture makes for happier employees, and therefore more productive and cared for work. Isn’t that what everyone wants for their company?
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