Safe enough to be vulnerable

One of my connections kindly shared an article on the leadership traits prevalent in successful remote leaders. It’s been sitting in my pile of raw notes, and I finally found the time to take it out and give it a thorough reading.

Valentina also left me an insightful comment on the topic.

Summarized, the traits that make a leader effective in a remote position are:

• Connected — coordinates and directs people, helps work together

• Aware — keeps the pulse of work progress, monitoring

• Organizer — sets, prioritizes, manages tasks

• Productive — applied intelligence, gets things done, goal-reaching

• Good writer — good written skills, detailed, sophisticated

It all comes down to conscious and visible communication both around keeping people together as well as ensuring that things get done. Where in-person charisma and being able to talk to people is more important, in a remote setting it's all about open communication - open as in where it happens and how it happens. It's a much more risky proposal since writing down an opinion feels more final than "just" talking it through and adjust as you see others react to it. There's no "I didn't say it" when you wrote it down. ;)

Open communication is a tough and weighty thing. I think of it as a skill that can be practiced and cultivated.

I also believe that open communication is a heck of a thing to ask of another human being.

Open communication requires vulnerability - the kind of vulnerability that allows a person to speak their mind, share their opinions, and express themselves as they see fit for the situation.

We can’t be vulnerable if we don’t feel safe. And I wonder if our remote working environments are places that feel safe enough for us to tap into our vulnerable sides.

This is a big question to ask, but do you feel safe enough in your remote work environment to speak your mind? Share an opinion? Express yourself as you see fit for a given situation?

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