Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

Pandemic, hybrid, remote—it is still about people.

“Nobody quits companies. They quit managers.”—Satya Nadella, CEO Microsoft

How do you manage distributed or remote teams? Same way you manage in any situation.

(1) You don’t manage people. You manage work. You lead people.

(2) You lead people who are remote the same way you lead people who are in the same room with you.

Explain: This is what we are doing. This is why we are doing it. I am going in this direction.

If others choose to go in that direction as well, they are following and you are leading. They will follow if following you is better than going in some other direction. Hence, to lead, pick a good direction to go.

Of course it is all more complicated and complex and convoluted than what I wrote above. If it were so simple, everyone would be doing it. If it were so simple, I wouldn’t be writing little pieces like this for 13 years. I would have written one or two pieces and been done with it.

Still, it is about people. If you cannot explain something to the people who are with you. Give up and do something else. If you cannot understand the people who are with you. Same.