Episode 35
Enabling remote work with Frank Cottle
April 16, 2020
Whether you’ve been working remotely for years or have suddenly found yourself setting up a remote office, there are essential cultural foundations required to make it work. Frank Cottle has been in the business of supporting flexible workspaces for 30 years, and he shares the keys to leading a fruitful remote organization.
You can connect with Frank on LinkedIn or through his company, Alliance Virtual Offices.
Read or listen to Frank’s online publication, Allwork.Space, for expert commentary focused on the flexible workplace and the future of work.
Enabling Remote Work: Key takeaways from Episode 35
With the current global events, a hastily dispersed workforce is enabling leaders at all levels of the company to solve problems and showcase their capabilities. Companies that have been talking about implementing flexible work policies for a long time have now been forced into it, and it remains to be seen whether these circumstances will lead to positive change in the long run.
For remote work to succeed, people have to be empowered to make decisions. It comes down to a culture of trust: when you’re not all in the same office, you have to trust your people to do what they need to do. Learn to lead by giving objectives, instead of tasks, and put in place accountability measures to keep teams on track.
Prior to the pandemic, 1.8 billion people were working remotely around the globe, with remote work defined as two or more days out of the core office. This trend has been building for a long time, and we’re better prepared for it as a global workforce than many people may realize.
Working from home doesn’t have to mean working alone. There are so many technologies that enable us to stay connected, and leaders can create opportunities for teams to socialize as well. Whether that’s virtual lunches or happy hours, it’s important to add those informal interactions into the work-from-home day.
Enabling remote work with the right tools is crucial. Struggles with connectivity and other tech issues have torpedoed many remote-work efforts in the past, and it just can’t happen right now. Invest in the tools people need to succeed.
When the pandemic dies down, Frank predicts that fewer people will return to offices, or that more people will work remotely more frequently. Companies have now made huge investments in setting people up to work from home, and they may not step back from all of that. More prevalent flexible work policies would enable companies to reassess their real estate use, ultimately lowering costs and creating a more sustainable business.
