Building relationships with your colleagues, clients, and partners is crucial for your professional success and satisfaction. But how can you do that when you work remotely, without the benefit of face-to-face interactions and casual chats? Here are some tips to help you connect and collaborate with others in a virtual environment.
The first step to building relationships remotely is to choose the right tools for communication and collaboration. Depending on your needs and preferences, you may use different platforms for video calls, instant messaging, project management, file sharing, and feedback. Make sure you and your counterparts are comfortable and familiar with the tools you use, and that they are reliable and secure. Also, consider the etiquette and norms of each tool, such as when to use emojis, gifs, or voice notes, and how to avoid interruptions and distractions.
There is an amazing tool that we typically don't use. It's on a device we use all the the time to connect virtually. You can type in a number and actually talk with someone. Ha. Yes, the phone is an amazing tool. Of course, Slack, email, Zoom, etc. are all good too.
When a LinkedIn invite is accepted- Wait until Friday and send a simple message saying, “Hi (Prospect name)Thanks for the connect”. Be sure to view their page before thanking them. A week later, follow up with a message that shows you did some research. Mention that you are interested in mailing them linecard/catalog. When you do, hand write a personalized note. Phone call a week or two later on a Friday for follow up. Nick
For me, the next best thing to meeting in person is to hop on zoom for a 15 or 20 minute chat. Regular catch-up video calls has helped me develop and keep friendships with amazing people in Belgium and New Zealand, as well as across the US.
Another key to building relationships remotely is to be proactive and responsive in your communication. Don't wait for others to reach out to you or assume that they know what you are working on or thinking. Instead, initiate conversations, share updates, ask questions, and offer help. At the same time, be responsive when others contact you or request your input. Acknowledge their messages, reply in a timely manner, and follow up on any action items. This way, you can show your interest, involvement, and respect for others.
Identify industry specific trends and important dates. Google Alerts are helpful here. Once you have a handle on the happenings in the industries of your clients and prospects, look for opportunities to reach out and offer helpful insights, or kind words. It shows you pay attention to what's important.
One of the challenges of working remotely is that it can be harder to express and perceive emotions, cues, and nuances in communication. To overcome this, you need to show your personality and empathy in your interactions. For example, you can use video calls to see each other's faces, gestures, and expressions, and to share some personal details or stories. You can also use humor, compliments, and appreciation to lighten the mood and build rapport. Moreover, you can demonstrate empathy by listening actively, showing understanding, and being supportive of others' challenges and needs.
Don’t be so quick to jump into the business topic/conversation at hand, but be in a mindset of genuinely connecting with those with whom you are interacting. Act as though you are actually in person with them and seek to be interested in them, and not just an interesting individual. People enjoy learning tidbits about you, such as where you are from and interesting stories about your journey, up to this very moment with them. When you are vulnerable enough to be transparent with them, and you are truly interested in them as a person, the business topic of conversation will flow naturally and they will be quick to follow up with you for a future connection.
One of my favorite recent conversations started out talking to a gentleman with toddler-aged children while my wife and I had a 3-month-old at the time who was not sleeping well. In the first 15 minutes of our call, he gave me some valuable parenting tips and some ways to help our baby sleep better (the tips worked great)! Whoever said business isn't personal is lying! Great deals start with the first interaction so my goal is to think; How can I meet this person where they're at? How can I take my genuineness that someone would see and hear in person and put that into an email? How can having an enthusiastic tone change the path of a cold call conversation? Don't forget, every lead, contact, or potential prospect is a human being!
Use voice to text. Your message should be a reflection of your tonality as well because it is perceived as genuine. Many of us write differently than we speak. It can come across as cold and analytical. Also, never underestimate the power of a strategically placed emoji to add additional context to a message.
While it is important to communicate frequently and effectively, it is also important to set boundaries and expectations for yourself and others. Working remotely can blur the lines between work and personal life, and create confusion and frustration about roles, responsibilities, and deadlines. To avoid this, you need to establish and communicate your availability, preferences, and goals clearly and respectfully. For example, you can use a shared calendar, a status update, or a do-not-disturb mode to indicate when you are working, taking a break, or unavailable. You can also agree on the frequency, format, and purpose of your meetings and check-ins, and the deliverables and timelines of your projects.
This step is critical. Your calendar is your fortress and when left unattended or open for anyone, it can and will be stormed leaving you in a reactive state. Communication frequency, call-back windows, and message response times must be established upfront. If you are super responsive all the time, then you give the impression you are always available which can lead to stressful moments and impatient clients.
With the current state of work especially in my experience as a mother of two, you really have to protect your time and space, for it to work the way you need it to. Lines get blurred in remote work and the solutions that work best for me revolve around setting clear expectations and communication. I have found that proactively deciding on check-ins with your team or managers, gives both parties a specific time to bring things to the table, and also acts as a springboard for generating more strategies on how to work together more collaboratively.
Finally, you can build relationships remotely by seeking feedback and learning opportunities from others. Feedback is essential for improving your performance, understanding your strengths and weaknesses, and aligning your expectations with others. You can ask for feedback regularly, openly, and constructively, and also give feedback to others in a respectful and helpful way. In addition, you can seek learning opportunities from others by asking for advice, tips, or insights, or by joining online courses, webinars, or communities related to your field or interests. This way, you can show your curiosity, growth mindset, and willingness to learn from others.
In my experience, seeking feedback is an important part of working remotely. This allows you to have insight into perceptions of how you show up in the eyes of others. Seek different perspectives from individuals you trust and will value feedback from, even the tough parts. The positive and constructive feedback works when you apply it and approach it with curiosity. Your colleagues and leaders will recognize you as a self starter, that values insight and opportunities to grow.
Wow! Thanks for these insightful tips! I would want to add that while it is a remote job relationship, it would suffice to agree on physical meeting once in a while for visits to project sites, clients, retreats, casual hangouts for bonding and other important outings that can promote trust and the growth of organization/ business or company worked with.
Customize, Empathize, Humanize. Customize - Understand how they like to communicate. Some are asynchronous - like to do Slack, DMs instead of calls or video chats. Some like realtime calls but not with video. Empathize - Life challenges, mood swings, differing priorities ... We have no idea what the other person is going through so starting with something that explores how they are feeling is the first step. And then adapt. Humanize - I am biased here but what I have see work across the community and within organizations is when people open themselves up. Having had the privilege of hosting over 250 folks with deeply humanizing questions with succinct answers, this works like a charm. Yes, authenticity and vulnerability are the key here!