How To Stand Out When Working From Home

Turn on your video whenever possible

Non-Verbal communication an essential part of any productive conversation. This is a simple way to immediately improve your communication with little effort. When you’re at the office you don’t hide your face, why do it when you’re working at home?

Actively improve your communication skills

If crafting words is not a strength of yours, then I strongly suggest you practice until you find a style that suits your personality. I was never a strong writer, but the post-graduate study proved to me that it’s really just a matter of continuous practice. As a remote employee, your ability to articulate yourself in words is critical to the success of your career and working in a team.

When crafting any message consider the following:

• Maintain your personality in your writing
• Consider your audience (including cultural background) and what they care about
• Do not mix too many (2+) messages together
• Less is more. People easily lose a message when distracted by details
• Increase awareness of your assumptions and clarify them as required

Actively improve your own productivity

If you want to excel, then you need to improve at your day to day job. Think about what you do and how you can do it more effectively. Although your manager is responsible for your productivity, it’s really your choice to improve or not. Take ownership of your own productivity and it will be simple to see the difference in your work. Aim to get the job done well with the least amount of effort and you’ll be on your way towards a positive direction.

Regularly update your stakeholders (not just your manager) when appropriate

Updating relevant stakeholders when the time is right is critical to the perception of your perceived productivity. Remember to:

• Think about the stakeholders and their goals.
• Report what they would appreciate knowing at a relevant time.

Even if you deliver amazing work, the truth is that leaders aren’t likely tracking every single thing you’re personally delivering, especially if you’re in a large team. It’s up to you to ensure your stakeholders know exactly what they need from you. When working remotely, I’d advise you actively try practising this to find the right balance suited to your role.

Interact with enough people online to create an impact

My interactions with everyone were enough to give them the feeling I was in the office

It’s tough for any leader to actively push someone for a promotion that is “out of mind”. So it is extremely important to consider this as an area of improvement if you’re looking to make a positive impact as a remote employee.

Note the communication tool(s) that reach your team consistently

You should know exactly which communication tool will get the attention of a specific person the quickest. It could be anything from email, phone, MS Teams, Slack, Skype, Zoom, Hangouts, Blue Jeans and the list goes on. Everyone isn’t always consistent in what they choose to use, so it’s up to you to actively identify the most effective ways to reach your team. You need this knowledge to be able to do this to make things happen in the remote world.

Build solid relationships with team members that are responsive online

There will times you need to rely on others to execute actions for you. Your ability to execute really comes down to the quality of the relationship. Some people will always respond faster than others, take a mental note and this will provide you with the speed of delivery required to make a difference when it matters.

Identify colleagues willing to tap others on the shoulder

When you’re the only remote person in your team there will be times when it’s challenging to grab the attention of a specific team member. I had at least three people I knew in the office that responded quickly and wouldn’t mind taking a walk for me to tap someone on the shoulder for a query. This didn’t just unblock me it helped me increase engagement with my teams remotely.

Keep your chat status updated and relevant

If you’re online, just make sure your status reflects this fact. When you’re not online, show offline. It’s that simple.