We have all been getting used to this work from home thing for a while now, and let’s be honest Zoom Fatigue is real…

• Are you having trouble staying focused on video call after video call?
• Do you find it difficult to engage with your coworkers or clients on video calls?

Well if so, read on, as I share 5 ways to ace the basics of video calls!

Connecting and collaborating on video calls is all about finding ways to authentically connect.

In order to do that you need to have a strong foundation. Being a great communicator on video is like working out, we all have muscles, but we need to work out for them to be visible. While these 5 tips may seem basic, when it comes to flexing your skills on video, practice makes perfect. …

You know that feeling you get after doing something awesome? The post high-five smile that creeps up on the faces of both people involved. Well, what if I told you it is possible to create that feeling virtually, when managing distributed teams?

Having a human-centric approach will lead to engagement and efficiency, even with team-members spread out across multiple geographic locations. With stronger autonomy via location independence, workers produce results with “40% fewer quality defects…and have measured an output increase of at least 4.4%.”

Simply, success with remote work happens when you focus on the people behind the screen.

So without further ado, here are my five concepts to help you achieve that virtual high five! 🖐

1. Expectation Setting:

Mismatched expectations are the root cause to every type of interpersonal tension or conflict. …

I’m sipping coffee on a sidewalk café in Belgrade, it is eerily post COVID here, people out, dining, laughing, and surprisingly mask free. I get flashbacks of the summer I spent here two long years ago. At that time, I thought what I was doing was cutting-edge — a digital nomad working full-time and traveling the world. I believed I was proof office culture would go extinct, and remote work would reign supreme.

Instead of remote advocates, like me, inspiring people that remote work was the future, it was a different kind of fight, a fight against the global COVID pandemic that would finally convince the big tech-elite to fully embrace remote work. Those giants including Facebook, Google, Coinbase, Twitter, and 74% of other companies (as revealed in a recent Gartner survey) are planning to go, and stay, remote this year. …

1. Work is something you do, not tied to a place you go

If you are motivated you can truly work anywhere. My famous “bicycle desk” is proof. While this may seem obvious after months of turning kitchen islands into makeshift home offices, pre-pandemic the social pressure for face time still drove office culture.

NYTimes recently shared a story of a man named, Josh Harcus, a Robotic vacuum cleaner salesman who was able to re-design his pitch virtually to close deals, and it worked!

Stories like this are becoming common, with plenty of studies backing up the fact that, yes, remote workers are achieving their goals and getting work done (and are more engaged while doing so). …

Without the bounds of a 9–5 schedule, or the commute to an office, the ability to work remotely should be the ideal work environment for the maker’s of a company. Creating their own schedule without interruptions with endless hours to dive in to their craft whenever inspiration strikes.

However, for many, it is still challenging to reach this flow state as companies try to stay connected via virtual meetings, and manager check-in’s. …

Thinking about: Quitting your job? Leaving a relationship? Eating that extra dessert?

Sometimes decisions, no matter how big or small, can seem impossible to make, creating turmoil and confusion. I’ve been stuck in decision paralysis before, terrified I would jump into a decision too soon, make the wrong decision, and end up regretting my choice or risk doing nothing at all.

Thinking back, I realized most decisions I was faced with could be simplified into a matrix (below) based around creating self-awareness on my desired outcomes and evaluating their presence now and the potential presence in the future.

So, how does it all work? …

I wrote this back in October on a trip from New York to London, I was getting tired of my Digital Nomad life and feeling frustrated and impatient by the constant long-haul flights. Re-reading this during my lock-down experience in France adds another level of gratitude I have. …

“We take communication for granted because we do it so frequently, but it’s actually a complex process.” — Joseph Sommerville

When is the last time you fully experienced the smiles, the gestures, the vibe of an in-person connection at work?

For some of us, given the current push to work from home in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, it may only have been a few days. How are you feeling? You may already be struggling communicating only virtually and that is okay! Hopefully I can offer some help 🙂

For me, it has been the better part of four years. In my remote work journey, I have had to rely on remote communication skills to make up the gap in understanding that comes with a computer screen in the way of a message. …