Become the Suave & Trendy Glocal Leader

“Glocal is the new Local”. As much as it sounds clichéd, we are in the midst of a workplace transformation which is here to stay! Few years down the line – almost half of the present day world workforce will be working remotely. We are already witnessing the scenario of employees quitting full time jobs to pursue off-site work engagements. It is convenient, gives them the levee to save commute time and in most cases pays better compensations. The millennials are more than happy to enjoy these remote accessories. It’s high time that you begin to enjoy them too!

This newly evolving team working model is giving it’s share of worry and insecurity especially to Leaders with half their teams working in the brick & mortar arrangement whilst the other half working out of time zones spread all over the globe. HR folks have also been found scratching their heads as to how do they bring at par policies, processes and structures; which treat both types of team members’ fairly.

If you belong to either of the two groups mentioned above, this article is for you and if you don’t then this article is most definitely for you. Because the way the remote work culture is sinking into the glocal corporates, it is a matter of time that you will soon be leading a team like such. So, here’s the Kanakkupillai team offering you interesting tricks to help you become the ‘Suave & Effective Glocal Leader’-

1) Talk ‘Big’ & ‘Small’ –

Communication is the biggest bridge that you need to constantly build; especially with each of your remote team members. Unless you are in a rushed, tight deadline – make sure that you spend sufficient time to discuss & share both big & small things with them week on week. And not all of them have to be related to work all the time.
You must build rapport to get to know ‘each’ one of them not just as an employee to your company, but as a complete person. Make small talk; get to know about their families, their passions, and what drives them! It is all about them..

2) See each other often –

Thanks to skypes and facetimes of the world, we are no longer handicapped by only audio conversations through telephones or mobiles. Plan, Schedule & Dedicate a video chat few times a week with each one of them. Trust us – the time you invest in chatting with them over videos will be half the time you will be spending searching for a replacement, should they leave. However, the more pressing need for visual contact is the fact that they are not working out of a conventional office environment. They miss out a lot on social networking in a physical work set up and you can be instrumental to make them feel inclusive and acknowledged by dedicating your physical presence only for them, even if is virtually.

3) Treat remote as local –

Treat your remote people like they are local and treat your local people like they are remote. Give remote people as much access to you as possible. Remember, your local people see you in the halls, eat with you at lunch, stop by your office, etc. The remote people don’t have that access and can feel distant. Respond to them as quickly as possible. Make your local people set appointments.

4) Trust them completely-

The KP team has emphasized the undertone of trust in all working relationships in it’s articles. And the trust aspect becomes even more significant in remote associations because as a Leader you are dealing with human beings in an absolutely uncontrolled environment. The corporate world is shifting quickly to a workforce interested in learning and skills advancement rather than stability. Working for 30 years for the same company has gone out of the window. The fastest way to build trust with them is to sync in your team goals with their working goals. It is imperative that you take a personal interest in their learning & life goals and connect them with your company’s goals. Once they see a personal take-away for themselves through their high- performance, they will be self-motivated to deliver their best!

5) Don’t fret over the number of hours-

With your team member/s sitting half a globe away, there is no way that you can clock in their number of working hours. As a leader, you have to get out of the ‘number of hours worked’ mode and measure performance through ‘number of tasks’ accomplished. Build a communication and accountability system that measures and rewards your team members, based on completions of tasks. This literally translates to managing well the ‘what’ aspect of the job and do away with the ‘how’ aspect.

It will be great if you can work with your Human Resource team to build standardized job structures and evaluation parameters for all local & glocal team members. This way you give everyone a fair and square opportunity to deliver against set metrics’ & measure their performance transparently. Finally, use technology to have some remote socializing fun!!

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Give the remote team members time-off to go to a party or dinner when the office get- togethers are planned. Engage them via a video chat to let them know their presence matters and they are as valuable a team member as the others.
Celebrate big or small accomplishments for each team member via video conferencing with all, as much as time logistics allow. It may not be a big deal for all, but it will be a very big deal to the accomplishing employee. Also, the celebration mode will rub off on others to motivate them towards doing better themselves.

The Kanakkupillai team will be more than happy to receive your thoughts on the above read.Or simply help you with a related situation that you may deem fit to share with us.Leave a reply below or write into us at

support@kanakkupillai.com

Until then Keep Leading & Keep Trending!!