Phone One on Ones

Thank you!

Thank you for this cast.  Six of my seven DR's are remote and for the last six months I've had this manager position, I've done 85% of my O3s over the phone.  I've always been the one to call them - I never realized how powerful that action was. 

One thing that wasn't mentioned was "being on time" for the phone O3.  As far as I'm concerned, a meeting is a meeting and it starts at the scheduled time.  When the O3 is scheduled for 2:00, their phone is ringing at 2:00 - not at 2:03 or 2:12.  I think I have them trained well enough after six months of O3s that they know the phone call coming in at 2:00 is 99.9% certainly from me!  (There are occasions when someone else randomly happens to call at the same time but more often than not, I get greetings like "Right on time!" or "Hello, Ash!" because, even without Caller ID, they know it's going to be me. 

Outlook Reminder + Ringing Phone = O3 Call from Manager

Brilliant!

Great points, Ash...can't BELIEVE I didn't get on my high/dark horse and say, a phone appointment is an appointment.  I am always surprised at the apparent lack of respect for time that occurs when physicality is attenuated (as a friend once said).

I remember a potential

I remember a potential customer that I called at the appointed time, 18h30. I interrupted his supper and the conversation went like this:

Client: "It's supper time, you know"
Me: "Ho, sorry, my calendar was set to call you at 18h30, my apologie, I'll call back later on tonight"
C: "Since when do paint contractors call on time?"
Me: "When you deal with me, you get calls on time, sir."

I got the job.

Calls on the clock made the difference.

Sweet!

Well done!

Phone calls on time

I think I mentioned something similar to this (about physical meetings) in a comment on the 'Standards' blog post.  If I've arranged to call at a particular time then I always try to call at that time (as Ash said, sometimes someone else calls at or just before the appointed time) and similarly if someone has arranged to call me at a particular time I expect their call at that time (allowing a few minutes either way for clocks not being precisely in sync, from where I'm sitting I can see 4 timepieces and there's about 3 minutes between the fastest and slowest).

I do try to scedule phonecalls as much as I can, or make sure that what I'm calling about is urgent if it's an unscheduled call.  I'm far more likely to use email, IM or SkypeChat for non-urgent matters.  I recall saying some time ago (on the old forums) that I see an unscheduled phone call as akin to standing by someone's desk chanting "Talk to me now!  Talk to me now!"  Some people did argue against this view but it's still how I view unscheduled phone calls, sometimes necessary but less than ideal.  Quite often I'll email someone to ask when it would be a good time for me to call them and give them an overview of what we ned to talk about (not an agenda but serves a similar purpose).  After call I'll often send them an email confirming what we talked about and what we agreed (not minutes or a discussion record but serves a similar purpose).  It amazes me that so few of my colleagues do this.

I personally find it very frustrating when people are late with a call or don't answer when I call them at an appointed time (this is probably due, in part at least, to my having Dyspraxia).  There does seem to be a common belief that phone calls are unimportant (it's almost a mirror image of how many people seem to view emails as very important).  I've had managers who would be quite happy to let me go for a face to face meeting refuse to do so for a scheduled phone call.  Now if I have a phonecall scheduled I tend to refer to it as a meeting and actually go somewhere else to make/receive the call.

Stephen

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Skype: stephenbooth_uk

DiSC: 6137

Experience is how you avoid failure, failure is what gives you experience.

Remote Management

Excellent information guys.

I was very happy to hear you address a key area related to managing remote teams. I wish you you would cover even more related to remote management.

What I generally find myself doing is using your core management principles and then trying to find the nuances myself related to doing it remotely. It was nice to hear your nuances.

I'd very much like to see you cover in a few minutes each week how the week's topic needs to be slightly modified (if necessary) when doing it remotely because so much seems to be done remotely these days.

Three follow-up questions for you:

1. What are the nuance differences when giving feedback remotely? Feedback, for me, is usually delivered immediately on the spot to be effective. How are you incorporating it into remote management? I can't imagine you guys using email to deliver feedback. Considering feedback issues are generally "just feedback", I can't see you using the phone either too much.

2. Can you talk a little more about how dressed you require your directs to be when taking part on video conferences? I'm torn on the issue. Personally, I feel crisp and get more done when I am dressed for work. I find myself, when working with my remote directs, to focus on work product and not focusing on dress style. Mark did mention the dress issue with video cameras in an off-hand comment in this cast, but I'd be interested in how you deal with it in more depth.

3. Is the video of Mark in his office only available to premium members? I saw a video of Mark a long time ago standing in front of a cube in a vest, but I've never seen you guys do video after that. Is there a spot on your site where all your videos are located?

Thanks again for another valuable cast.

I really appreciate it.

Jim Hayes

Exception to me calling them?

Question:

If some of my staff are stressed about me calling them, is it okay to have them call?  The reason is they have to get a conference room.  Rooms are tight and they can get bumped out.  Meeting run over and they can't get into the room.

NOTE:

1. They never miss.  They know this is not an exception.  They are always right on time unless there is a room problem like above.
2. I always make sure I am there and recognize their phone number.  So, I pick it up by saying "Hi <name>"

Some were pretty stressed by the conference room problem.  When I switched them to call me they said it was a big help.

I do realize that the real answer is fixing the room problem.  However, that is politically tough.  I was given this group a few months back.  They were part of a acquisition and are co-located with that group.  But the company decided to pull together all the engineering functions.  So, now they are an island reporting to me.  That is stressful enough ... on top of the fact that they had never reported remotely before either  ... and now have a bigger organization with different processes....

Multi tasking

Mike:

During this cast, you mentioned a study about multi-tasking.  My wife has a data entry job (entering student applications) for a small college.  The boss thinks she should be able to do this and answer the college switch board--and do both jobs perfectly.
 
I wondered if you would share where you read the study.
 
Larry

For Jimbo:

Phone feedback is fine.  Do it all the time.  No email.  NEVER.

I require remote employees to be dressed appropriately while at work.  If their work does not require them to be seen out of their house, I nonetheless require them to be dressed well enough to leave their house.  Shorts are fine.  Anything that causes me pause - excessive skin, lack of cleanliness, clothes in disrepair, are not appropriate.  We do not have a dress code.  We do draw conclusions based on attire.

I don't *think* the video blogs I've done are premium.  Future, longer form video will be premium, to offset our (considerable) costs.

Mark

Ms Sunshine...

Yes, that's totally fine.

Mark

Study...

There are lots of studies out there....can you refresh my memory on which one I referred to?

Mark

Multi-tasking

You made the comment at 17:40 that you read an article that said multi-tasking was "Bunk."  It is that article I hoped you could stear me to.

Larry

Phone interviews

Mark,

Out of context of the thread here, but have you considered a cast on interviews via the phone.

Interviewing via telephone is common place here in Asia and I always feel uncomfortable as either the interviewer or the interviewee.  I am guessing this is due to the lack of facial expression and "you speak, now I speak" of a telephone.

 Could I give this to you for consideration for a cast?

 Regards,  Jeremy

Phone Interviews

Jeremy,

There is a comprehensive cast on Phone Interviews in the Interviewing Series. Though I do recognize that's not what you were asking/suggesting.  ;-)

Best Regards,
Mike

One on Ones

Hello Mike and Mark ,
First I would like to thank you guys for making my job a bit easier. I need a little help here; you see a share and office with my direct. I do the feedback, coaching   and 3O. However, it is become increasing difficult to have productive 30min one on one when we share so much during the days leading up to the meetings.  How do I fix this?