In 2001, I was a regional IT support manager, with folks working for me mostly in Denver, but also in Albuquerque and Salt Lake City. But that year we got a new CIO, who moved us from a regional to a functional model, and I started managing groups in other various areas of the IT organization (mostly, in the last 8 years, development teams) all over the US, and into Europe and Asia.
And all of those folks, in particular the direct reports to me, were remote. My directs and I talked all the time by email, by IM, and on the phone at least twice a week (one-on-one and as a group). Managing remote teams can be tough, but I've gotten used to it.
And now … things change.
As of Monday, I have a new direct report, a new hire, the result of changing positions back in April, one of my directs getting promoted to another group, and my decision to reorganize the team. And this person will be sitting here in Denver with me. In fact, at an adjacent cubicle.
Most people worry about having managing people who aren't in easy reach, but being now quite used to it I'm somewhat apprehensive about the opposite. Will I tend toward micromanaging Bob (not his/her name), with him sitting so close-by and initially needing help? On the other hand, will Bob's proximity mean that I collaborate more with him than with my other directs, unfairly?
There's a personal convenience factor. Yes, it's easier to reach out and touch someone (in a proper and metaphoric sense, of course) who's right there. But in that proximity, there are may be more calls I'll want to consider taking in a private conference room. Or, for that matter, calls that both Bob and I will be on that it will make sense for us to grab a conference room for rather than the convenience of doing it from my own cubicle desk.
And, for that matter, I'll need to be more cognizant of my own work habits, and the example I set for Bob. When you're a remote manager, the gal sitting in Atlanta can't see that you took a long lunch today, or maybe that you were checking on Twitter during that long, boring phone call you were on. The guy in Antwerp doesn't see your messy desk. The fellow in Chicago doesn't see your mood or body language, for good and for ill. Leadership by example is a different thing when you're live and direct.
Now, I'm not really worried about all of this. Well, much. It's all concerns over doing the right thing, which are rarely amiss to have (but not good to obsess over). It is, though, a different experience for me, and, so I expect, probably a good thing.
I won't be blogging any more about it, at any rate, since that gets into the personally off-limits area of discussing actual personnel issues (once Bob starts) and HRish sorts of things that shouldn't be bandied about in public. But I wanted to note (for my own personal blogging record) the change and some of the thoughts I had about it. I expect the reality will be much smoother than any "OMG CHANGE!" jitters I might have.
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Change is a good thing and I bet you will adapt well. Just as long as you don't treat the close proximity guy too different than the others.
I changed from a manager right by me to a remote one and noticed little change. But I guess I'm not needy.
That's actually the part I worry about the most, +Jon Weber, knowing that it will be so easy a thing to do.
Then I worry about overcompensating.
Then I worry about heading into a downhill professional and personal spiral that ends up with me sleeping in a refrigerator box in a back alley somewhere. But that's probably not too likely.
Don’t worry about it too much, or you’ll overthink it. I once worked with a small group that had about a third of its members remote. We were software engineers, and we did LOTS of work over the phone. Call someone and get a busy signal? Wander through the cubes until you find the teleconference, and insinuate yourself into the conversation, even if it’s just to say “Hey Jane, call me when you lot have sorted this out”. It worked great, though we were in California and remotes ranged all the way east to Germany.
We did it by focusing on goals, and spending time up front agreeing in-depth on who was doing what. We all responded as quickly as possible to contacts, whether they be simple “who knows where we originally got the code for X?” to “listen to this idea, and tell me if you think it’ll fly”. When you have a group dynamic like that, it really doesn’t matter if the person of interest is in the next cube/state/country over.