Wow, I didn’t expect this to happen!

A CEO contacted me to coach him and told me he got the recommendation from ChatGPT (see screenshot)!

To celebrate that, over the next weeks, I’ll share with you what I share with my clients about remote work.

Here’s a preview:

Structure & Productivity

1) Month, week, day planning

2) 3 critical tasks + pomodoro

3) proactive communication

Leadership

1) Role model + agreements

2) Psychological safety

3) Compassion + confrontation

Cultural Differences

1) Definition of leadership

2) Meetings & decision-making

3) Conflict & feedback

Let’s start:

Structure & Productivity

Month, week, day planning

How do you make sure you’re focused on what matters?

I’ve found it very helpful to create month, week, and day plans (additional to anything that is planned for me).

Every month, I reflect on bigger goals, even my year resolutions, and create a top 3.

Personal example:

1) Coaching: show up prepared, offer to coach, continue learning.

2) Emerging Men retreat: structure and invite

3) Prepare for European Innovation Academy

It’s important to limit the focus. In my experience 3 or fewer works wonders. 4 or more distracts.

Every week (for me on Tuesday mornings, I don’t work on Mondays), I plan my week.

For that, I check the previous week, the current week, the month goals, and create a top 3.

Personal example:

1) Create 1 client: invite people to webinar (relates to month priority 1)

2) Grade 4 students (doesn’t relate to month priority)

3) EM Retreat: invite (list of people) (relates to 2)

Other tasks are listed underneath but I allow myself not to engage in them, the priority goes first (surprise!)

Every evening (or sometimes I do it in the morning), I plan the upcoming day.

For that, I check the weekly priorities and my calendar and create a top 3

Personal example:

1) EM retreat: invite (list of people) (relates to week priority 3)

2) Write reflections (relates to 1 and 3)

3) Record video on how to get the most out of coaching (relates to 1)

Again, other tasks are listed underneath. I allow myself to call it a day, if I check of the three priorities.

All in all, my month planning, feeds my week planning, feeds my day planning:

Like with many tools, this works. But it only works if I use it.

By making it simple, I’m more likely to use it. Would this work for you? Do you have something to add? Something you do differently?

3 tasks + pomodoro

Because I like sharing my tools, let me show you the daily planner I designed!

I already lined out how I make sure I get done the things that are important… and as part of that talked about the max 3 critical tasks.

I call this planner the “Go Deeper Planner” because it’s about more than just productivity.

I note down how I feel upon waking up, I put in some exercise or meditation for the day and make sure I end my work day by migrating tasks to tomorrow!

Then I look at my wellbeing by writing down as many things as come up regarding what I’m grateful for.

I reflect on what I learnt, how I go to bed. And clear my mind with the last question.

I have this planner open on my desk so I can easily glance at it and know where I’m at with my schedule and my goals.

👉 PM me on LinkedIn or email and I’ll send you a high res version of the planner!

Whenever it makes sense, I work in pomodoros: I open BrainFocus on my Android or PomoDone on my laptop, put it on 17min work, 3min break and start my deep focus work.

I’ve had weeks where Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday I wasn’t productive at all and felt bad as a result.

On Friday I finally decide to do pomodoros and simply crush it! With pomodoros I can get more done in a couple of hours than without it in several days!

Proactive comms

How can you reduce back and forth communication?

Communicate proactively!

If you have a question and there are two possible answers, include these and their consequences in your communication!

For example:

𝘑𝘢𝘴𝘰𝘯, 𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵’𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘧𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘵 𝘸𝘦 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘤𝘶𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘥. 𝘐’𝘮 𝘰𝘬𝘢𝘺 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘰𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 1 𝘢𝘯𝘥 2.

𝘐𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘨𝘰 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘰𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 1, 𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘭𝘦𝘵 𝘈 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘥𝘶𝘭𝘦 𝘢 𝘮𝘦𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘈 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘺𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘯𝘦𝘹𝘵 𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘬.

𝘐𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘨𝘰 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘰𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 2, 𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘭𝘦𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘮 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘥𝘥 𝘉 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘦𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘯 𝘍𝘳𝘪𝘥𝘢𝘺.

By including the consequences, you create clarity and shorten the back and forth.

Send this to someone who could do this more often to improve everybody’s life!

Leadership & Cultural Differences!

What does being a great leader boil down to?

Being a role model…

… especially when it comes to interacting with others.

Why?

What sets us apart as humans and has allowed us to create the world we live in right now is our ability to communicate.

We communicate complex ideas, we inspire, we support each other through words (although not only through words).

Here are some keys to improving interactions:

👉 don’t “fake it ’til you make it”. Be real, authentic. People want that.

👉 care about others and express it. Again, don’t fake it. Be real.

👉 when necessary, confront — in a caring way — I’ll share more on this in a coming post!

👉 don’t hold expectations, create agreements.

Let’s dive into the last one.

Expectations are things we keep to us or even partially communicate.

Agreements are things that are co-created with other parties and (guess what) are agreed upon.

I co-create the working agreement with my clients.

I have my own ideas on what I’d like to get from them (in terms of engagement), speak these out, check with them if there’s something they’d like to add or change…

and then I ask them if they can fully commit to the working agreement.

If so, it’s a deal. And both of us are bought in!

(I also have a legal agreement, that’s something else. Employees have contracts but making agreements additionally is a powerful practice)

I typically discuss the topic of agreements vs expectations with my clients and send them an audio on the topic to go deeper.

If you’d like to know more about it, hit me up and I can send you the audio and discuss it with you 😊

What characteristics did your favourite leader have?

How can you make sure people speak up?

By creating psychological safety.

Sure, you can blame them for not being extroverted or brave enough.

That doesn’t really help though. Be proactive and help create an atmosphere, an environment, in which it comes natural to them to voice their ideas, concerns, and whatever else they might have to say.

Diversity drives innovation and creativity.

That includes ideas and concerns from people who find it more difficult to speak up.

How?

👉 Don’t criticise or downplay, especially in group settings.

👉 Be real (see previous post). Don’t fake your reactions but rather develop a curiosity.

👉 Ask them what’d help them (I like simple solutions).

Psychological safety means that people feel free to express themselves, even if their comment might go against the popular opinion.

Seek it and you’ll be rewarded. These opinions often point to blind spots!

Compassion and confrontation go hand in hand.

Not convinced? Read on…

According to the book Compassionate Leadership, compassion is doing what’s best for the other.

Doing what’s best is NOT the same as doing what’s most comfortable for the other.

That’s pleasing.

Being compassionate and being pleasing are different.

I can compassionately support someone often includes confronting them.

Imagine I’m going for dinner with a friend who told me before he’s focused on improving his health.

I notice, he orders a sugary dessert. I confront him with the misalignment of what he told me before and what he’s ordered.

That’s compassion!

No ego needs to be involved, I want to support him, understand him.

I don’t need to bring in my own opinion but speak up when I notice he’s incongruent.

Not speaking up and raising awareness is a disservice.

How comfortable are you with this kind of confrontation?

P.S.: It can help framing the confrontation as “I notice some misalignment between what you said and what you do. I don’t mind but want to make your aware of it…”

Great leadership is defined differently in different cultures!

If you have a diverse team, this is extremely important…

even if you have a strong company culture.

People grow up and get used to different styles of leadership.

What may be called “micromanagement” in one culture and people hate it may be called “caring leadership” in another and people want it.

It’s hard to predict individuals but what’s easy is to understand the most likely environment they grew up in, which shaped their understanding and expectations regarding leadership.

Use the link in the first content to compare cultures or send me a message and I’ll give you some more insight.

I want to know:

What is your definition of great leadership?

Do you team members prefer written or spoken communication?

Cultural and individual differences pop up in the response to this question.

I found that my emails went unnoticed in Portugal but if I’d pick up the phone, I’d get an immediate reply.

Written communication can seem too fixed, spoken communication can seem to lack concreteness.

It’s up to you to find what works.

What about decision making?

Do you team members like or even expect to be included in decision making?

Do they expect their leader to decide and simply inform them?

Again, there can be give differences in what people expect.

Create agreements and alignment to overcome this.

I often send my clients an audio clip that further explains agreements vs expectations and what a difference it can make.

Send me a message on LinkedIn or by email and I’ll reply with the audio!

What’s the best way to give feedback? To resolve conflict?

In today’s world, most companies with remote workers span several if not many countries and geographies.

How to give feedback and resolve conflict can become more complex because of cultural influences.

Again, I suggest you understand the cultural landscape of the people you manage. You can use Hofstede Insights (linked in first comment) for that.

In general, be curious, notice unexpected reactions/responses to your behaviour, and speak up.

Do not blindly follow what US-researched studies show about giving sandwich feedback;

there are many individuals for whom this doesn’t work well and other approaches may be better fit.

Create your own company culture of perceiving and responding to what’s happening.

When giving feedback, you can make it easier to be received by stating WHY you give feedback (eg because you care about that person and their goals and want to help them achieve them).

When addressing conflict, you can do the same. Ideally, you remove your ego before too (maybe that will already resolve the conflict for you, actually).

If you are from a culture hat gives very direct feedback (eg the Netherlands, Nordics, Baltics), you may consider being more indirect or to frame the feedback with

“I’m from a culture that gives very direct feedback. If you feel insulted by my feedback, that was certainly not my intention”

Found that useful? Share it with others and send me a message :)