Kevin Eikenberry - The Long-Distance Teammate

The trend toward remote work is undeniable and is happening in more and more types of jobs. Whether you are new to remote work, or are an old hand, odds are youve picked up this book for one of these reasons:

You plan to start or are thinking about working remotely and want to succeed.

You work remotely and want to be as successful as you can be (and perhaps know you have room for improvement).

Your organization is moving your role to work from home or away from the office.

You are a contract or gig worker but want to be more valuableand get more contracts and gigs.

You lead (or will be leading) remote team members and as a part of the team want to help them succeed (you are a part of that teamand probably another remote team too).

Whichever of these groups you find yourself in, youre in the right place. In writing this book, we have been thinking about each of you and plan to give you practical, principle-based solutions to the challenges you face, or will face, as a part of a long-distance, virtual, or remote team.

This book was conceived and mostly written before anyone had heard of coronavirus or could fathom what would happen to the workplace and the way we work in the blink of an eye. The trend toward more remote work had been building for years, but in a moment, nearly anyone who might be able to work from home was doing it. The experiences the world has faced prove many of our points and make them more real and important.

A key idea for this book is now real for most of usthere is a big difference between working from home and feeling like and being an effective member of a remote team. This isnt a book about working from home. It is a book about being a great teammate while working at a distance from those you must collaborate with.

Even after the initial COVID-19 response, youre likely facing new ways of working. Even if you return to the office, it may be only part time, or the person at the next desk who has been there for ages may not be there some or most of the time. Being a teammate will look very different than it did not too long ago and will continue to evolve. If everyone on the team isnt face-to-face every day, this book is for all of you.

We come to the table with real-life experience. Wayne has worked as part of a remote team, and often from home, for most of his business career. Originally, he was in an office far from his teammates. Now he works for The Kevin Eikenberry Group primarily from a home office, thousands of miles, and a couple of time zones, from his geographically nearest teammate. Kevin has been helping leaders grow and change and adapt to the needs of their organizations and teams for nearly thirty yearsmost of those as the leader of The Kevin Eikenberry Group. He too is a member of a remote team and leads this team every day. Together we formed the Remote Leadership Institute and wrote the book you might consider the precursor to this oneThe Long-Distance Leader: Rules for Remarkable Remote Leadership.

We live what we write about. We approach this book as thought leaders, because we have thought deeply about the challenges and opportunities in this book. Also consider us results leaderspointing you to practical ways to be more successful and get better results every day. While we and our team are far from perfect, weve learned what works and we are doing everything we can to achieve what we believe you can achieve too.

The ideas that follow will do more than relieve the stress and frustrations that come from remote working arrangements and help you and your team succeed at levels you havent perhaps considered or thought possible.

Working remotely isnt just a new normalsomething we must learn to live withit is an opportunity to work in ways that provide great operational and productivity results for the organization, as well as provide individual teammates with the opportunity to be a part of great results while finding great meaning for themselves too.

Being a Long-Distance Teammate covers a variety of situations. It could mean being part of a team that will never meet face-to-face, or of a team that sees each other a few times a year. It includes what we call the hybrid team, where some work in the same location, and others work elsewhere. The mindsets, skillsets, and habitsets you need to succeed as a part of a team in any of these situations are more similar than different, and this book is for you in any of these circumstances.

It also doesnt matter where you work in the world or if you are part time, a gig worker, or on a long-term contract. The ideas we share here will help you regardless of your work classification and location. What we will address and help you with applies across times zones, cultures, and working situations.

This book will give you a new perspective on what remote work can be, set a higher benchmark, and help you create a work life that supports the rest of your life too.

Some people distinguish between a manager and a leader, based on style or approach. We believe regardless of your organization level, if you have others who report to you, you have both leadership responsibilities and management responsibilities. Regardless of how you feel about these two words as descriptors of a role, they are often considered synonyms.