#WFH: Are You Listening?

Let go of all distractions and focus your attention on listening. Do not try to answer the question or rebuke the argument before you have heard it. This is a normal human tendency and one that is very prevalent in people who are primarily visual. Stop trying to answer the request, formulate a response, create a counterargument or tell a new story. Staying focused and listening will increase clarity of purpose and cement goals and objectives that are essential to success in the virtual environment.

Clarity enables you to feel secure in knowing what is expected of you. To perform at an effective level, you must trust that your leadership will do what they say they will do, when they say they will do it. In the virtual world, trust is everything. Because the normal visual and sensory cues have been removed, one must rely on intuition, that “sixth sense.” Trust reduces misunderstandings, hurt feelings and broken commitments. In an atmosphere of trust, when these do arise and are discovered, they can be dealt with openly and honestly. Harboring distrust, resentment and ill feeling can go on for a long time in the virtual world. It can take much longer to see a problem or an issue in the isolation and solitude of miles and anonymity.

Virtual environments require people to reach out from their heads and their hearts. They have to make an effort to connect, support and reassure. An ounce of prevention will set things in order before the confusion begins. In the words of Lao Tzu, founder of Tao philosophy, “Deal with it before it happens. Set things in order before there is
confusion. A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.”

#WFH, #RemoteWorkplace, #RemoteWorker, #WorkFromHome, #BobbeGB, #BobbeBaggio, #ThePajamaEffect, #Touchpoints, #Virtual Workplace, #Virtual Worker, #PJEffect, #LinkedInNewsLive