Somewhere between the world I grew up in and the world that we are living in today, everything about working, leading and learning began to change.  It’s increasingly a virtual world, and everything about communicating, interacting and developing relationships feels a bit different than it used to.  While many/most of us are compliant with the changes in communications (telex to fax to e-mail to IM, web conferencing etc.), I wonder how many of us are truly working to become competent at living and working in this world. 

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been reminded of the changes in how we live, learn, earn and engage, and I’m working hard to adapt. 

  • A valued colleague sends me a note expressing frustration over the challenges of leading remotely.  I can’t believe I haven’t spent more time on this valuable topic.  Stay tuned.
  • I delivered a webinar and I realized that I have to get better at communicating without interaction.  I’ve set a schedule to begin doing some of these blog posts as podcasts as a means of increasing my comfort and competence communicating to an invisible audience.
  • I signed up to teach an on-line course expressly for the purpose of discovering what it means to “teach” on-line.
  • My kids don’t use their phones for talking.  If I want to reach them, I send a text message and get a response practically before I’m done typing.  (I saw this coming a few years ago when I asked my youngest son why he never calls friends on the phone.  He looked at me kind of funny and said, “Why would I want to talk with one person when I can be on-line with all of my friends at the same time.”)
  • I am busy working on an on-line content strategy to augment my own face-to-face seminar/workshop activities. 

The common thread in all of these items is the shift in how we work, lead and learn.  Like it or not, the world is becoming more and more virtual everyday, and those of us that are old enough to remember life before fax machines and e-mail will be well-served to quit fighting the trend and start learning how to become competent and comfortable communicating to no-one and everyone at the same time. 

It was just a few years ago that I received my first request to fund an employee’s pursuit of an on-line degree.  I am a staunch advocate of the importance of the face-to-face network developed at school, especially for MBA students, and while I approved the request, I recall challenging the value.  Since that time, I know of dozens of professionals that have had great experiences earning degrees on-line.  I still question whether there is any chance that you can develop a close network in that manner, but hey, this is the era of Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn, where it is seemingly more about contacts than close relationships.  (I’m still suspicious of that premise.)

One of the critical leadership skills of our time is developing comfort and competence at leading distributed teams.  There are still some firms that insist on their managers and leaders being housed within a line of sight, but they are showing their lack of understanding of how the world is changing.  The literature on leading remotely seems to offer superficial guidance from people adapting old models to new situations.  I suspect that as time moves on, the profession of leadership will evolve to take into account the very distinct skills and approaches needed to lead effectively while never coming into personal contact.  (As a side note, I deal with many people on the receiving side of remote leadership.  At best, the leader to employee relationships they describe are superficial.  We haven’t figured this one out yet. )

The Bottom-Line for Now:

The difference between compliance with new technologies and new styles of communicating and competence at leveraging these tools and styles for results is significant.  Deriving value from virtual leader/employee relationships or on-line learning is a very different task for all parties involved than it was in the almost bygone era of face-to-face.  It’s time to quit fighting the changes and learn how to master the new opportunities to engage.  I still struggle to see how these new methods will replicate the richness of face-to-face communication, but that’s my problem to deal with as the world keeps changing.  In the meantime, if you are looking for me, don’t call…I’m busy learning how to communicate all over again.