When you work remotely, communication can take a significant hit. In fact, 20% of remote workers report communication as an obstacle in their daily work.
Why?
Because, with email being the primary method of communication among remote colleagues, facetime is at an all-time low.
After all, there are no in-person meetings, no watercooler talk, no chats with colleagues during coffee breaks or lunch.
And on top of that, even the most common methods of remote communication—such as instant messaging, phone calls, and video conferencing—still lack many of the key nuances of in-person engagement.
So, in a professional world that’s become increasingly distributed, how can you ensure that you’re the best possible remote communicator?
By embodying these 11 communication traits of successful remote workers.
1. Keep Up Your In-Person Courtesy Communication
Working remotely often means losing the small interactions that brighten up your day. This could be anything from somebody saying “good morning” to simply checking in to see how your day’s going, how your weekend was, or how your family’s doing.
Seasoned remote workers make a point of keeping up this same type of communication with their virtual colleagues.
2. Don’t Shy Away from Chit-Chat
One of the great things about working in an office setting is simply stopping for a quick chat with someone during your coffee break, at lunch, or even in passing in the hallway.
So, while your intuition may tell you that spending time chit-chatting on platforms like Slack would be a time-waster, it can actually serve as an important way to maintain strong relationships with virtual peers.
This can be everything from sharing pictures of your dog or your kids to talking about trips you want to take or personal news.
Don’t let it consume your day, but absolutely don’t avoid some light-hearted chit-chat when working remotely.
And if you really miss in-person communication, you might want to consider joining a coworking space. At The Post, our members are immersed in a strong and COVID-safe professional community. This creates opportunities for networking or even just shooting the breeze.
3. Avoid Canceling Meetings (with Prejudice)
When you work with a virtual team, it can be all too easy to cancel or reschedule meetings. Maybe you’re tired. Maybe something came up.
Whatever it may be, do your absolute best not to cancel or postpone meetings. Keep those opportunities for communication.
It’ll go a long way.
4. If You’re Not Getting Anywhere, Pick Up the Phone (or Video Call)
All too often when working remotely, it can be easy for misunderstandings to arise. And the lack of in-person communication can make them infinitely more difficult to fix—if you let it.
For instance, the tone of an email can be easily misinterpreted. And trying to resolve challenges in a back-and-forth message exchange can be frustrating.
In those situations, nothing replaces a good old fashioned in-person conversation.
If you find yourself in a situation where you don’t see eye to eye with a colleague or if you’re having trouble rectifying a nagging issue, do yourself a favor: just pick up the phone or schedule a video conference.
You’ll be able to solve it a lot more quickly with a face-to-face chat than with back and forth banter via email or messaging.
5. Overcommunicate (in the Right Ways)
When you work in an office, it’s easy to pop by somebody’s desk to, say, ask them a question or check in on the status of a deliverable.
Working remotely makes that more difficult. So, it’s important to be overly proactive in communicating with your colleagues—not in a way that’s annoying, but simply in a way that ensures they don’t have to chase you down.
6. Incorporate More Visual Communication Tools
Virtual meetings and presentations can be tough. It can be hard to stay focused when you don’t have that in-person energy to keep you going.
So, try using more visual communication tools, such as slides, graphs, and imagery to make meetings and presentations more engaging.
With video conferencing platforms, you can simply share your screen so that you can walk your colleagues through your visual aids while you discuss them.
7. Always Bring 100% Energy to Meetings
As we just mentioned, virtual meetings often lack that in-person excitement and energy. But great remote communicators are able to bring 100% energy levels to their virtual meetings as a way to keep all participants engaged and smiling.
When you join a virtual meeting or a call, do your best to bring big energy that everyone else can feed off of.
8. Outline Communication Guidelines
The best remote communicators understand what types of communication methods to use when and for which purposes.
For instance, you might want to determine how you want to communicate based on the levels of importance of the topic of discussion.
For instance, this could be using Slack for general chit-chat but keeping critical decisions and official matters to email communication.
Creating communications guidelines could also involve requesting that colleagues only send direct messages during official office hours.
Just make sure to set the expectations early.
9. Keep Your Writing Clear and Concise
If you’ve ever thought about investing the time into polishing up your written communication, this is your opportunity.
Remote work means a significantly increased volume of written communication. And there’s nothing more painful than having to read unnecessarily massive emails and messages.
It’s a time-suck and it’s frustrating.
Focus on making your written communications short, clear, and concise. Avoid redundant words and phrases.
Your rule of thumb: don’t use 20 words when ten words will do.
10. Be Cognizant of Virtual Body Language
According to Psychology Today, 55% of communication is body language, 38% is the tone of voice, and 7% is the actual words spoken.
And as we said, virtual communication often lacks the critical physical cues you get from in-person communication.
So, great remote communicators learn to adapt to an environment where non-verbal communication isn’t as prominent.
This involves things like:
- Sitting up straight
- Looking straight into the camera on video calls
- Doing your best to keep a positive facial expression
- Not being shy about speaking with your hands
Try to compensate for the lack of in-personal physical cues by being extra cognizant of your body language.
11. Use the Right Type of Emphasis in Written Communication
When you’re utilizing an increased volume of written communication and dealing with a reduced amount of in-person communication, it’s extra important to find ways to use emphasis in your writing.
This could include using…
Bold for strong emphasis.
CAPS to denote shouting or aggressiveness.
Italics to highlight important points.
As the professional world becomes increasingly distributed, your ability to communicate effectively with remote colleagues is going to become a growingly important skill.
If you’re looking for great virtual communications tools, check out this article we wrote.
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