Episode: #6: How to be a Great Leader while Working Remotely

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Welcome to the IBM Keep It Simple Technology Podcast, where each episode we discuss technology, but in a simple way. We keep the explanations simple, but what we spend our time on is emphasizing what this technology means to you and how you can best utilize this technology for you and your business. Your host, as always, Thomas Anglero.

Welcome to the IBM Keep It Simple Technology Podcast. We have another episode today. Today is Friday, March 27th, 2020. We are at the end of the second week of this COVID-19 working from home situation. And on this episode, we are going to talk about what are the best practices on working remotely as a leader. And because we're talking about leadership, once again, I brought back one of my favorite leaders, brought back Anna-Sofia Rysåsen, executive at IBM in the Nordics. Anna-Sofia, are you with us?

Yes, I'm here.

Good morning, Anna-Sophia. You okay?

Morning. Yes, I'm okay. Great to be here.

When we were talking offline, you have so many, uh, video conferences all day long, every day from 8 to 8. Just, it's incredible. And then I thought you would be the absolute perfect person to provide insight. I mean, as a leader, you have video conferences with your people, and you have many different perspectives. And I thought it would share with the people, the listeners out there, what is it, how to best have a remote video conference as a leader? And then what should you tell your people? What you should expect them? What are some of the good things to do, the dos, the don'ts, all those sorts of things? Um, so just where would you like to start? I mean, you've had so many conferences. What's your biggest In English, in American English, American culture is pet peeve. What is the one thing that pisses you off the most in a video conference?

No, I think it's good to start with the basics. When you're on the video conference, you have to have the video on. I think it's very important. I see that in all the meetings I have during the day now because I'm sitting by myself. In my small room here, and when I see people in these different meetings having the video on, makes the meeting so much better. And I, even if we have talked about it a lot and I think people know about it, I see you still 50% not using it. Sometimes, of course, it's the bandwidth issue, but most of the time it's working. So that's very important, I think.

And do you think it really does help and make a difference having the people on the video conferencing having the video on?

Yeah, I think so. I mean, some fun things that I've done in some of the meetings is we're getting to know each other a bit more personal because I've used a couple of minutes in the start of the meeting to show a little bit of my home, just turning around the camera. Here's the view. This is where I'm sitting. This is my terrace. And also some of my colleagues that— and I'm quite new in the role I'm working at right now, so I've got to know people a little bit by them showing their houses. And that's a good thing because normally when you're at work, you don't do that. And you don't— some— maybe there's one or two person at home in the video conference normally, the rest are sitting in the office, then you don't spend time on that. But now everyone is sitting at home That has been— we get to know each other a bit more.

I think what people are concerned about too, though, is that, um, how should I— if I turn on my video camera, um, how should I dress? How should I look? Because I'm working from home, I'm used to, you know, uh, maybe walking around with my pajamas or whatever. So I think some people also— should I comb my hair? And, um, and then what about, uh, some people thinking about the background? Do I need to have a white wall behind me? Do I have to clean up the room that I'm in? Or maybe I don't have a room. Maybe I only can do it from my kitchen. Is that embarrassing? Are any of those things really important to you as a leader when you have, you're talking to your team members?

I think the background where you're sitting in the room doesn't matter because the first time you open it up, you see there's a kitchen or you see there is a white wall. Oh yeah, that's the house. And then, but then you forget about that and you see the person and you talk to the person. Person. But I think the light is important. You should think a little bit about where the light hits you, because if it comes from the background, you are really dark and it's difficult to get your expression and discuss as good. So where the light comes in and into the room, that's important. And I have also moved my desk around where I'm sitting now, because there's so many videos, to get the better light. So that's important. And then of course, you also asked if they should comb their hair, was it?

And pajamas, don't forget the pajamas.

Yeah, I would definitely fix my hair before I go on the video, but you don't have to. I mean, you don't have to. I mean, it's also showing yourself, and it's okay. You get to know the people better, so I think that's okay. But I think for me, I wake up, I put on my work clothes, a little bit more casual because I'm working from home, but still I put on something which makes me feel like I'm going to work because I think also that does something with, yeah, with me and the setting of going into the office. It feels like I'm going to work. My whole body feels it when I put on my work clothes. So Maybe it makes me more concentrated and more ready to start the day.

You know, I have to share some stories, right? And so I can— so let's start off with the clothing thing and then we'll go to the hair. We'll work in reverse order. So I couldn't agree with you more. If I know I'm having a video conferencing with my colleagues, and especially if I'm having a video conferencing with my boss, I cannot do it in a pair of shorts while wearing a pair of shorts. It doesn't work for me. And I can definitely not do it in my damn pajamas. So I think you should, when you get out of bed, even if you're working at home remotely, treat it as a workday. Set yourself up so you feel professional. You're good to go. Don't have a beer off video and in between video conferences sipping beer. It just, you know, keep yourself sharp and going. And then when it comes to hair, this is, this is my son who's working remotely like all our kids are. Um, he was having a video conference in the kitchen and I walked by to get some food or something and I saw the teacher and I hit him in the shoulder. I'm like, who the hell is that? He goes, that's the teacher. The teacher looked like he had just crawled out from a 3-day binge at a bar. And I was like, you cannot, as a leader, look so disheveled, so horrible, and then have— well, let's put it this way, let's focus directly on teachers. You have young people, and they, of course, looks are very important. You have this teacher who looks a mess. So my point is that look the part that you want people to see you as.

Right?

And turn on the video camera because everybody wants to see you. People want to sort of feel you. And treat it like the job. And like you said, this is an opportunity to get closer. If you have a kitchen, tell people about your kitchen. You know, be yourself. This is a good time to bond. Ana Sofia, what are some of the absolute don'ts? That you see people do or don't do during a video conference?

We're working, so as long as people come up, put on the video, and be part of it. What I think is the don'ts is maybe if you— and it's easier if you don't put on your video, is that you can sit and you can do other work. It's very easy to pull up something else on your screen and start reading something, and then I think it's easy to lose out the meeting that you're in. So then I think then rather having shorter meetings maybe than you usually have, and being very structured and to the point in the meeting, and make sure that everyone's there in the meeting, and then yeah, maybe having them a bit shorter than you usually have.

That's really good advice. Um, do you feel that people are interactive? Do you wish people could be more interactive? Do you have any tricks to make people more interactive during a video conference? I mean, we were— you're not able to look at the room and people raise their hand. Is there any tricks you have for that type of thing? Do you have times when people are talking over each other all at the same time, and how do you handle that?

Yeah, that's a very good thing. I actually have been digging a bit into the functionality of the collaboration tools we're using to what do we actually have, because it's a bit more difficult to see who should be the next person to talk if we're like 6 people and there's small pictures on the screens. So we have to, you just have, we just have to be structured. And I think the person who's leading the meeting has to walk around the room sometimes in the meeting and just say the names so that we get the input from people. That could be one way of doing it to make sure that everyone's on, because it's more— it's difficult to see that people raise their hand. And that's the way I'm doing it.

Um, have you had any situations where people were arguing, anything like that? Or is it— do you see that people's behavior during these video conferences are much more calm and docile, or are people more excited?

No, I think people are as they used to be, maybe a bit more calm because as one person talks at a time, a bit more structure. But I think people are doing a good job in these video meetings, so it's working. I think what we're— what I'm looking into is, of course, is there other platforms I should use, digital tools I should use? And now I'm actually going to do a big planning session in a couple of weeks with my team, and we usually would do it in a big room together we would use Post-its, we would discuss, and now we're going to do it on the video conference. And I've had to see what tools do we use, how can we do it efficiently, what do we change from a normal situation where we're doing these workshops. So that's the difference, I think.

So you bring up an interesting question, and that is in a video conference— we're talking about video conferencing with video showing faces, but Is there a significant difference between— because some leaders like having video conferences in which they just are sharing their desktop, then they're sharing their PowerPoint. So the entire video conference is just a PowerPoint and flipping through a PowerPoint for a half hour, 1 hour, and so God forbid 2 hours, right? Um, what is your experience and recommendations for leaders out there? Should they have a video? Well, A PowerPoint conference, I guess we would call it, versus a video conference. What— where is the line should be drawn?

I think, I think it's— you should have a mix. You could use the PowerPoint for something if you're presenting something, and then the video— if you mean just having the video screen and talking to people, that versus just the PowerPoint and talking to people. Yeah, no, I think it's— I think you should mix it. That's something.

Okay.

Hmm.

Anna-Sophia, are there any last words that you would like to share with people regarding this working remotely? And oh, there's one thing I'm sorry I forgot to ask you. What is the official time limit on having a video conference? For example, when you're in the office, you say we have a 1-hour meeting, people have a 1-hour meeting, regardless if there's, you know, this, I want to have a 1-hour meeting. Does that rule apply in the world of working remotely?

I think we have started now the first 2 weeks doing that. That's what I see, you keep on doing 1 hour or half an hour. But I think it's extremely important that we have some breaks. I can feel it also myself in my back. I just discussed with some of my colleagues this morning, we all need to go out and buy better chairs for our home office. And I was into the— I'm going to this gym, SUPS, and I see them now are launching 2 or 5 or 7-minute workouts that you can do in the home office. So I think if we could stop our giving ourselves just 15 or 10 minutes in the end of each meeting, now we can raise up, we can do this gym, or just have a short walk out to get just outside the house or outside the apartment, or just around inside of the apartment or in the house.

What you're saying is that every video conference call should end with a 7-minute team workout together online.

Yeah, that's a very good one. Or maybe turn off the video and just do it by yourself if that feels more comfortable.

As a new form of team building, boy, everybody will be in shape when you get—

And the interesting thing will of course be when we don't come back to the office. I don't know when, but when we do, then we have changed our habits. So maybe we will keep doing that then in the end of the meetings, have a small workout.

Very fun. You know, we're going to interview you about a month from now, and I want to hear what percentage of your meetings end with everybody in a pair of spandex. That's just That's, that's what I want to know. Ana Sofia, any last departing words, thoughts, do's and don'ts, uh, yeses and nos in this world of working remotely? Um, we didn't touch on augmented reality or video, uh, virtual reality, but that's, that's for another show. But any last departing words other than, uh, spend 7 minutes in Spanish at the end of every video conference?

I think to take care of yourself and being able to work out a little bit is important now because we're sitting so much. Usually you go, you raise up, you walk to another place, and you walk around quite a lot during the day that you forget now. So I think that's important.

But then, have you tried then— just spontaneously thought— have you tried having a video conference where everybody has to stand up?

I haven't tried it, but maybe I should.

I think you should do that. And then when I get back to you in one month from now, we want an absolute update report. I think you have started a global trend, the spandex get up and talk video conference. You could patent that idea. That's all yours.

Okay.

Anna-Sofia Risåssen, executive at IBM Nordic, thank you very much. This is Thomas Anglero. I thank you very much. Stay tuned to the podcast, subscribe, share, and all of us from the IBM Keep It Simple Technology Podcast, thank you, and until the next time.