Through the Looking Glass

How can leaders strengthen their communication with their team when everybody is dispersed, distributed workforce, you rarely see each other in the office anymore?

It’s tough. It’s super tough. I’ve never met my team in person. I re-joined Facebook a little over a year.

Oh really? You’ve really never met in person?

Never met them in person, which is pretty crazy.

Yeah.

Many of the boards that I’m on, I’ve never met them in person, because they’re very virtual, like everyone’s distributed. But I consistently get told that, like what you said, I have a very compelling way of talking. And again, it’s, I don’t see a camera in front of me. In my mind’s eye, I don’t see a camera in front of me, I just see you. And this is exactly how I would talk to you if we were sitting down for a cup of coffee. I would be as expressive as I am. I would try to connect with you on a personal, and deep connection. I would have empathy with knowing what you know, and etc.

And that’s how I’m able to create that connection point to my teams and the boards that I’m on is just understanding, yes, I have a ring light in front of my face, and then a camera that says Logitech on it, but really, who I’m actually looking at is you. And maybe it’s me pretending or imagining that it’s you in this Logitech camera, but it allows me to be more human. And I think that’s one of the things that we lack right now is that human connection, and so I would say that’s how I’m able to cultivate at least a connection point to convey the messages and the information that I want.