3 Techniques for Giving Feedback to Your Manager That Actually Work (Plus Sample 1:1 Agenda)
As an employee, giving feedback to your manager can be daunting. In this article, we offer three tips for how to give upward feedback that will be positive and productive, as well as a free sample 1:1 agenda to improve the quality of your feedback sessions.
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Remote Collaboration: 5 Sentences to Ruin a Remote Worker's Day
Setting aside the joys of working from home and not having to commute, workers collaborating remotely have to deal with a lot of extra pain. The added pressure it places on their shoulders comes from the difficulty of creating immediate, visible value from afar. They struggle to be more "present" to their colleagues via the communication channels available to them — sometimes unsuccessfully. It's important to realize the extra pressure remote workers feel when you converse with them, and why remote work is important in the first place. Sometimes, jokes about "laziness" or how many hours they "actually" work can hit a nerve, and careless statements regarding work may cause a lot more harm than you think. For optimal remote collaboration, here are five specific sentences to stay away from: 1. "I tried to contact you, but I couldn't wait for you to get back to me." Possibly the biggest fear of your remote colleague is missing out on urgent tasks and direction-changing meetings that impact the work already being done. Saying something like the above hits home for an insecure remote worker already trying to compensate for not seeing people face-to-face. Especially if he is in a different time zone! It's tantamount to saying, "I Skyped you and emailed you (at midnight in your time zone) but since you never got back to me (because you were sleeping), I had to go ahead without you." This might be inevitable in a fast-paced business, but don't make a habit of leaving your remote workers out — especially on tasks they might want to be involved with. 2. "Oh sorry, that decision was already made last week." While there may be decisions made quickly at the home office, make sure you keep everyone in the loop. If you've been working on a project together and the project direction changes drastically, be kind enough to inform all stakeholders and collaborators properly so they're not left high and dry wondering what happened. Include them in decisions and give them enough lead time to give their feedback on important issues. 3. "Stop asking me questions, read the project brief." Remote workers don't always have all the context and will probably ask more questions than someone who sits one desk away from you. If their questions disturb your workflow, don't shut down communication with harsh words. Gently push back by saying you will get back to them when you're free. By saying something like "Stop asking me questions!" you're effectively telling your teammate you don't want to help and that their requests for information are annoyances. If your work culture is based on bureaucracy and selfish fiefdoms of knowledge, then you have more problems to solve. But if your culture is one of sharing and company-wide collaboration, you've just created a roadblock that might prevent your team from asking for help in the future. Don't burn those bridges. 4. "Let's cancel this morning's meeting since X and Y aren't here." While it might be morning where you are, it could be 10PM in your remote colleague's time zone. Which means she had to wait up for this scheduled call, or perhaps even cancelled a night on the town. Canceling last minute presupposes that your time is more important than your remote colleague's time, hence you can do things on a whim and she has to accept it. At the very least, cancel meetings early — minimum 24 hours notice is ideal — so that remote workers can plan in advance. For pointers, here's a great article about the polite way to cancel an appointment. 5. "Aw man, you had to be there to see it!" Remote workers don't just feel like they sometimes miss crucial information and context to do their work, they also often feel like they're missing out on the camaraderie in the office. By saying this, you're effectively isolating them from the team even more. Instead, why not try capturing and sharing a video of that awesome dance move that the CEO did during Friday cocktails? Or set up some sort of video wall/always-on video conference (a la Shutterstock) so remote workers can drop in and join the fun. Remote Workers Have Feelings Too In the end, collaborating with remote colleagues is a matter of being sensitive to the needs of all concerned. People need timely information, and they need to be made to feel part of the team. And it's your job as project manager to ensure communication goes smoothly and team morale is high. Read Next:• 5 Tips for Remote Collaboration with Wrike• 4 Common Problems with Virtual Meetings that You Can Fix
What Is Open Innovation and What Are Its Benefits? Find out at E2 Innovate Conference!
What is open innovation, why do organizations (including Wrike) turn to it, and how does it help them get ahead of their competitors? Join E2 Innovate Conference in Santa Clara, CA, on November 14 to find out! Wrike's CEO, Andrew Filev, and Damon Gragg, global project manager at Thermo Fisher Scientific (we're proud to say that he's our customer, too!), will co-present a session where they'll answer these questions, share their own experience with open innovation and highlight examples from other industries. Here's a sneak peak of the presentation. To put it in simple words, open innovation means involving external partners in your research, development, design and other activities, rather than relying solely on your direct project team. You can collaborate with other companies from your industry, customers, universities, labs, individuals and more. So open innovation is a model that lets collective intelligence shine in its full glory. Andrew and Damon will cover both the concept and the practical side of making it work. Damon's organization, Thermo Fisher, embraced open innovation both internally and externally, and today it's a global leader in scientific and healthcare equipment. For Wrike, the core of open innovation is collaborating with you, our customers. Your ideas and feedback help us constantly improve the product and be a leader in the project management space. We invite you all to the session, no matter if you're a devotee of open innovation, or if you're just familiar with the basics of the model. As a bonus, we have some discounted conference passes, free expo passes, and a limited number of session passes. Email us for details at [email protected] if you decide to join the event. November 14. Santa Clara Convention Center. Hope to see you there!
Agile Collaboration in a Virtual World: Takeaways from PMI Global Congress North America
With over a third of projects being agile and more work being done by virtual teams, we aimed to look at how project managers can successfully combine the two. Having combined our expertise in managing distributed teams, we came up with a few practical, battlefield-tested tips in the area of communication practices, Web 2.0 tools and beyond, which can help bridge the gap for agile teams working across geographic boundaries. In the first part of the session, Cornelius started with a case study of his own team, spread across 6 countries on 3 continents, and shared which tools and practices help them the most to collaborate efficiently. For instance, according to the experience of Cornelius' team, the best architectures, requirements and designs emerge from self-organizing teams. There's no doubt that virtual teams have some very strong benefits, but there are certain serious bottlenecks, too, like the risk of miscommunication, limited visibility, etc. In my part of the session, I highlighted 5 pain-relievers that help me overcome the most common challenges in managing my team. Some additional tips came up during the Q&A. For example, when your team members speak different languages, don't let accents influence your perception of a professional. This is especially critical in the initial conversations, when team members don’t know each other yet and haven't yet built social and professional trust. Make sure that you give your team members "trust credit" in this initial phase, and always remember that behind that email ID is a real person, who likely works as hard as you do and is as professional as you are. It’s also crucial to remember and respect the cultural differences, and while keeping this in mind, work toward building a shared culture. Last but not least, as with everything else, it’s hard to create an ideal collaboration pattern right from the start. However, if you keep your eyes and mind open, constantly communicate and gather feedback from your team members, you can continuously iterate and improve. Eventually, you'll find your secret sauce for efficient remote teamwork. I believe that one of the main prerequisites for the success of a distributed team is to make sure that everyone is on the same page – not only in terms of the assigned tasks, but also the general vision, applied processes, cultural awareness, information sharing and trust. It’ll be extremely helpful for team members to know not just what to do, but why and what lies ahead. This will help a lot in asynchronous communications, when you’re not immediately available to answer all of their questions and course correct. You have to think and communicate proactively in distributed teams, making sure you’re your team shares the same mission and vision, and understands the goals. So meetings in virtual teams are very important. Not only are they important, they are different, and in the final part of our session Elizabeth named some important techniques for making virtual meetings productive. I’ve posted our joint slide deck on Slideshare, so that you can adapt some of these practical takeaways to your team: Agile Collaboration in a Virtual World: Harnessing Social Media, Web 2.0 and Beyond View more presentations from Wrike com To learn more details about our session and other ones, too, you can also check out recent tweets with the hash tag #pminac. Here are a couple of them: @pm4girls: "Don't just give them tasks, give them reasons to help them understand vision and goals" @wrike talking about empowering teams at #pminac @LewisCindy: From @wrike don't let accents influence emotional feelings about the person. Nice reminder #pminac By the way, Wrike has just opened an interesting survey about remote work and the way workers see its benefits and challenges. I would really appreciate if you could spend a few minutes to have your say in this survey. As soon as we get enough responses, I’ll analyze the results and share them with you.
![Understanding the New Work Rules [Part 2 of 2]](https://web-static.wrike.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=900,format=auto/blog/content/uploads/2016/10/PREVIEW-understanding-the-new-work-rules-part-2.jpg?av=9cee71f7d5a37022e3d4e112d4c1c2d7)
Understanding the New Work Rules [Part 2 of 2]
Trying to list all the various ways that work has evolved in the last two decades would be impossible so instead, here is part 2 of the 10 rules which should help anyone navigate the constantly shifting waters of work. Think of these as the new work rules — our 21st Century Work Rules.
![Navigating the New Work Rules [Part 1 of 2]](https://web-static.wrike.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=900,format=auto/blog/content/uploads/2016/10/PREVIEW-navigating-the-new-work-rules-part-1.jpg?av=d67356633537af54ad6c821390cda6c4)
Navigating the New Work Rules [Part 1 of 2]
Change is swift. And technology has truly disrupted how we work. At the risk of massive generalization, we've condensed the various ways work has changed and discovered ten succinct work rules which should aid anyone trying to navigate the modern workplace. Welcome to the 21st century!
How to Create Your Perfect Remote Work Environment (Infographic)
Remote work is not for everybody. At first, working from home may sound ideal. The thought of getting out of bed only to put on some slippers, start a pot of coffee, and skip into your home office 10 feet away doesn't sound half bad! But for some people, it means a day of constant distractions, fighting temptation, and little to no interaction with colleagues. Luckily, we have a WFH guide that will help prepare you for relentless productivity in your very own home. We cover everything from room temperature to ergonomic chairs, from what you play on your headphones to what you put in your belly. This infographic will show you how remote work can work for you! Share this infographic with your fellow remote workers, or use this embed code to post it on your own site: Infographic brought to you by Wrike Download the poster version of this guide, so you can print it out and hang it on your office wall as a handy reminder! Improve Remote Team Productivity Learn more about how public accountability can improve productivity in this article: Public Accountability: The Secret Ingredient to Productive Remote Work
Using Google Forms Templates for Instant Feedback
Sometimes you just need to get the opinions of other people really quickly. And as they say, “there’s an app for that.” Google Forms is one such tool that gives you a convenient way to create forms from scratch or from templates.
Elements Of Project Leadership
As a Project leader you are dumped in an organization you have never seen before. You get people assigned you don’t know. The organization prescribes methods and tools you don’t like. And of course, there are a gazillion of unwritten rules. Welcome to your project life. You run on partial Information, partial Influence and partial capability. But how do you actually run a project under these circumstances? Answer: Project Leadership. The elements of (my version of) Project Leadership are: Goals and Means on individual, project and organizational level Alignment of goals and means on all levels by communication Goals A project has a goal, an objective. This is part of the larger context of the goals of the organization. Individuals have goals, ambitions, interests. If peoples goals are met, they work happy; if not, they don’t. Job for the Project leader is to align the goals on all levels. Keep on tweaking and adjusting. Make sure everyone understands. Make sure they are all in balance. Means Means are the strategies to reach the goal. This is the set of rituals, artifacts and values shared among the group, the organization and individual. The culture. The culture can be used to create a strong group; it can be in conflict with the dominant structure. Job for the Project leader is to align the means on all levels for maximal effectiveness. Balancing deviance with compliance. Making sure there are rules of engagement the entire team uses. Communication You think that if you are dropped into foreign territory like this, you would get a lot of equipment. Sorry. You get your Swiss Army knife: communication. But in the end, that was all MacGyver needed. About the Author Bas de Baar discusses Project Management in a global, mobile, virtual and multi-cultural world through his popular blog and video podcast “The Project Shrink”. With over a decade spent in the trenches as Software Project Manager within the publishing, financial and public sector, running multi-national teams, he has a lot to talk about. Bas holds a masters degree in Business Informatics and lives with his wife in The Netherlands. He is author of the book “Surprise! Now You’re a Software Project Manager” and is a member of PMI’s New Media Council.
8 Things Overheard at a Silicon Valley Startup
If you're wondering what it's like to take a peek into the world of a Silicon Valley startup, then look no further! From the fully stocked break room to the GIFs that keep on giving, we've cultivated eight top-notch startup quotes that'll have you drinking cold brew artisan coffee in no time.
How Employee Motivation Differs Between Baby Boomers, Gen Xers, Millennials & Gen Zers
There are tons of employee motivation theories out there, which makes it tough to know how to get the behavior and engagement you want at your organization. Here are some ideas, examples, and ways both managers and individuals can pinpoint employee motivation.
Meeting Etiquette Tips You Should Know
As meetings grow more frequent, it's easy to forget what makes meetings effective in the first place. Time is taken for granted, and instead of collaborating, most attendees are checked out: either working on something else or holding side conversations.
Conflict Resolution Techniques for a Hybrid Workspace
Employee conflict is a natural and regular part of any collaborative environment, with 85% of employees worldwide experiencing some form of conflict during their career. However, hybrid work can make dealing with conflict more difficult than it would be in person. Lack of face-to-face interaction, the absence of additional context, and loss of conversational nuance can cause conflicts to go unsolved and fester over time – leading to poor performances, low quality of work, and employee turnover. Thankfully, issues with conflict resolution in a hybrid environment are just as solvable as in-person ones. We’ll take a look at some of the best conflict resolution techniques to prepare your teams for virtual conflict in the new digital world. Filling in the blanks Understanding motive and context is a key part of processing new information and surprises – especially unwelcome ones. When employees are uncertain about why their request was overturned or proposal was rejected, they can tend to assume the worst and take it personally. Left unresolved, this lack of context evolves into a lasting negative experience that has long-term repercussions on employee relationships and productivity. A straightforward solution to this type of conflict in the workplace is a work management platform that can automatically provide the necessary context and historical reference for the decisions being made. Adopting a solution that keeps track of which decisions are being made and why, along with clear visibility into workflow and blockers, can help with providing some necessary context for work conflicts. It can also help employees collect all the facts and communicate clearly when conflict arises. It also helps to always overcommunicate when conversing directly. This doesn't mean dipping into micromanagement but rather being honest and abundantly descriptive when dealing with conflict and potential risks. Details and intent tend to get lost in translation, and virtual communication tools are no exception. Setting an example Although in-office employees can just drop by a manager’s desk to clarify something quickly in an office setting, some employees may have trouble asking questions in virtual environments. Encourage managers to be more proactive about conflict in the workplace to help resolve issues and miscommunications before they occur. Managers can circumvent conflict prematurely by integrating face-to-face kickoffs when onboarding new teams. This encourages people to familiarize themselves more with team members and how each part of the company functions, making it easier for employees to approach one another. Managers should also maintain consistent one-on-one checkups and conversations and lead by example by presenting a measured and professional demeanor when resolving their own conflicts. Work as one – not alone Some employees may feel more isolated in hybrid work environments. Lack of personal communication, water cooler talk, and general uncertainty about how they fit in with the team can lead to problems down the road regarding productivity and collaboration. A great way to work around this problem is to recognize individuals often and reward teams for working together. Take the time to celebrate wins at work, as well as personal occasions such as birthdays and work anniversaries. Create incentives to accomplish work together and acknowledge one another for it as well. It’s the key to helping people understand that each team member is looking out for one other and prevents individuals from jumping to conclusions when conflict in the workplace inevitably occurs. Making it work for you Each of these conflict resolution techniques will help you develop a strong basis for dealing with conflict in your teams as we move forward into the digital age. Preparing your teams to face these challenges can greatly improve productivity, morale, and quality of work over time and will be essential to succeeding in a hybrid work environment. Looking to provide better context and collaboration in your teams? Start a free Wrike trial today.
Dealing With Bullies, Jerks, & Toxic Personalities in the Workplace
Ever had a conversation with a colleague where you walk away thinking, "Whoa, that person was a real jerk." Turns out you're not alone. These head honcho, give-me-your-lunch-money-type personalities are not only affecting high school hallways, they're invading our office culture.