Remote working is a means of working beyond the confines of a traditional, centralized workplace using digital technology.
Understanding remote working
While many associate remote work with the advent of the internet or even the coronavirus pandemic, it has existed since the 1970s.
Remote working exists in many forms, including:
Education
The explosion in popularity of digital learning platforms means that many teachers can work remotely in a variety of individual or group formats.
Teachers can also work remotely when teaching students who live in areas without access to schools.
Writing
The archetypal remote worker is usually a writer who is well placed to take advantage of high-speed internet and a penchant for the low cost of living in many third-world countries.
Healthcare
The internet is enabling healthcare professionals to interact with their patients online.
Prescriptions, consultations, and post-op care are but some of the services that these professionals offer remotely.
The difference between remote working and working from home
In understanding remote working, it’s important to make the distinction between remote work and working from home.
The latter is a temporary arrangement that occurs sporadically.
For example, an office worker may work from home on the odd day where a meeting has not been scheduled or they need to work uninterrupted.
By contrast, remote working requires a different set of skills, abilities, and character traits.
It requires a degree of self-discipline, good time-management, and good communication skills.
Instead of escaping a traditional work environment by working from home, remote workers create their own work environment in any way or location they see fit.
Advantages of remote working
Flexibility
Remote workers enjoy the flexibility of working in a location or setting of their choosing.
For employees considering maternity leave or having a partner working in another city, remote working allows them to respond to life changes without sacrificing their careers.
Less distraction
Multiple studies have shown that distraction costs employees in a centralized workforce up to 6 hours per day.
Remote workers can design environments where they can work uninterrupted in a flow state.
This results in deep, focused, and productive work.
Improved health
A flexible workplace without a morning and evening commute has also been shown to reduce stress and burnout.
Remote workers are also less likely to catch seasonal illnesses such as a cold or flu.
Disadvantages of remote working
Isolation
Extroverted individuals who need a high level of human interaction may find remote work isolating – even if they possess desirable traits such as self-discipline and autonomy.
Incompatibility
Remote workers in different time zones who are part of the same team may have difficulty in communicating effectively.
To some extent, proper planning can help overcome issues associated with location.
Work/life balance
Some remote workers have trouble “switching off” at the end of a workday.
Constant access to the internet and work communications is one reason for poor work/life balance.
An improperly defined work area is another.
Wherever possible, remote work employees should avoid working in areas traditionally reserved for leisure, such as the bed or kitchen table.
Key takeaways
Remote working is means of working beyond the confines of a traditional, centralized workplace.
Remote working is commonly associated with the digital age, but it has existed since the 1970s. It is prevalent in the health, education, and freelance writing industry.
Remote working provides individuals with the right set of traits a flexible, healthy, and focused way to work. However, it can be isolating for some individuals. Inefficiencies can also impact global companies with remote employees working in different time zones.
Agile leadership is the embodiment of agile manifesto principles by a manager or management team. Agile leadership impacts two important levels of a business. The structural level defines the roles, responsibilities, and key performance indicators. The behavioral level describes the actions leaders exhibit to others based on agile principles.
Adaptive leadership is a model used by leaders to help individuals adapt to complex or rapidly changing environments. Adaptive leadership is defined by three core components (precious or expendable, experimentation and smart risks, disciplined assessment). Growth occurs when an organization discards ineffective ways of operating. Then, active leaders implement new initiatives and monitor their impact.
Developed by business consultants Kenneth Blanchard and Paul Hersey in the 1960s, delegative leadership is a leadership style where authority figures empower subordinates to exercise autonomy. For this reason, it is also called laissez-faire leadership. In some cases, this type of leadership can lead to increases in work quality and decision-making. In a few other cases, this type of leadershipneeds to be balanced out to prevent a lack of direction and cohesiveness of the team.
Distributed leadership is based on the premise that leadership responsibilities and accountability are shared by those with the relevant skills or expertise so that the shared responsibility and accountability of multiple individuals within a workplace, bulds up as a fluid and emergent property (not controlled or held by one individual). Distributed leadership is based on eight hallmarks, or principles: shared responsibility, shared power, synergy, leadership capacity, organizational learning, equitable and ethical climate, democratic and investigative culture, and macro-community engagement.
Micromanagement is about tightly controlling or observing employees’ work. Although in some cases, this management style might be understood, especially for small-scale projects, generally speaking, micromanagement has a negative connotation mainly because it shows a lack of trust and freedom in the workplace, which leads to adverse outcomes.
A RASCI matrix is used to assign and then display the various roles and responsibilities in a project, service, or process. It is sometimes called a RASCI Responsibility Matrix. The RASCI matrix is essentially a projectmanagement tool that provides important clarification for organizations involved in complex projects.
An organizational structure allows companies to shape their business model according to several criteria (like products, segments, geography and so on) that would enable information to flow through the organizational layers for better decision-making, cultural development, and goals alignment across employees, managers, and executives.
Tactical management involves choosing an appropriate course of action to achieve a strategic plan or objective. Therefore, tactical management comprises the set of daily operations that support long strategy delivery. It may involve risk management, regular meetings, conflict resolution, and problem-solving.
High-performance management involves the implementation of HR practices that are internally consistent and aligned with organizational strategy. Importantly, high-performance management is a continual process where several different but integrated activities create a performancemanagement cycle. It is not a process that should be performed once a year and then hidden in a filing cabinet.
Scientific Management Theory was created by Frederick Winslow Taylor in 1911 as a means of encouraging industrial companies to switch to mass production. With a background in mechanical engineering, he applied engineering principles to workplace productivity on the factory floor. Scientific Management Theory seeks to find the most efficient way of performing a job in the workplace.
Agile Project Management (AgilePM) seeks to bring order to chaotic corporate environments using several tools, techniques, and elements of the project lifecycle. Fundamentally, agileprojectmanagement aims to deliver maximum value according to specific business priorities in the time and budget allocated. AgilePM is particularly useful in situations where the drive to deliver is greater than the perceived risk.
Gennaro is the creator of FourWeekMBA, which reached about four million business people, comprising C-level executives, investors, analysts, product managers, and aspiring digital entrepreneurs in 2022 alone | He is also Director of Sales for a high-tech scaleup in the AI Industry | In 2012, Gennaro earned an International MBA with emphasis on Corporate Finance and Business Strategy.
