How to ‘Lean In’ in the Remote Workplace

From the Great Resignation to the ‘quiet quitting’ trend, it’s easy to feel like a significant portion of the workforce has felt either disengaged or unfulfilled by the hours they put in over the last couple years, perhaps due to pandemic-era burnout or a ‘grass is greener’ mindset.

 

The secret to a fulfilling career, according to the Harvard Business Review, is investing in relationships—but again, the remote workplace can make that a challenge. I felt this apprehension early in my internship as a creative technologist; given the temporary nature of the role, you need to be able to prove your value to the business. Absent of in-person meetings or a constant presence at the office, it can sometimes be difficult to know who sees your worth or to build those relationships.

 

But there’s a key advantage to the distributed workforce here, too: no closed doors stand in the way of meeting colleagues across the business, no matter the level of seniority. When everyone’s a Slack message or email away, the playing field is level. You just need to be willing to put your foot through the proverbial door—or, more appropriate to the realities of work today, send a few messages. For those eager to ‘lean in’ in the remote workplace, here’s how I did it—and how it helped shape my role on my team.

 

 

First, identify someone on the team that you are acquaintances with but don’t have the chance to work with. Send them a quick, clear note explaining that you’d like to learn more about them and their role. Be OK with rejection; out of about 300 people I’ve reached out to, only 150 or so have been willing to talk.

 

 

When sitting down for your first few conversations, expect some awkward silences. Don’t worry too much about these, because as you practise, you’ll get better at knowing what kinds of questions people are naturally more responsive to. Start by having casual conversations with those on a more junior level, then work your way up in seniority as you become a more natural interviewer.

 

 

Don’t just think about what you want to know. Instead, think about what the other person would want to be asked. If preparing to talk to a designer, for example, I can guarantee they will want to talk about their creative influences. Likewise, a copywriter may be passionate about the subject of their personal blog. Do some research into your colleague’s portfolio or their work off the clock to align your questions with their interests.

 

 

It may be tempting to focus on where someone is now in their career, but your conversation will be more fruitful by following the journey of how they got there. Don’t be afraid to ask about failures in addition to success. I like to frame this by asking about a favourite pitch, idea or project that was rejected. Giving people the opportunity to defend one of their favourite projects or explain why it ultimately didn’t work out can lead to impassioned debate or productive conversations—and can clue you in to what others have learned throughout their careers.

Once you have a rapport going, ask if there are any projects that you can help with. It’s sometimes a tough ask, but it doesn’t hurt to try. Being brought on to new projects offers opportunities to prove your value across the team.

 

 

At the end of each discussion, ask your interviewee who they recommend you speak to next. I recommend working your way up, so don’t be afraid to ask who your colleague reports to. This will help you expand your network piece by piece, while also taking out the guesswork of identifying new contacts on your own.

 

 

Originally, my team didn’t see a need to extend my internship, until a VP that I had connected with championed extending it for another month. More networking led to more projects, which earned another extension of my internship for the rest of the year. This was helped in part by our team’s unitary operational model, but this approach can help you gain visibility in any workplace by accessing parts of the business you otherwise wouldn’t have been exposed to.

 

US unemployment is at a record low, but as the job market levels out and people take a sober look toward the economy, I’m seeing peers adopt a ‘go-getter’ approach to building their own success—albeit without the burnout and stress that plagued hustle culture. At the very least, keeping up appearances with colleagues will help expand your horizons by learning from their own experiences, imparting important lessons for your own career’s long-term success.

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