Building relationships can be harder when you telecommute, and there are always little incidents here and there that remind me of techniques that telecommuters should be more conscious of to make their working relationships more successful.

My boss is relatively new to our team, and a lot of people don’t know him very well yet. Especially those who work in other parts of the country or world, who don’t get to talk to him face-to-face. Some people aren’t comfortable with him, don’t feel like they know his personality, and haven’t seen the personal, human side to him yet.

I noticed that when we have a team meeting, once my boss dials in he immediately stops any chit-chat and gets right down to business. I imagine part of this is because he is busy and he knows the team is busy too and doesn’t want to take up any more time than necessary. But those first couple minutes of chit-chat are a valuable way for people to get to know you, know what you’re like, and to build a connection with you. Even if it’s simple talk about the weather or tossing around a few jokes.

Today my boss reviewed the results of our company’s annual employee satisfaction survey. He struggled getting people to give their thoughts or comments on the statistical results. He urged people to feel comfortable being honest with him and that he wants to hear what people think and they shouldn’t be afraid of speaking up. He even said he welcomed any personal constructive criticism. Good for him.

So after the meeting I politely gave him the feedback about having a few minutes of casual conversation at the beginning of team meetings. He appreciated it and said he’d give it a try. Hmm - it will be interesting to see if he was just being polite (and that giving my ‘constructive criticism’ was actually a career-limiting move) or if he actually gives it a shot. And of course, it will be even more interesting to see if it helps. Keep reading - I’ll keep you posted in future blogs on how it goes!

Anyway, this same lesson can be applied to telecommuters - to help maintain your relationships with those people you don’t see very often.

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