Remote Presence ? A Practical Guide To Communicating Effectively In A Remote Environment

Don’t let anyone ever tell you that communication is easy, because it is not. Being an effective influencer in business has never been as difficult as it is today, with almost all of the reasons being fundamentally, and ironically, due to technology. Whilst we live in an age where the necessity to communicate with impact is dramatically increasing, our challenge is that the time and skills we have in which to do so effectively is also rapidly decreasing. We operate in a business world that is fast paced, global, digitally disrupted and comprised of flat, organisational structures and ‘dotted lines’ across functions, teams, companies and countries. We work remotely, across times zones and cultures, in different languages (which are not always our first), and all of this is against a backdrop of eye watering change, volatility and uncertainty. Our customers are becoming more demanding, our commercial, legal and regulatory frameworks are becoming more difficult and increasingly complicated to navigate. In 2020, we have been absorbed by a global health crisis from which it will take all countries years to fully recover, and it is against this backdrop that we are expected to be agile, upbeat, responsive, effective, optimistic, pragmatic, flexible and consistent by harnessing a wide range of influencing skills to drive results through and with others.