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The Cranky Middle Manager Show #185 Building Trust Remotely with John Blackwell

Posted on 26. Mar, 2009 by Wayne in General, Podcast

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Today Wayne Turmel talk about building trust in remote teams with John Blackwell. Plus we learn it takes a lot of trust to swap camels for horses and there’s still time to take part in our webinar workshop.

John Blackwell, international man of mystery

Don’t forget our webinar workshop: “How to Create and Manage Remote Teams” For more information click the links below:

For March 30th, 2009 Europe and North America click here

For March 31st, India, Asia and Australia click here

Show Notes

0:00 Welcome to show 185. Today we’re talking about building trust and connections with your remote team. Our poster child is Hapargus, takes a lot of trust to trade horses for camels, especially when your peers think you’re the enemy.

3:22 Another (and final) shameless plug for our webinar on How to Create and Manage Remote Teams. Check us out, the links are above.

4:00 The quote of the week is from Cardinal De Retz. If you can’t trust yourself, how are you going to trust your team- and trust me they’re probably better at this than you are so let it go.

4:50 Welcome back John Blackwell. Okay, I apologize for the quality of the call, blame Skype and get off my back. (hear John’s other CMM interviews by clicking here and the second show here. The economy has only sped up our working remotely and virtually.Some good research here. We will be spending less than 5% of our time on the same project in the same place as the rest of our colleagues.

10:20 John and i disagree on the definition of remote and virtual team but that doesn’t make me right. In a perfect world, it’s all about incenting, inspiring and creating connections with people you don’t see very often if at all. It’s all about what he calls “trust-based workplaces”.

Trust is composed of 3 components:

The capacity to trust
The perception of competence (yours and theirs)
The perception of intentions

14:30 We say we trust our team, but do we manage them like we really do trust them? If you need to check in on them, you might be fundamentally insecure…… okay, so I’m fundamentally insecure. I confess. But don’t we sometimes have to check in without checking up on them?

19:20 How are companies helping build trust between team members who might not know each other as well as you know them. You’ve got to tap into social networking and other ways of sharing information. Those darned Gen Y kids do it better than most older folks.

23:20 How can we ensure that our intentions are clear and people are onboard with them? Do big companies get it or are they still preaching out of date concepts like “management by walking around” when it’s a long walk to Bangalore? Here are some of the mistakes companies make.

28:00 The obligatory Google management story but could YOU pass this test? Would you include your family on your 360 review? God forbid…..

Check out John’s research library. Lots of good stuff here.

Don’t forget our latest Cranky Book: 125 Quotes for Whacking Weasels, Centuries of Wisdom, Motivation and Snappy Comebacks From the Cranky Middle Manager Show

not to mention our latest book available on Amazon:

Cranky Middle Manager Meets Radio Show

Posted on 26. Mar, 2009 by Wayne in General

I spoke to Francine Silverman, the charming hostess of The Radio Host Show on Blogtalk Radio. We spoke about the purpose of the Cranky Middle Manager and why we do what we do. Listen to it here and enjoy.

One Week til “How to Create and Manage Remote Teams”

Posted on 23. Mar, 2009 by Wayne in General

We have a week remaining to register for the first Cranky Middle Manager webinar training program: How to Create and Manage Remote Teams. We are offering it twice so you can attend no matter where you are in the world. Remember you will receive a PDF packet of assessment and action planning worksheets AND a half-hour free coaching from The Cranky Middle Manager. (Don’t you love when people talk about themselves in the third person?)

This is a huge step for both this show and www.greatwebmeetings.com. Please tell your friends, your colleagues and the nice lady in HR who approves your training. Here’s what we’ll learn:

How to Create and Manage Remote Teams

Managers today have direct reports or team members who are located somewhere else- another location or another country. The basics of good team management haven’t changed, but how does a manager or organization maintain peak performance and keep employees engaged when separated by miles, timezones and culture?

Join Wayne Turmel, The Cranky Middle Manager, for this 90 minute interactive workshop which includes assessment tools, worksheets and an action plan.

Course Objectives:

At the end of this program, participants will apply tools and techniques learned in the class to assess their team’s connections in three areas: Team Relationships, Information Flow and Task Performance to reduce rework and barriers to effectiuve performance and team cohesion. You’ll also develop an action plan to use free and low-cost tools into your management arsenal starting tomorrow.

Topics include:

What makes a great team?
Why working virtually makes engagement and teamwork harder
Assessing team relationships and and what to do about it immediately (low-cost tools, action steps)
Assessing Infomration Flow and what to do about it
Assessing team task Performance and what to do about it today
Next Steps

If you are a manager with remote team members, about to become a manager or responsible for leadership development in your organization, don’t miss this program.

Click here to register for the March 30, 2009 11 AM Eastern Time (US/Europe) webinar

Click here for March March 31st, 9:00 AM Bangalore, 2:30 PM Sydney)

All participants will receive a PDF Packet of prework and course worksheets as well as a FREE half-hour coaching conversation, no matter where in the world they are!