As an old-timer in the IT world, I have found how important it is for me to have that face-to-face communication. For 10 months, many teams have been working remote, and some have been at it like me – no face-to-face meetings save one for the better part of a year. Issue number one for me: how have I been at assessing project health with a remote team? Issue two: how do I write an accurate performance assessment for those I never see in person? This is not your grandpa’s IT department!
I was that type of manager who wanted to know how the team was doing, and to know a bit of their home life and their passions and challenges in life. I wanted to interact with people often enough to have a feeling when a part of their life was not going perfectly. I was able to offer help sooner than some managers, and to make small adjustments in the workplace for a person if that action was fair to the team. Seeing a person I knew well have a bad day was obvious, and opened the door to prevent a small problem from developing into something more serious.
A few years ago, I was asked by a gang of young-uns to play in a co-ed softball league as a 55-year-old coach and designated pitcher. One of my daughters was on the team, and having coached years of girls softball, I figured I would be able to handle this ok. I would lob the ball in and watch the 9 youthful players run around and field. Many players were just starting out, so I had my hands full with instructing, line-up, scorekeeping base coaching and positioning the defense. One night I had a first-time player show up and was short on regular players. I asked the young lady if she would play right field, and she grabbed a mitt jogged out. Let’s call this the example of me not seeing an engineering teammate work in person.
Sure enough, early in the game, a line shot went out to right field. I looked from pitcher’s mound to right field and saw the new girl sprinting right to the spot where this rocket was heading. She got in position nicely, sized up the trajectory perfectly, and just as the ball arrived, screamed and ducked. Lots of base-running happened.
After we got the three outs, I walked to the far end of the bench where the girl was just sobbing. Ok, so I saw lots of tears in girls softball but thought I would not be consoling at the adult level. I did what an old coach would do (no, not the “no crying in baseball speech”). I told her that she would be ok, and to try to catch the next one. Once she started talking, between sobs, it was easy to hear that she had had a social beverage or two.
“She didn’t think she would play,” her buddy said. “She wasn’t driving, and decided to have a joyous happy hour.”
“But now I’m tipsy,” she was still inconsolable, “and bad at softball.”
“Well, tomorrow, I will be no better at softball,” I tried to have her look on the positive side. “But you will be better on both counts.”
With just a little more listening and being more observant, I could have known to keep my tipsy teammate on the bench. She was quite good at cheering loudly that night, so I failed to put her in that perfect role.
Fast forward to pandemic times. I am not recommending Bluetooth breathalyzers for all engineers, or some other sobriety test like “click the mouse on the moving spot on the screen.” My method was to encourage, and in some cases require, the use of webcams in one-on-one meetings, and “when you are presenting in a meeting, your webcam should be on.” Interesting to me is that a number of engineers pushed back on the need to have a webcam. In particular, this has been more of an issue with the younger team, and in my opinion, more frequent from engineering women. For teammates who do not want to use the webcam, here are some of the reasons for not using the webcam.
- “I bought this $2,000 laptop X, and they don’t have webcams.” Kind of surprising, but easily fixed. I required people to get a web cam.
- “I am so relaxed today, that I am not presentable and will leave the webcam off.” I had to think about this one for a while. I mean, I am an old guy with patchy hair, more wrinkles than a Shar Pei, I’m wearing sweats that are older than a third of my team, and generally looking like three steps back on the evolutionary chart. Yet, I am willing to rock the webcam. I added the requirement to be minimally presentable based on each person’s desired standards. I was going to say “just look better than me,” but that set the bar way too low.
- “My family is in the background and is disruptive.” Ok, I get it. The dining room table might be overlooking complete chaos of spouses, kids, pets etc. Not everyone has a dedicated quiet space. I still asked for the webcam in the 2 cases. One teammate presented with her 6-month-old on her lap who was helping smack the keyboard and add babbling commentary to the talk. For me, that is all part of the fun and I can only commend folks who are dealing with a noisy workplace. I encouraged teammates to share the chaos – most were ok with it.
- “You should not be able to see into my home.” This was interesting. It would be similar to the rights we have for our children in public. Don’t take unsolicited pictures of minors. Don’t take pictures through the window of a private home. 100% agree. Some older managers that I recall would have responded with “the company has no obligation to employ people who ignore certain company rules.” I am a bit more delicate and ask that the person employ some privacy technique, like a “blur all background” feature that is common, or a simple cloth backing on the person’s chair that hides the peripheral view of the camera. Some teammates went ahead and did this.
As a manager, what have I regained through more frequent touchpoints with the web cam? I can see those expressions when a person is talking that help me comprehend the unwritten message. It has taken me years to develop greater understanding of people by matching words to expressions. In just listening to a voice, the person may sound tired. When I see the webcam, I can gain an appreciation that a teammate is concerned or disagreed with a decision. Since we all deal with complex tech subjects, watching reactions on the webcams can tell me if the team is understanding what is being said. Should I slow down the training, and ask the instructor to go back? With audio-only, I have no idea if the message is sinking in. When discussing change, can I see the faces of the team and get an understanding of how much resistance there will be?
The more frequent use of webcams has given me much more insight into the team and people. I feel that I can confidently reach out to people, find ways to make a situation better, and keep that vital personal touch as a leader.
What am I still missing? One of my favorite sneaky skills as a manager would be to walk to where a software development team was working, pick out a spot in the area, and answer emails while the team worked. Eventually, the normal team behavior would be observable if I was quiet and looked busy. How do people interact? Are there some overly dominant communicators? Are there some snarky comments? Does the workload seem to funnel to one place? Is there an overburdened person? What are the stress-causers (other than me) in the team?
Although I miss these observations to help improve the team, coach engineers and find out about subtle roadblocks, the more frequent use of webcams has been key to maintaining that personal connection with engineers.