Show up in a powerful fashion: even when remote
I recently listened to a Lenny’s Podcast, where he interviewed Jeffrey Pfeffer, author of 7 Rules of Power. I’ve been with Oracle for 2 years now, 3 if you include my start at Cerner. My team is international and highly remote. One of the rules Pfeffer describes is to show up in a powerful fashion. On the podcast, Pfeffer gave a couple of people as examples: one was a tall woman, who also wore heels. The other was a short man, who commanded a room as if he were much taller. While both of these examples are height related, they also emphasize leveraging your strengths is a persuasive way. They also connect with another rule, which is to create a powerful brand. It seems to me that in-person will always be more powerful than remote, but even so, there are things I do to show up in a powerful fashion in a remote workplace.
Show up in Zoom (or Teams)
Whether it’s Zoom or Teams, set a strong profile picture with correct proportions and make sure your name, title, and details are included. Inclusion is a key value for me, so I also set my pronouns (he/him). I turn on the camera for key meetings, like when I’m I’m doing a demo of something that I created. My personal style is colorful and fun.
When I have meetings, I generally send an email beforehand, giving the context for the meeting. During the meeting, I note key discussion points, action items, and send out following the meeting. Sending notes is a powerful way of creating accountability for myself and others, and inviting others who saw things differently to comment as well.
Rarely, we will have in-person opportunities. These are a great way to connect in person. More often, we will have local opportunities to volunteer: helping students with an educational event or packing food boxes for the holidays. One volunteer opportunity was identifying animals online. Because we are mostly remote, these in-person events can be even more powerful ways of connecting.
Leverage internal social media
Working for a large tech company, there are many forms of social media. These include company directories, Slack, Teams, Zoom, email. As with video tools, a strong photo and profile are the start of a powerful virtual presence.
My directory profile has a brief section of how best to work with me, as well as my professional background. It has links to my external social media, including LinkedIn and this blog. There’s also a place for badges, including certifications, participation in volunteer and DEI communities, and awards for sharing social media. Generally, any time I can add a badge, I’ll do it. The company directory is also a great place to learn about people who reach out to me or that I have meetings with.
One of my leaders ran a networking challenge on Slack, and I participated intensely, connecting with over 40 of my colleagues. Since this was not long after joining the team with Oracle, I treated it like a series of informational interviews, getting to know key people in my leadership and people that I would potentially be working with. Just as I do with job interviews, I was candid about my strengths and interests. This gave me an early introduction to the project I’m currently working on.
Slack can be disruptive, especially when people DM with questions. If the question relates to legacy support, I redirect to our support queue. I also created a support channel for people to get support from other users. As lead support tech, other techs will also ask me questions. I redirect these to a common “support the supporters” channel I created so that we can share solutions and keep track of what we did before. I also bookmark some resources that are useful in that channel. Slack can also be a good way of sharing information that doesn’t need to be shared in a meeting. Again, the best place is channels where that information can be acted on later.
Project tools, like Jira, are great places to show up. I include details related to my tasks and stories in Jira in case I need to work on an issue again or in case someone has questions later. When I’m creating a Jira for someone else that I need work from, I include everything they need to know to get it done. This is especially critical as I work with a new product and the people I need support from are not familiar with it. It’s important to include requested timeframe so that people can schedule their work and be accountable for getting it done on time. It’s also important to assign a Jira instead of just pinging someone on Slack to ask them to do it. We all need credit for our work.
Confluence and other wikis are also important. I’m a strong writer, so I have long seen documentation as a way of multiplying my impact by empowering others. By documenting something that I took time to understand, it saves me time from training them in person. The power of documentation is not in how impressive it reads, but in how much it empowers the reader. It also saves me time if I have to revisit it. I have also shortened my development time by checking the internal Confluence for articles others have written.
Conclusion
Showing up powerfully is not always about wearing an Italian suit and driving a sports car. Instead it’s about using workplace tools to get things done, increasing your impact by sharing knowledge, and working together more smoothly.