Once, not so long ago, most of us woke up each morning, got dressed, and commuted to work. But times have changed. Today many people are simply rolling out of bed and opening up a laptop (with or without getting dressed). Instead of visiting clients, sitting in conference rooms, and catching colleagues for a quick hallway chat, we’re spending our workdays emailing, Zooming, and talking on the phone.
The trend line of working remotely has been rising steadily for decades. As technology has improved, more and more people have begun working from home, on the road, or in organizations with dispersed locations. During the Covid-19 crisis, those numbers skyrocketed and remote work reached a tipping point. Managing work and professional relationships remotely has gone from being a special occasion for most, and routine for only some, to the new normal.
In the process, we’ve gained some things but lost a lot at the same time. Most people love the flexibility, convenience, and relative comfort of working from home. And while getting rid of our commutes can bring us hours of freed-up time per day, it can be harder to stay motivated and on task when your house is your office.
Also, something valuable disappears when you and your colleagues aren’t in the same place at the same time. Working remotely, you miss a lot of unintentional “soft data” exchange—the side glance, the smiling eyes, the feel of excitement or fear in the conference room—things that get noticed only in person. You also miss spontaneous interaction—asking a question or sharing an insight right in the moment—and what I call serendipitous value creation: the creativity and extra effort that often materializes from all that noticing and from the bouncing around of questions, observations, and ideas.
Proximity does matter—not just to how well organizations function but also to how well you’re able to do your job. Which has a lot of people wondering: How do you shine at work when there’s no actual workplace to do that in? Proving yourself was hard enough when you worked alongside your boss and colleagues. How do you do that now, when you work through virtual meeting rooms, Slack chats, and email?
Positive attitude, hard work, and being great at your job are just table stakes. You don’t want to simply meet deadlines and hit targets. You want to be that person every one trusts to get the right things done, on time, and in the best way possible. You want to be indispensable.
Even before we hit the remote-work tipping point, doing our jobs had become much harder. In our highly collaborative, matrixed organizations, you likely work with more people than ever, from all over the organization chart—up, down, sideways, and diagonal. You report not just to your direct boss or teammates but also to a seemingly unlimited number of “internal customers.” You may field requests from colleagues you don’t even know. Other times, you’re the one who needs to rely on someone else. You are managing a lot of moving parts.
Doing your job from home, you must finesse all this collaboration and communication without the benefit of physical proximity—and reinvent the processes along the way. For all the freedom you may gain from working remotely, you have to work harder than ever to fight overcommitment syndrome. Without the boundaries of the office, it’s easy for your workday to have no beginning or end. If you are never at work, you are in danger of being always at work. Your inbox has probably exploded, you’re having trouble keeping up with texts and voicemail, and even video meetings often drag on longer than the in-person variety. No surprise if you’re dropping some balls or getting your priorities mixed up—or even losing your motivation to work at all. Add to that the annoying, time-sapping setbacks that come with remote work, including technological glitches and distractions in a home office, and getting your work done can be harder than ever.
These are just some of today’s challenges—and many are the same whether you’re brand-new to long-distance work or a veteran. The good news is that you can overcome some of these obstacles and prove to your manager, team, and other colleagues that you’re a valuable part of the organization—even as you work remotely. What defines quality work, what effective teams look like, what good management does, and how bosses can help their people grow and flourish haven’t changed. Similarly, the ways that people in the workplace prove themselves indispensable are the same things that can guide them as they work remotely. And they all can be done using remote modes like videoconferencing, email, and phone calls.
Productivity and quality are much better measures of performance than working in a particular place during particular hours. The key to success is focusing on aligned communication, execution for results, and continuous improvement. Here’s what that means:
That’s how you build the upward spiral of real influence, the power that people give each other because they want each other to succeed. That’s the art of being indispensable at work—even when working remotely.
Think of indispensability as a lens for viewing the advice in this guide. In these pages you’ll find best practices, tips, and insights from a variety of experts to help you hone the unique set of skills you’ll need for remote working. Their wisdom and experience cover six main topics:
As you read, remember that the most important thing you can do on the job is be useful to others, adding value in every interaction you have. Whether your workplace is company headquarters or your kitchen table, that’s what being indispensable is all about.
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Bruce Tulgan is an adviser to business leaders all over the world and a sought-after keynote speaker and seminar leader. He is the founder and CEO of Rainmaker-Thinking, Inc., a management research and training firm, as well as RainmakerLearning, an online training resource. Bruce is the best-selling author of numerous books, including Not Everyone Gets a Trophy, Bridging the Soft Skills Gap, The 27 Challenges Managers Face, and It’s Okay to Be the Boss. His newest book, The Art of Being Indispensable at Work, is available now from Harvard Business Review Press.