OK. So let's start. So we are on time and we can give you time to connect to others after this one. So leading from home, uh I'm Ana Jimenez, I'm I'm a transformation uh leader at GFT.We are a software company and we've been in this journey of um transforming how we communicate and how we lead especially now from home. So I will speak about why this is important way to take care of living from home, which are the key adopting areas we need to take care of from a company point of view. Then also the distinctive traits of a great leader working from home, remotely and then how you can understand your team and how this hybrid communication can work well when you are working with these distributed teams remotely, right? So um first thing why is important to lead from home to take care of this, of this um uh aspect of, of uh communication. So we came from uh 19th century, from before, from a culture of being always present in the company, right? This comes from the industrial revolution, but now we have a new style of leadership, right? Which is quite recent and especially also if you are working with agile methodologies and so on, this has changed, right?

So we are not counting hours anymore or we shouldn't and we should measure results instead, right? And also all the companies are going through this change. So this change of transforming to be more digital and of course, a lot of them were already in this path, but then COVID came in and it was kind of a kick in the ass to, to all of us and we change everything, right? So those that we, that we are adapting, right uh will survive and I think others will extinguish because it's not a possibility anymore, right? So to be remote or not to be something that you may uh have questioned before, but it's not an option anymore. And I've been very stubborn, for instance, in my company, since COVID when we were talking about uh physical distance and I was very stubborn in my communications to the team, to the company that physical distance does not mean social distance, right? And if you look to younger generations, uh and you have people, young people around you, this is something that you see, right? That they are playing uh with video games, they are using Discord, they communicate in a way that it's different to us or to people, which is like more a boomer like me.

Uh and also like older generations, we also have experienced that if you've been the you have the chance to work in distributed teams with people and clients in other countries. You also see that this is working right, that you can also lead, lead and work from home, right? Or distribute. And you can also do this bonding in the distance. But of course, it's always something finally clicks when you meet someone in person, right? So this is not something to be underestimated. And if you have the possibility to do, at least just this one meeting, first meeting in person, this is always something that um strengthen the communication and the uh bonding with this person, right? But at the end, you have this mix of people which is more coming from the younger generations and from older generations and we can learn from each other really. So this is a very rich environment where we can all learn one from each other. So this is more like the ecosystem, right? But from the company, what is the something that an organization or a company needs to have in mind to know and to uh and to um reinforce if you have this way of working more remotely. So the first thing I mentioned before, right? So to focus always on results, never on time or processes, right? So this was focusing more on time was something from uh before, right?

But if you really are working remotely as synchronously, then you need to always focus on results, right? So to uh I don't know if you know more about gile frameworks and so on, but to have like objective key results to define the deliverable. So this is something you need to have if you are uh doing an effective um and remote working, right? Uh Another thing that the companies need to, to do and to change and do this mindset change is to give to the teams freedom and accountability, freedom because you trust them, you trust that they will deliver and that they will, they will do their work and accountability because it's not enough that you say, ok, I trust you and I trust that you will do whatever you want.

And I don't take care of that. You also need to be very formal and to have processes of that. So the picture you see in the background is something which is inspirational to me, which is um this is a human castle. It's something that we do in Catalonia where I live in Barcelona. And you do this really human castles that are very um high and those castles do not work. If each member of the team is not, is not trusting each other. But at the same time, they are very formal, right? And if they do not build the castle in the right, in the right way, it will fall apart, right? And people will fall to the ground. So it's really this combination of empowering the people to give trust to them and then to be formal about that, what other thing needs to change in the organizations uh with uh the leadership style to understand that the leadership style style is now more than ever very personal, right?

It's not only managing projects, managing task is really connecting with the people, it's connecting to them, understanding that when you are working remotely, right? And you don't have this offered office where everybody is is working at the same time or you have it but not all the people at the time is there. So the leader is the person that is channeling all the vision and the company strategy to the team. And at the same time is this person that is gathering and collecting the feedback from the team to the company, right? So you have this key role in the company, which is the leader, right? Not the boss, not the manager, the leader of the team that is this joined between these two worlds, right? And it really it is about connecting with the people. Another thing related to this which is key to being an effective leader from home and that the companies also need to bear in mind is investing time in communication, communicating more in different formats, taking into account that sometimes you need to be synchronous, sometimes you need to be not uh synchronous that you will have people connecting or reading the communication at different times at different hours and then don't go cheap on infra infrastructure and tools, right?

Because there is um nothing worse for communication that um starting a meeting and spending then like 1015 minutes of I'm not listening to you try to reconnect your um connection is poor. I cannot hear you. If you have this kind of uh infrastructure, then the communication is simply not working, right? So it's really an investment to invest in good equipment, good internet connection, good headsets, video cameras, right? To have this communication in an effective way. So this is more from the companies, right?

And then about the leader itself, how so how can you be an effective leader when working from home? So these are things that are also useful when working um everybody on site, but that they are key, especially when working remotely. The first one is that you are a mirror to your team. So the team will see you as an example and then we copy you. So if you are late to the meetings, they will be late to the meetings. If you do not put your camera on, they will not put the camera on, right? So if you really need to lead by example, right? Another thing that it's very uh important today in the organizations today is that uh so the typical leadership structure is this pyramid, right, that you see there where you have the balls on top and then it's going to the top top bottom, right? But also this is not working so well anymore, right? For some companies it works, but it's really changing and you need to be a servant leader, right? So a leader that is there for your team that you um unblock their, their blockers, right? That you guide them, that you support them, but you are there for them, right?

So this is so now the the structures and the the companies they are um painting this uh pyramid like in reverse, like with the leader, it's on the bottom and it's serving on the people that it's on top, right? Because it's, it's this new way of working of being of service to your, to your team. Another thing which is very important, working remotely is resilience because you don't, you are not there. All of all of you are not there at the same time and then you can like bond very easily. Then you need to build this resilience in your team, right? So learn from every setback, focus on the positive, celebrate wins. Um laugh like if something goes wrong, then you grief and you move on. But you try to laugh and you try to learn from this. Uh And this is something that it's because we are now more isolated, right? So it's a a skill which is more and more important. And I like this picture of uh Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen. So, you know, Michael Jordan was a great leader right in their basketball team, the Chicago Bulls. But there was one match where he had, uh, a flu. It's called the flu game actually. And he couldn't, he couldn't play. Right. And, and then Scottie Pippen grabbed him and, and he, he was helping him and then the journalist after the match, they, they ask Scottie Pippen.

So how was it, how was it that you had to help Michael Jordan? And he said, and this sentence is great. He said it was easy because he carried me for like 11 seasons, right? So this is the kind of leader that you need that. It's building resilience in the team. And then this team when it's time that they exercise this strength, they have it in them, right? So resilience is very important. Another thing which is very important today 2022 is fostering positivity, right? So you read too many bad news and you'll be in bad mood, right? All the day. So this is proof there is studies and statistics about them about how the information you receive as an input is changing your mood. So it's not that, you know, you do not need to be an form and say, ok, I do not get informed or on anything but you need to be aware of that and to try to balance, right? So COVID news for instance, were an example of that, right, every day receiving bad news and how was our mood. So it was bad, right? So you need to try to compensate with other things. So a tip for, for you if you want. So I, so for some months now I'm following uh an account on on Twitter and Instagram, which is called the Happy Broadcast. So it's um very cool because they are posting only positive news.

So of course, I get the bad news from the TV and so on, but I also get these ones right? And now I try to balance that I receive, OK, I receive bad news, the world is ending and so on. But I also receive these things that are telling me that there is good people around the world that there are good things also happening and you need to do this mix of things of for not uh ending up in a very bad mood and then uh communication, right? So because if you are a leader, you are in a position where your words are, are listened to more carefully, you need to watch your words, right? Because whatever you say, it resonates to the rest of the team and it extends. So whatever you would be, you would be saying in a more casual way. If you are a leader, you need to say, OK, is this going to be listened to in the same way by a friend or by my team and then measure your words, of course, never lie and never hide anything. But just be aware that when you are a leader, your words are mm interpreted in a different way. And the last thing as a threat of a great leader is that you need to have your uh network of support. And it's good to have a three levels, right?

With family, friends and word trust life. So one of each is ideal. If you have 23, that's also good because they are this sounding board to you. It's the people that it's helping you to vent when you are, when you need also to do this. And why not? If um you see some skill that you need to improve, then use a professional coach because they are also helping to to get your skills. So you have, we saw the the organization, the leaders and then you as a leader with these threats, how can you manage and how can you lead this team, your team? So first thing is understanding them, right? And for understanding your team, the empathy is key, right? Especially now that you, we know that the men mental health issues are on the rise, right? So we need to be very aware, to know the team and to know that we have different team, different people in our team. So I like a lot this um cartoon right on the left, you have like in your team, imagine you have like an extrovert and an introvert and then the extrovert is, yeah, I'm carrying the conversation all by myself and then the introvert is saying one sentence and, and they are super happy with just saying one sentence, right?

At the same time, this person, if you ask them to like do a written argument, they will then get uh like all the strength and they will do it because they prefer to communicate in that way, right? So you need to be aware that possibly in your team, you have introverts, you have extroverts and then you have kind of mixed profiles of introverts and extroverts and you need to respect their preference, right? Some people prefer to just call right away, some others prefer to chat, some others prefer like a very calm response or write a mail. So you need to know them and respect their preference with just one exception when you are doing your one to ones with them, then you need to be present at the same time or on site on the same place or online with a video conference. But it's the only thing that really needs to be online and then with your team, the other thing you need to do is to set clear expectations and rules, right? And give them a purpose. So with this um message of giving them accountability, right? So you need to give them the tools uh to achieve their purpose, right? And measure the outcome, not as we were saying before, not time or processes, right? So you need to give them a purpose which is doable, which has a clear duration that has a reward.

And you need to be very clear about the team rules when you are having people that it's working remotely or there's not, but you have a different um mix of people in the team. Then you need to be clear, we need to be present or not in the chat, right? So we need to put this um green uh light that we are on or not can do we do we should we be more or less asynchronous, right? So you need to give them flexibility to agree on the on how these flexibilities is done, but also coordinating, right? To avoid frustration that yeah, I sent this to this person and he did not reply. OK? If you have agreed that you do not reply everything immediately, then that's OK. Right. But you need to have this conversation with your team beforehand. So types of communication, hybrid communication, uh you need to do this one to ones that I was saying with uh every person on your team to schedule regularly. This is a safe space where you build trust, you need to listen more than to speak and it needs to be used to unblock and to guide and to give guidance to this person, right? And video here is a must.

If you are doing this online, then you do the formal team meetings, right? And this needs to be very clear in schedule frequency. It's a ceremony really and you need to be well organized and make it optimal. If you can do it in half the time, then do it in half the time. But for that, you need to start on time and to care about the infrastructure, avoid technical issues and then try to involve every everyone, right? This introverts and extroverts. If you have a mix of that, then you need to do the questions or try to that everyone participates. And if you do this type type of meetings in half the time, then you save time for more in social connections, right? And you of course, they are better in person, this kind of uh meetings, right? But you can also do that off online. So you can greet new on boardings, share good wishes like burdens and so on, do virtual reads, um play or just chat, right? But you need also to have this time more so social with your team. And then finally, you will have like a bigger team, right? Uh a cluster of teams or more a unit. And here you also need to schedule some type of communication which is more um focus uh clear content, saving the date with advanced uh encourage questions from the people, right?

Because this is the kind of meeting you need to have, especially if not everybody is in the office, then you somehow you need to communicate the strategy and the vision from the, from the company and always, always record that because um no matter how you do it, there will be people that cannot attend.

So just the final thing to tell you is that there are a lot of tools around the market. Uh These are the ones on the left that I'm using that. But you can find a lot of tools for working remotely in an effective way. So I encourage you to apply these tips to work remotely and in a, in an effective way and to yeah succeed in, in this new style of leading your team and and working with, with them. So thanks a lot to, to you. I think I passed the time by three minutes.