Wayne Turmel
Wayne Turmel is a speaker, writer and co-founder of The Remote Leadership Institute. He’s passionate about helping people present, sell and lead people and projects using today’s virtual communication technology. His books include Meet Like You Mean It - a Leader’s Guide to Painless and Productive Virtual Meetings. Wayne is based in Chicago, IL.
Open questions, open communication
20 May 2020
Working remotely, we miss the non-verbal signals we see when working face-to-face. That's why asking open questions is one of the most critical skills the manager of a remote team can possess.
Do you run meetings or lead them?
11 May 2020
Why do some online meetings get the job done, while others don't? The difference is that successful meetings need to be led - and there is a huge difference between running a meeting and leading one.
Five ways to derail your remote meeting
06 May 2020
One reason video conferences and webmeetings often feel like a bit of a train wreck is because they tend to get off to a bad start. Here are the main things that derail virtual meetings and how you can avoid them.
Five reasons remote teams fail
20 Apr 2020
Many managers are now discovering that leading a remote team isn’t that different to leading a co-located one. But they do have to re-think how they do certain things. Here are five ways you can get that wrong.
Key skills for virtual leaders
26 Mar 2020
Suddenly finding yourself sitting at home leading a virtual team is a tough call, particularly with everything else that's going on in the world. So here are seven key behaviors that will make the task of virtual working much easier.
How different is leading remotely?
10 Mar 2020
If you've never led a remote team and you're worried about how you might cope if the Coronavirus puts you in that position, fear not. For a competent team leader, the differences aren't as great as you might think.
There’s nothing soft about the heart
12 Feb 2020
Every animal depends on its heart for its existence. And exactly the same is true of an organization, except that rather than a multi-chambered muscle, an organization relies on leadership, managers and flows of information.
A whole new ballgame?
14 Jan 2020
Adopting remote teams might seem like a whole new ball game, but it’s the same game - just played on a slightly different field. The WHAT doesn’t really change, it's the HOW that's different.
Getting virtual meetings to start on time
25 Nov 2019
Why do webmeetings always seem to start late? While there’s no silver bullet that will solve the problem, there are some simple things you can do to help your odds of starting (and finishing) on time.
Mapping the power in your organization
21 Oct 2019
Forget job titles, do you know who has the real power in your organization and who has real influence where it matters most?
Getting feedback from a virtual audience
10 Sep 2019
Speaking to large groups on-line can be deeply disconcerting. Why? Because even in a lecture-type presentation, you get all kinds of feedback. But doing it virtually feels like you’re talking into a void.
Faith, trust and teamwork
28 Aug 2019
Having faith is a wonderful thing. But today's project and functional teams need to run on trust. Why? Because unlike faith, trust is evidence-based, built on measurable results and can be restored through hard work.
Vital lessons from an eight year old
30 Jul 2019
The most important business lesson I ever learned, I learned at eight years old. And it’s something that is as relevant to all of us today as it was to me as a kid back then.
Code is easier than people
11 Jul 2019
Going from being a ‘doer’ to being a manager isn’t easy, because managing others demands interpersonal and communication skills that need to be worked on.
How to take expert advice
04 Jul 2019
You could drive yourself crazy trying to follow every piece of advice you get - and often the experts disagree. So how is a rational person supposed to take all this advice without their heads imploding?
The 'golden suggestion' for managers
17 Jun 2019
The old saying “do unto others as you’d like them to do unto you” Is fine advice. But when it comes to management, it's not so simple. Let me explain why it doesn’t stack up.
The two big communication questions
27 May 2019
Communication increasingly seems to be a question of technology. But it isn’t. It's a complicated process with lots of moving parts. And it starts with two very important questions
Great advice from a sketchy source
23 Apr 2019
Ian Fleming’s James Bond books don’t normally spring to mind as sources of useful management advice. But there’s a line in ‘Goldfinger’ that is actually quite brilliant if you run a remote team.
Are your teammates competent?
08 Apr 2019
One of the biggest factors in building trust is believing in the competence of the people you work with. If you work in the same place, that isn’t so hard to do. But if you work remotely, gathering evidence of competence takes more effort.
The cost of bad meetings
26 Mar 2019
Bad meetings cost companies billions of dollars every year. But this waste is easily avoidable if only we'd all ask ourselves a couple of basic questions and think a little more about how and why we have meetings.