Lior Locher

This is key. People who know you or come with a warm intro will know you as you, with what you bring, so the conversation progresses from there. Lean into that, build that, expand that. Be a contributing part of diverse groups (good idea for everyone), go as far beyond your own demographic bubble as you can.

Keep your finances a key part of your planning. This can make or break everything else and will affect how well you sleep at night and if you have a bed to sleep in with your next change. And unless you are lucky that will need to finance some of the bigger changes. This is particularly key if you are part of a marginalised group and/or don’t have a wealthy family background or partner or savings from previous things gone well. Or don’t get a payout. Or if you don’t live in a place with a functioning social system. Live beyond your means and save as much as you can to start building that buffer that can then enable greater freedom and options. Budget for declining health when you least expect it.

This needs to be genuinely two way. Think culture add not culture fit. Each new member changes things, it’s then a new team. So this is co-creation, every time.

Make space for serendipity and the fun whimsical human weird delightful stuff too. For example I was in an ID team a while back that loved its fashion but was fully virtual so we shared photos of our shoes regularly for all around appreciation.

Some of what we love in a place and with people is fun and whimsy and knowing what’s ok and what isn’t. It’s tense to start somewhere new. Make opportunities for people to show up beyond being an extra pair of hands and make it open and fluid so folks can ease into things. You hired an awesome multifaceted human. Have different things so folks resonate at least with one. Folks might not want the fantasy football league but can summarise any meeting with a gif or a song or vice versa. Some of this might happen more organically face to face so online you sometimes have to be more deliberate. Ask what folks want and give them a way to tell you what doesn’t work too. (Don’t make people share personal stuff if they don’t want to or can’t.)

We live ourselves out loud a lot more than we think, in good and bad days. Your team will most likely have seen you stressed and they probably already know how that feels on the receiving end. And you probably have a sense about your team members as well. It’s not a secret. They see you and you see them. “Virtual body language” is a thing worth exploring more too. You can have the conversation when things aren’t on at full heat as nobody will be at their best. Use a recent example. And then move into how you can support each other better, in all directions . That’s as true for virtual collaborations as it is for f2f ones.