Mike Slater

Step one in this situation is: be humble. Look at your plan with someone else's eyes. You have a mentor by now at this point in your career, right? Bounce it off of them. Maybe your vision sucks? Maybe it's too broad, too narrow, been tried before, or just not inspiring? Find out. Ruthlessly interrogate your intention with, and the clarity of, your vision. Sit and imagine yourself as the newest person on your team - and pitch this idea to that person 1:1 in your head. How does it go? Wash, rinse, repeat with the veterans. Now, take your results back to the team - and *involve them* in the vision. Iterate with their input. Help them see their part in it - and what *they* and the organization get out of making this vision real.

There are two fundamental approaches. In the first, you bite the bullet and put up with being treated like a distrusted child - but work to produce good and rapid results. If your boss is paying attention to the right thing (the results), you build trust quickly and the problem goes away. If it doesn't, move to the second approach. The other way to go is to have a frank conversation with this person about how you will and will not be managed. We're largely under the impression that this is not up to us - and that is both wrong, and a recipe for unhappiness. You're an adult; don't let someone treat you like a child because that's how *they* like to work, or believe that's what being a boss means. And if that doesn't work - find a new boss.

Because I don't see my team every day in person, I use asynchronous "touch-base" strategies that help remind us that we are all working on the same things at the same time, in different places. One of them is "Things That Need Mike's Attention" shared document in OneDrive (or G-Drive, or whatever my client/employer uses). I ask that it be updated daily so that when I check it at around 4pm, anything that has cropped up that needs my specific attention - but not my urgent attention - is there for review. I respond in the document. Sometimes, we see each other in the document at the same time, and that also helps subtly reinforce that we're all "at work" and co-productive. It's a very small thing, but it has a positive impact.

It may be helpful to set professional expectations. You would not show up to an in-person meeting disheveled and bleary-eyed because you rolled out of bed four minutes before you had to log in. Get your staff to treat any meeting, like every meeting. The environment you present is as important as your own appearance. Blur that background. Close the door, and ask other residents to be considerate while you work. With those basics in place, have your meetings in an atmosphere of respect and significance. Have one-on-ones to make sure everyone feels connected. Ten minutes to check in personally with the boss can be far more efficient than dealing with consequences of not being sufficiently aware of morale and expectation.

For many roles and responsibilities, we should be concerned only with the results our teams produce. Do they know what they are responsible for, in what order of priority? Do they know when they are expected to produce these results? Do they understand what sort of behavior is acceptable in obtaining the required results? If results are produced on time, at the prerequisite quality, and ethically delivered - it should not otherwise matter when, where, or how they were obtained.

Assume your staff has at least the same sorts of needs you do (if you don't know them well, yet). Do you feel uncomfortable asking for a flexible or remote work day? You shouldn't. Work to make sure they don't, either. A doctor's appointment, or a sick child, or a needed visit from a repair service shouldn't give any remote/flexible hours-eligible employee anxiety about how they will be perceived or evaluated. You will earn much more engagement and loyalty by giving that flexibility than you will ever lose in productivity.