Wayne Turmel is co-author of The Long Distance Leader: Rules to Remarkable Remote Leadership. Wayne and Kevin share simple guidelines that can be used to become a more remote leader. You can purchase his book here
Audio Transcription:
Ben Aston:
Thank you for listening. This is the Digital Project Manager Podcast. I’m Ben Aston. Clarizen, a leader in enterprise, portfolio, and project management software, brought this podcast to you. Clarizen.com is a great place to start your search.
Can you hear me now? Can you hear me now? What about now? This may sound familiar to you. It certainly does for me. Because it can be very difficult to manage remote teams as a project manager. It can be difficult to communicate with one another, to collaborate, and to keep track of where everyone is at. This is before we even start to discuss conference lines and screen sharing and all the difficulties. But is it because our remote teams are sucky?
Today’s podcast features Wayne Turmel, cofounder of the Remote Leadership Institute. He recently published The Long Distance Leader. Today, we will learn his rules for remote leadership. Keep listening to the podcast to learn more. Also, there’s a book giveaway at end of the podcast. You could win a copy of The Long Distance Leader. Hi, Wayne. Thank you for joining.
Wayne Turmel:
We are grateful for your time. We are very excited. To be fair, Kevin Eikenberry is the co-author of the book. I don’t want him to think I’m taking all of the credit.
Ben Aston:
No, that’s good. That’s good. You are a co-author but a lowly one. Please tell me how it works, I’m interested. How does co-authoring work
Wayne Turmel:
It’s funny. Kevin and I have both written books in the past. He also co-authored Bud to Boss with Guy Harris. This was my first time co-writing, so it was an interesting experiment.
Ben Aston:
Do you find yourself in a Google Doc and keep deleting each other’s writing until you reach a happy place.
Wayne Turmel:
No. No. We both have different styles so we first outlined the book and decided what chapters we would do. Then we swapped and went through the chapters. It was a trick to make two very different communication styles sound like one voice. This is a testament to how well Kevin and me work together and that we are not physically in the same location. He’s in Chicago. He’s in Indianapolis. It is possible, people.
Ben Aston:
Here you go. That’s it. Divide and conquer, but keep your voice consistent. We’re not talking about how you coauthor a book. Tell us what you do. What’s this? Tell us about your credentials as a remote leader. What gives you the inside scoop on managing remote teams?
Wayne Turmel:
This is my ninth book. Seven of them are nonfiction. I have been teaching communication skills and leadership skills for 20 years. I also started a company called greatwebmeetings.com, which was primarily focused on remote communication. How can you make the most of tools like Skype for Business or WebEx to communicate effectively? Kevin Eikenberry and me had been friends for many years, and Kevin is well-known in leadership circles. He is consistently on the top of the list of t
