87: How to Lead Virtually, with Loren Kousaie

Loren Kousaie: Microsoft

Almost everyone who leads is doing more influencing of people through technology. Many of us are even working remotely or managing others who work remotely. In this episode, I welcome Loren Kousaie from Microsoft to speak about his extensive experience in leading people virtually over the years – and to offer us suggestions and what we can do better when communicating and leading from a distance.

Here are the questions I asked of Loren:

• Tell me about your role at Microsoft and how you’re physically spaced from your team.
• What’s a typical day like for you? Also, what kind of tools are you using to connect with your team?
• What is different about leading people working virtually than leading in other venues?
• How do you set expectations with your team about what a remote relationship with you will be like?
• When you started leading virtually, what was the biggest mind shift you had to make?
• What would you like to have known about leading virtually that you didn’t when you started?
• Leadership can be lonely. Leading virtually can be even lonelier – what do you do to stay in community with others, either professionally or personally?
• What’s a discovery you’ve made about yourself along the way that’s contributed to your success?

“In order to arrive at what you do not know
You must go by a way which is the way of ignorance.
In order to possess what you do not possess
You must go by the way of dispossession.
In order to arrive at what you are not
You must go through the way in which you are not.
And what you do not know is the only thing you know
And what you own is what you do not own
And where you are is where you are not.” -T.S. Eliot

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