This post is the second in our 3-part series called "Building Trust at Work", with Chris Brogan. Chris is president of Human Business Works, providing business, communications and emerging technology strategy for mid- to large-sized businesses. He blogs regularly at chrisbrogan.com.

Bestselling author Charles H. Green wrote the book on trust. His seminal work with David Maister, The Trusted Advisor, taught countless business professionals how to go beyond simply booking billable hours with clients to instead provide them much, much more. He, along with Andrea Howe, recently released The Trusted Advisor Fieldbook, which further explores the concept of how leaders in organizations work with trust. So who better to talk with about how to build trust at work than Charles? After all, trust is one of the core elements behind successful efforts to launch remote and distributed employee programs.

According to Green, there are 4 pillars of trust. Through his work in surveying many leaders and stakeholders from companies of varying sizes and industries, he's discovered that workshifting success takes credibility, reliability, intimacy and low self-orientation.

Credibility

Credibility makes sense without much explanation. If you aren't very credible (people won't take your word for things), then there's not enough trust to allow you to work on a project-centric basis. To repair credibility, simply make small commitments and keep them. If you miss a commitment, own up immediately, and then take extra steps to do even better.

Reliability

Reliability is also clearly important. If you're being counted on to do the work, do it. But the way we express reliability is another matter altogether. Sometimes, we feel that being responsive - answering email within a few minutes - is the same. It's not. That just means you're easily distracted from your important work.

Other times, leaders feel that "butts in chairs" is the only measure of reliability. That's equally as wrong. The goal here is to build up trust by delivering within certain parameters and by keeping that level of quality going. If credibility is about doing what you say you'll do, then reliability is about doing it in a way that people can count on.

Intimacy

Intimacy is a strange word when thinking about work relationships. In this case, it's a mix of being attentive to details (an intimate relationship with the work at hand) and to the needs of the people related to the project.

If your boss needs morning email briefs to feel comfortable, then intimacy would suggest that you know to help by sending these along without being asked. If you're working remotely, you miss some of the "hallway chatter," so your role is to know what's being said anyway through inquiries to team members. Though you need all 4 pillars according to Green, intimacy strikes me as being one of the most crucial.

Low Self-Orientation

Having low self-orientation is one of the areas where people could use more improvement. The idea is that one must be a team- and goal-oriented individual. If you're to be working remotely and with less supervision, doing your best work from afar with the needs of the company in mind will garner you the trust of your employer and teammates. By focusing on the success of the team and the project, you're demonstrating a strong level of trustworthiness that isn't easily faked - and that becomes gold to the leadership at hand.

The 4 pillars of trust, as Green laid them out, make a great deal of sense for people seeking to build a strong relationship between leadership, team members and remote workers. It's a powerful mix of metrics to consider. If you're worthy of high marks in all 4, you'll likely do well.

Today we kick-off a 3-part series called "Building Trust at Work" with Chris Brogan. Chris is president of Human Business Works, providing business, communications and emerging technology strategy for mid- to large-sized businesses. He blogs regularly at chrisbrogan.com.

To better understand the dynamics of trust at work, I reached out to people who I believe have improved trust between leaders and employees. One such person was my friend Daniel Pink, bestselling author of many books, including the motivation-minded Drive and the powerful Free Agent Nation. In our conversation, Dan and I agreed that leadership isn't about control.

Leaders of any size organization must come to realize that the age of "measuring butts in chairs" is over for most companies. The new method is to measure via output and responsiveness. In both cases, the emphasis is no longer on controlling potential productivity pitfalls for employees (such as blocking access to the Internet) but, instead, on equipping and educating employees to encourage a high level of autonomous output.

It's a difficult shift. I've now run 3 distributed companies in a row, where my employees are scattered all over the place and working on their own timetables. There are days where even I have that nagging feeling of "Is anyone besides me even WORKING today?" But when I measure based on output, I don't have to worry about whether the person took a 3-hour coffee break. Deadlines are deadlines, and the employee is either able to successfully deliver work or not.

The shift, instead of causing anxiety, affords a certain level of excitement when you realize that leaders who learn how to measure production and output rather than hours clocked will succeed in this new business environment of constant flux. The opportunities are incredible, because this affords a great deal of flexibility in hiring (you can hire based on skill, not locale) plus a very viable perk (working from home or remotely is a highly sought-after benefit, which helps with retention).

But how do you earn trust? First, it's a two-way street. Employees have certain needs with regard to trusting their leadership.

• If I'm going to work from home, you can't forget me. (This is a big fear of remote employees.)
• If I'm working remotely, you have to realize that it might take a little while to respond. This doesn't always equal "slacking off." Sometimes it means "head down in the work."
• If you're allowing me to go mobile, then help me by making any meetings or collaboration easy (with the right tools).

On the other side of the coin, if you're looking to build trust with your leadership, consider the following:

• Be explicit about how and when you'll respond and when you'll be "heads down" in your work. When you work in person, visual cues speak loud enough. When you work remotely, silence feels like inactivity, but senseless chatter will waste everyone's time.
• Never miss a deadline. If you're working remotely, you are being measured on delivery. Let no excuses get in between you and success.
• Make it exceptionally easy for people to share and contribute to your work. If people are waiting on you, it gums up the works.

Learning how to trust your employees with their work is a big and powerful opportunity to change (improve!) your business. Though not every role works well remotely, more positions succeed at workshifting than you'd imagine.

Check back next week for the 2nd part of our "Building Trust at Work" series.

Today we have a guest post from Camille Preston, PhD. Camille is the founder and CEO of AIM Leadership, one of the country's premier organizational and leadership development firms. She is a pioneer in the field of Virtual Effectiveness and the author of Rewired: How to Work Smarter, Live Better, and Be Purposefully Productive in an Overwired World. For more information, please visit www.aimleadership.com.

Workshifters enjoy great advantages over our office counterparts, but even we can get caught up in an "overwired" lifestyle. Overwired means moving at lightning speed - all day, every day - with our plates piled high and little time to pause, reflect and focus properly. Wouldn't it be great to work with better purpose and clarity? With renewed vigor and focus? Wouldn't it be great to rewire ourselves so that we work smarter, live better and be more productive in the New Year?

Yes, it would. This year, I am urging all of my clients to make one big resolution: to rewire their overwired lives. In my new book, Rewired: How to Work Smarter, Live Better and Be Purposefully Productive in an Overwired World, I explain what's got us so overwired, why we must unwire and then how to rewire. Here are 4 tips to get started on rewiring for wellness:

1. Stop running full out. Start recharging regularly

In order to rewire ourselves, we first have to stop the madness of going full tilt 24/7 so that we can unwire and recharge ourselves on a regular basis. The good news is that we don't have to go on a retreat; we can unwire in small but meaningful ways throughout the day:

• Start your day unwired. Have coffee before checking your smartphone or email.
• Before diving into your email and phone calls, take 5 minutes to review your schedule, look at the day and think things through.
• Have phone-free lunches. Do you really need to be available?
• Take a walk at lunch rather than surf the web as you eat at your desk.
• Unplug for 10 minutes or so every hour. Get up from your desk, stretch, walk around, step outside, etc. And leave your phone behind.

A few minutes here and there may not sound like a lot, but it all adds up. You will be amazed at the impact even these short periods of unwired time have on your rejuvenation.

2. Stop letting technology use you. Start using technology

Because the wired world is always at our fingertips, we have conditioned ourselves to always be available to it. We can sometimes feel like technology is using us, instead of the other way around. But the great thing about technology is that we can use it to our advantage. The 2 most common complaints I hear from my clients are email overload and smartphone overexposure. Let's tackle email first:

• It's your inbox -- take control of it!
• Before opening anything, scroll through and delete all non-essential messages.
• Use your spam filter!
• Get off all those email lists. Unsubscribe and don't sign up in the first place.
• Create a separate email address just for junk mail, RSS feeds, newsletters, etc.
• Establish a clear protocol with clients and colleagues about when to cc so you don't get unnecessary emails.
• Train yourself not to respond every time you see the new email icon. Better yet, turn off that function. Even better, pick 2 or 3 times a day when you will open, read and respond to emails.

The smartphone is a bit trickier, as for many workshifters it is the only phone we own. You can't very well just turn it off or ignore it. But you can:

• Be liberal with caller ID.
• Let calls go to voicemail.
• Let callers know what your office hours are and when you will return calls.

By using technology properly, we can prevent it from using us.

3. Stop shifting clutter. Start organizing and simplifying

Clutter is distracting - really distracting. In fact, researchers at Princeton's Neuroscience Institute reported last March that clutter actually inhibits the brain's ability to focus and process information because it vies for our energy and attention. Just like when computers slow down when too many programs are open, we slow down when we have too much stuff demanding our attention. This is critical for workshifters! So, to think and perform better, get rid of the clutter and get organized:

• Take a look at your office or work area. Is it well organized or cluttered? Can you find what you need?
• Develop a system where you touch a paper or email only once. Throw out or file papers you don't need.
• Organize your supplies and files so you can find them.

Something draining or distracting you? Hide it or get rid of it. You want to create an energizing environment that helps you stay productive and focused, not distracted with clutter.

4. Stop worrying about work-life balance. Start doing more of what energizes you and less of what depletes you

Work-life balance is a tricky thing, especially for workshifters, where work and life occupy the same physical space. Instead of worrying about achieving work-life balance (whatever that is!), we should focus instead on doing the things we love and being with the people who energize us, avoiding the things that deplete us in the process.

Of course, there will always be things we don't want to do but have to, and there will always be people with whom we must interact, whether we want to or not. But try to think of your time as precious (it is!) and, as much as possible, be critical and judicious with the things and people who take up your time and attention:

• Who are the people who are draining your time and attention?
• If you have to deal with them, how can you do so on your own terms?
• What are the commitments you do not enjoy and that you could give up?
• Who do you love to be with? Who brings out the best in you?
• What do you love to do?

As much as possible, fill your life with the people and things that fulfill you, engage you and inspire you. Choose them, and you'll never worry about work-life balance again.

Resolving to rewire means making small but significant changes that can add up to profound productivity and personal fulfillment. Little tweaks here and there, consistently employed, can lead to big results.

Photo Credit: jaxxon

The Harvard Business Review never ceases to speak my language, reveal my deepest and darkest professional secrets and remind me that I am not alone. In a recent HBR blog post "Should You Stay Late or Go Home?" Ron Ashkenas reported that more and more employees are working longer "since there's always more to do than there is time to do it - [we've] gotten into the pattern of expanding [our] workday." But that was not the most surprising finding in the HBR article.

I'd always suspected it, been warned about it, but never knew how to avert it - getting locked into longer hours:

"But once you begin expanding your work hours on a regular basis, working 'normal' hours starts to look like slacking off. In other words, if you establish a pattern of staying late, your extended hours become the new normal."

Akin to a gateway drug, I'd say - when did an excellent work ethic and honorable commitment become a purgatory of excessive expectations? Being punished for working hard, for working late and, dare I say, for enjoying both when the task calls for it (at least not when forced nor expected to) is uncalled for.

I've never been a clock-watcher, neither as an employee nor as a manager. I've often felt that the clock is counterproductive. "9 to 5" is a great song and an even better movie, but as a set work shift, it's a precipice from which productivity falls far and hard, never to be recovered.

Workshifting is not only a luxury but also a necessity for many who've discovered the key to sustained productivity and expansive creativity. At the same time, workshifters are prone to over-extended hours regardless of by whom they're set. Balance is a fallacy when your "office" is 5 steps from your living room and accessible from anywhere in the house at any hour (thanks to our friend, Mr. Wi-Fi). "Going home" gets you literally nowhere when you're already there working.

Askenas has some sound advice on this matter for workshifters and traditional employees alike:

"Reflect on your goals - both professional and personal. Think through the aspirations you have for your career and your life. What do you want to achieve? What are the priorities? What gives you fulfillment? It's remarkable how many people wander through their careers without a sense of 'true north' to guide their decisions. As a result they lack criteria for determining whether to invest more time in work."

It all comes to down to this: be the CEO of your own career, learn yourself and lobby for the systems and methods that work best for you.

"Remember that if you don't take conscious control of your own work hours, the work hours [and others' perceptions thereof] can easily take control of you."

Are your hours expanding while your productivity wanes?

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Dr. Seuss had a way of putting things just so. He said, "Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not."

He was absolutely right.

You have expertise, experience and a desire to make a difference. This makes you completely unique and uniquely important. If you don't put that powerful combination to use, things won't get better. They just won't.

Volunteering your time and talents in the service of others has many rewards. There are the tangible benefits of a completed volunteer project or effort, but there are also the more subtle rewards, like personal and professional growth, new connections and so on. Then there are benefits that are unique to a particular project. A community garden, for example, has been shown to reduce crime, educate urban youth about food production and generally increase quality of life for nearby residents. All in a day's work for a handful of humble vegetable seeds.

Here are some of the benefits of volunteering your time, expertise and passion:

• Professional Benefits
• Health Benefits
• General Benefits
• Surprising Benefits

For many people, choosing whether to work for a company has a lot to do with the company's policies towards community giving and volunteering efforts. Prioritizing a better world alongside business is right up there with salary, work-life flexibility and healthcare.

But what if you are a project-based contractor? You do the work, get paid and move on. The corporate community-giving opportunities aren't within the scope of your relationship. That just means you've got a little extra work to do.

When it comes to volunteering, I know my strengths and weaknesses. For example, I would never, ever volunteer to cook or bake - not just because I enjoy those activities about as much as a root canal but also because I wouldn't want to be responsible for a widespread health crisis. I also wouldn't volunteer to climb higher than 5 feet on a ladder. Or drive a large truck. But when there's an idea to flesh out or a story to get down on paper, my hand flies in the air.

As a writer, my volunteer workload often includes drafting letters for campaigns, composing articles and contributing to marketing efforts. Occasionally I customize writing workshops for community groups. But I'm also adept at digging in the dirt.

Digging in the dirt, as it turns out, can be useful in community development. I've been privileged to serve on the steering committee of a community garden startup - and mind you, this is no ordinary community garden. An empty swath of land now holds 24 raised garden beds, a large berry patch for community picking and 2 perennial gardens. The space has already served as an enticing backdrop for yoga workshops, garden tours, harvest dinners and one theatrical production.

If it sounds like I'm a proud mama of this project, it's because I am. It represents years of hard work from many committed volunteers, and I've given it some of my best ideas and expertise. I've also learned a number of valuable lessons that easily apply to other parts of my life - including my professional life. I helped make something out of nothing, and that feels good.

Where do you invest yourself and balance your time?

Photo Credit: Citrix Online

Having recently completed my largest assignment as a workshifter yet, I faced some familiar demons. Workdays of 10 to 12 hours had become a distant memory since I began setting my own time, managing my own workflow and balancing my professional boundaries, but that was not to last.

All of a sudden the lure of never-ending tasks, enormous deliverables, looming deadlines and firm work cycles (publish, find bugs, submit bug reports, receive bug fixes, test fixes, repeat) sucked me in with as much power as a new Dyson vacuum. Fed by sheer adrenaline, I was on site for days on end, caught in a confusion of worlds.

When had work eclipsed the ability to shift, be flexible and maintain a balance? I knew exactly when - the truth was inescapable. I had chosen to be part of an exciting project, graciously accepted the remuneration attached to it, knowing (on an unconscious level) that the project would take its toll. I also knew that, by definition, the project would have a distinct beginning and end. Whatever happened in between was, shall we say, part and parcel of the job.

What I did not know was that, at the culmination of this project, I would face the foreign sensation of not knowing how to transition back to the flexible, workshifting balance I had been striving to achieve. Simply put, I had lost my equilibrium.

After taking a few days to mentally recharge, I stepped back and assessed my situation. I realized that my problem was not really a problem, but rather a misperception. That workshifting balance I had been seeking was not as absolute as I had painted it to be. I discovered the following truths:

1. My workshifting balance will vary from time to time, client to client and project to project.
   
   
2. My best work can still be achieved despite a slightly imbalanced workshifting schedule.
   
   
3. There will never be an ideal one-size-fits-all formula for my schedule. Rather, I need to be open to receiving any size project and determining if the risks balance the rewards at that time in my life.
   
   
4. If I stay in the moment for each project, enjoy its components and derive energy from the people and tasks, then the project - regardless of its impact on my schedule - serves a very positive purpose.

What are your workshifting truths? How do you define and achieve that workshifting balance?

Photo Credit: Digitalnative

When we do the 9 to 5 thing in an office environment, our time isn't always our own. We're told when to show up in the morning, when to break for lunch (and how much time we're allowed), and told when it's acceptable to go home. While we're expected to manage our time in an efficient way, our tasks are often delegated to us with an expected timeline - so we know what we're up against.

When we're workshifters, our sense of time tends to go out the window. We have the advantage of starting work when we want, prioritizing how we want, taking breaks when we want, and finishing up when we want (deadlines notwithstanding). We have access to our office, our files and our emails at any time. We don't "have" to shut anything off. And this can make managing our time very challenging. How do you strike a balance between working all the time and shutting it down? How do you make sure you don't spend all day perusing your Google Reader when you should be working? Let's look at both sides.

I'm playing when I should be working

We've all done it - gotten sucked down the rabbit hole of Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and YouTube. It starts out innocently enough - we click one interesting link, and before we know it, we've followed the yellow brick road straight into the Land of Procrastination. The truth is, there's a lot of value to be derived from spending time on social networks, and reading news and blogs. It's professional networking, socializing, business development and training all wrapped into one. But it can get away on us if we aren't careful.

My best advice for managing your online time is to set a timer. I use the alarm on my iPhone, but you can use anything. How about setting up a playlist in iTunes that runs for 30 minutes? Then when the music runs out, it's time to move on. Setting a timer of any kind means you don't have to watch the clock, and you can fully immerse yourself until time is up. And to avoid the rabbit-holes (clicking one link after another and following the shiny objects until you forget what you originally set out to do), when you come across an interesting link, right click and open it in a new tab. DON'T look at it - finish what you were reading or watching. If you run out of time, save the link to a tool like Instapaper.com or Delicious.com, and the next time you have "Internet" time, hit those bookmarks first. Your online time will now have direction and focus.

I'm working when I should be playing

The flip side of this, of course, is that we workshifters, in our quiet, distraction-free environments, will tend to just work and work and work, often until well AFTER the cows come home. We feel the need to be "always on", just replying to that one more email at 10pm, or running up to the office to "quickly" double check on a client deliverable while our kids wait for us to watch Toy Story 3 with them. It's easy to be attached to your work when your work is right there with you. We also tend to stop taking breaks, to the point where 8 or 9 hours will go by and we'll notice we haven't gotten up from our chair, or had lunch, or a drink of water in all that time.

Again, setting timers can help with this. Set a timer for once an hour if you have to, to remind you to get up and move around, take a break, stretch, and get some water (most of us walk around in a state of partial dehydration, which is why we feel so tired all the time. Hydrate!). As for "after hours" working? Stop it. Unless you have a client deliverable due the next morning and you HAVE to work late (that happens to all of us once in a while), then stop. Turn off the computer. Turn off the email notifications, or put your phone away (lock it in a drawer if you have to). Go hang out with your spouse and kids. Go out with friends. Take the dog to the park. Watch something mindless on TV. The world will not end just because you're not workshifting in it for a while. And you'll come back to your desk the next morning feeling more refreshed and less stressed, I guarantee!

Good time management is achievable. It takes some time, and some effort, and above all, discipline. Give it a try, and let me know how it goes!

Photo Credit: dnnya

Technology enables us to work remotely in all sorts of places that not long ago would never have been considered suitable - bedrooms, hotels, airport lounges and so on. This has given many people the freedom to ditch the commute and live in a location of their own choosing, but it also brings its own challenges. Chief among those is the danger of being constantly "at work" when there is no clear delineation between on and off time.

Many of us who are workshifting are doing something we are passionate about. We have given up jobs that failed to fire us up in order to freelance or set up a small business that uses a talent. In my own experience, I don't feel I'm "working" in the same sense I was when I was employed; I am simply expressing myself in a way that feels natural, so working at what would traditionally be considered odd hours is not particularly a problem.

Despite this, after a while I started to feel that I could be more creative and productive if I chose my work hours more carefully and actively planned to get out of the house. I found that meeting people, and not necessarily people connected with my business, gave me a boost that never happened at my desk. I therefore pop out to meet a friend for coffee these days at whatever time suits us both.

I've come to believe that successful workshifting means creating your own schedules, regardless of the conventional 9 to 5. The most creative workshifters learn to switch on and off at any time in order to meet deadlines and - more importantly - give their brains a break and fuel their imaginations.

This ability only seems to come with experience. Most new workshifters stick to their old office patterns for a while before becoming more aware of their freedom. I'm interested in this way that work is developing and how the boundary between so-called work and leisure is blurring.

How do you mix up your time? Does it feel different from what you have done before?

Photo Credit: Andrew Huff

Way back in 2006, CBS News aired a special on "Working 24/7." Interestingly enough, it was revisited in 2009 and then again recently in 2011. The news special highlighted the fact that "signs of our addiction to work are everywhere... The Digital Revolution means cell phones, wireless Internet and handheld computers like the BlackBerry allow us to work anywhere, anytime, 24/7."

I wondered, looking back - how many organizations or individuals embraced workshifting back in 2006? As it turned out, the Best Buy Corporation had been a pioneer of the "Results Only Work Environment" even further back, in 2002 - allowing certain functional employees to work wherever and whenever as long as their jobs got done.

Not surprisingly, the empirical results of this experiment were significant and identical to the benefits any workshifter today would express, verbatim. Those Best Buy employees who were part of the experiment attested to:

• Working Harder - to whom much is given, much is expected and these employees did not disappoint. Their work ethic strengthened, not only putting in a greater number of hours outside of the traditional office but with greater reliability and enthusiasm.
  
  
• Feeling Happier - despite spending even more hours on actual work, the bottom line was that these employees were the CEOs of their own schedule and could work when their internal time clocks dictated their personal best time.

So, several years after the Best Buy experiment, we may not be at 100% workshifting saturation yet, but surely with such positive results, all employers and organizations alike will eventually realize that work effort is not tied linearly to office hours and that a little flexibility goes a long way toward the bottom line.

Aren't we lucky that we are already among the enlightened?

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It is perhaps not surprising to learn that employees can struggle to work effectively during the summer, when there is the distraction of warm or even hot summer days, accompanied in many regions by high humidity that makes for uncomfortably sticky afternoons, evenings and nights.

For instance, British workers are traditionally less productive during the summertime, according to a new study. One in four employees said that they only worked to full capacity for one day and then coasted through the rest of the week. In the U.S., 25 percent of office workers felt their productivity decreased in the summertime, with arguments often ensuing as to what the optimum workplace temperature should be.

A number of factors have been identified as contributing to the problem. People understandably want to take advantage of the better weather. Going out for a business lunch al fresco in a local restaurant or cafe, perhaps accompanied by a glass of beer or wine (rather than opting for a takeout or sandwich to eat at one's desk), can lead to a more soporific afternoon with a corresponding reduction in an appetite for work.

Similarly, the option of meeting friends earlier in the evening for drinks or attending a ball game or outside music concert can also compete for employees' attention, while during winter months they may opt to spend a little longer completing a task or project. Furthermore, many workers elect to take periods of time off for vacations during this time of year, further exacerbating the situation.

Stuffy offices caused by poor ventilation or a lack of good air conditioning can also cause people to struggle to keep cool, leading to the understandable drawback of poor concentration on work. Human beings tend to perform best in a very limited range of environmental conditions (70-72°F being optimum) - even a slight deviation outside these limits can have an adverse impact on performance.

One option that could help resolve many of these challenges is to provide employees with the flexibility to get their work done when they feel they are best able to - perhaps earlier or later in the day. Many Mediterranean countries have long recognized that noon to mid-afternoon is often uncomfortable for work - hence the introduction of the siesta.

With the increasingly widespread adoption of mobile devices and smartphones, it is even easier for employees to remain connected and work from anywhere as they try to keep cool. By adopting a similar (though less formal and institutionalized) approach, employees would have the freedom to work during cooler parts of the day, take a longer lunch, enjoy a cold beer and even have a swim, knowing they are on track to get the job done - while still having fun and enjoying the summer sun!

Photo Credit: cam.riley