“For though I am far away from you, my heart is with you. And I rejoice that you are living as you should and that your faith in Christ is strong.”

One of the toughest things for a new manager or leader to learn is how to manage and lead someone who is not around them geographically. Distance management is one of the toughest skills to master because it’s really hard to get practice without just doing it.  And that means someone, the manager themselves too, are at risk of the on the job learning that happens.  Distance management should not be taken lightly as so many things can go wrong and sometimes those mistakes can be really influential on the business.  My advice would be to never take someone who has not been managed at a distance and throw them into this type of role without shadowing and spending a lot of time with someone who is very experienced and talented at being a boss from a distance.

Maybe one of the greatest examples we have of distance managing was Paul as the church leader.  With letters he led and set direction for how the church operates today.  So, this means that we can also grow spiritually and grow others spiritually with the same principles that Paul modeled. Add in our technology advantages and we should feel like we can grow the body and ourselves without distance being the barrier.

Reference: Colossians 2:5 (New Living Translation)