Yesterday, I discussed how people who work in virtual environments may develop social network “doughnuts.” They have more contacts outside of their home city than within it. Today, I hosted a professional roundtable event for twelve people from six global companies. The participants live across the United States. They’d never met each other before, and [...]

If you live and work within the virtual workplace, you run the risk of creating the doughnut. A doughnut occurs when your national or global professional network exceeds the strength of your local network. Few people plan to create the doughnut. However, if you’re a consultant, it’s easy for your network to develop this way. [...]

Almost everyone loves an unexpected gift. It awakens the gleeful five-year old inside of us. When you work with people across the country or the world, you can’t take someone out to lunch on their birthday. Over the years, I’ve found that the mail offers a great way to build virtual professional relationships. You have [...]

In the world of virtual professional relationships, you won’t meet colleagues at the water cooler. Most people rely solely on the standard conference calls and routine e-mails to manage their relationships. They don’t invest time to build relationships, and then when they really need them . . . they wonder wonder why their connections feel [...]