Libsyn Directory

WLP351 Laying Yourself Off as a Manager and Reading and Listening Recommendations March 2024

21st Century Work Life and leading remote teams

Release Date: 03/07/2024

21st Century Work Life and leading remote teams

In this episode, host Pilar Orti talks to Sagar Chandni, who describes himself as a distributed work practitioner and a strategy leader with a heart. We talk about the nuances of these terms and the evolving nature of work, particularly in India where Sagar is based. Sagar discusses his work with startups and the challenges and opportunities they face, and shares his approach to informed leadership, ethical business strategies, and workplace inclusiveness, as well as the importance of embracing a mindset shift and approaching work in a way that...

WLP368 How do You Build a Hub of Talent?

21st Century Work Life and leading remote teams

Host Pilar Orti is joined by Doug Haines, the founder of and . Doug's entrepreneurial journey began with Kalium, where he successfully recruited talent from South Africa. This positive experience inspired him to launch Marketing Pros, an agency connecting South African marketing professionals with global opportunities. In this episode, Doug discusses the development of both ventures and his strategies for maintaining a robust talent pool. For the full show notes check out Find out more about Doug Haines and his companies: Marketing Pros: Kalium: If you’re looking to expand...

WLP367 The 3 A's of Connection and other things I've been up to

21st Century Work Life and leading remote teams

In this episode, host Pilar Orti shares her new framework showing how we connect at work, and talks about some of her other projects. If you'd like to be alerted when the Remotely Shakespeare wall calendar comes out, head over to For more information check out

WLP366 The Multiple Challenges of "Hybrid"

21st Century Work Life and leading remote teams

A special episode to celebrate the launch of the revised edition of The Long-Distance Leader, written by Kevin Eikenberry and Wayne Turmel, who returns to the show with another conversation that made host Pilar Orti laugh plenty of times. The conversation takes a critical look at the “hybrid” workplace - is it a compromise, a hostage negotiation? Or is the problem that we’re all transitioning to a new era of knowledge work, and are uncomfortable with uncertainty? Wayne also covers the role of trust, building a culture fit for hybrid and proximity bias. Summary blog post: ...

WLP365 Career Transformation, Cultural Adaptation and Running a Pilates Studio!

21st Century Work Life and leading remote teams

In today’s episode, host Pilar Orti catches up with Frédérique Lloyd Bougreau, about how she transformed her career and lifestyle by setting up a Pilates studio in rural France. They talk about cultural adaptation, building a business in a new environment and the Importance of movement and exercise as we progress through life. Frédérique’s contact details are over at her website: As always, you can find Pilar over at

WLP364 Researching Gen Z plus Reading and Listening Recommendations

21st Century Work Life and leading remote teams

For today’s Recommendations episode, Pilar is joined by Catherine Nicholson, co-founder and creative director of The Virtual Training Team. Before they move onto this month’s reading and listening recommendations, Catherine talks about her recent interest: the blend of generations in the workplace, and how to make the most out of them. Recorded on 7 August 2024 For the full set of show notes, head over to

WLP363 Building Engagement and Belonging

21st Century Work Life and leading remote teams

In this episode Pilar talks to Justin Gignac, co-founder of Working Not Working, and Nicolina Jennings, the company's VP and Managing Director. Our guests share the origins and evolution of Working Not Working, and how what they’ve learned about engagement and belonging led to their new platform NTRNL. They make a strong case for increasing employee retention by creating an infrastructure that makes internal opportunities - and hidden talents- visible to all. You can find a summary over at Check out and

WLP362 Bonding and Bridging - plus Reading and Listening Recommendations

21st Century Work Life and leading remote teams

We are joined by regular guest Theresa Hollema who has been doing some thinking with host Pilar Orti on the topic of Bonding within remote teams, versus Bridging, where team members create bonds with other parts of the organisation. Plus, Theresa has her own reading and listening recommendations to add to Pilar’s. You can connect with Theresa on LinkedIn: And check out the resources on her website: Let us know what you thought of the episode over at You can find an summary of the first part, plus all the links we refer to here:

WLP361 Can Chatbots Affect Connection in Remote Teams?

21st Century Work Life and leading remote teams

A new player has entered the field in the world of work: generative AI. As remote teams increasingly rely on asynchronous communication, have AI chatbots become go-to resources for quick answers and idea validation? What does this mean for our workplace relationships and social skills? Maya Middlemiss and Pilar Orti discuss! For more detailed show notes head over to You can message Pilar through the Virtual not Distant website: and get hold of Maya over at Remote Work Europe: .

WLP360 Remote and Beyond: A New Landscape for the World of Work

21st Century Work Life and leading remote teams

Host Pilar Orti talks to Henry O'Loughlin, founder of Buildremote. As he shares his journey from running a fully remote marketing agency to creating Buildremote, Henry discusses the pitfalls many companies faced during the pandemic and how his experience led him to develop a "remote operating system" playbook. The conversation evolves into a thought experiment looking into the future of work, exploring concepts like the four-day workweek, the growing trend of freelancing and the creator economy, ending in a not-too-distant future where traditional employment structures become networks of...

More Episodes

Today’s post is the audio companion to the Virtual not Distant monthly newsletter, which you can sign up to here. Every month, Pilar shares with readers articles she’s come across on the web, books she’s read (or is reading) and podcast episodes she’s listened to. And today, she’s joined by Marcus Wermuth, who is an Engineering Leader specialising in virtual leadership.|

Marcus is back on this show, this time talking about his recent professional transition: laying himself off from his job as Head of Engineering. This has been a very difficult decision to take, but he’s followed his own principles, and stayed true to his identity as servant leader.

Coffee Break Articles:

First off, check out Marcus’ article on “laying himself off”,

If you are interested in hearing another conversation about how to strike the balance between transparency and discretion, check out episode 69 of the Management Café.

18.30 MINS

Deutsche Bank's 3-day-a-week return-to-office policy has been met with fierce criticism by staff who say there isn't enough space for everyone
via Business Insider
The title says it all, but worth looking at some of the detail to understand the risks of mandatory planning looks like.

Right to disconnect: Implementation and impact at company level

Recent research shows that having laws about the right to disconnect is not enough to prevent employees feeling like they have to be constantly available. Company culture and in-house companies are needed too.

10 Ways to Build Better Relationships Working Remotely
A blog post that could have been a short ebook. A thoughtful article with specific advice on how to build relationships .

Are Enterprise Social Platforms All Talk?

Past guest Wietske Van Osch has just released research into why enterprise social networks need to be run differently to the social networks employees might be used to, for employees and the organisation to get the most out of them.

Gifts and Greats for True Feedback
via Mark Kilby
A very useful post to guide us through formulating feedback on other people’s work, and how to structure it.

Listening Recommendations:

Podcast: The Rich Roll Podcast
Episode: #815 CHARLES DUHIGG: HOW TO UNLOCK THE SECRET LANGUAGE OF CONNECTION
Date: 22 February 2024

An interview with journalist/writer Charles Duhigg, talking about building strong relationships.

Podcast: Tetragrammaton with Rick Rubin
Long-form Interviews with a range of guests, from a range of industries.

Podcast: Collaboration Superpowers
Episode: Agile Retrospectives 2.0 with Esther Derby, Diana Larsen & David Horowitz
Date: 5 March 2022

Lisette Sutherland talks to the authors of the new edition of Agile Retrospectives 2.0. Pilar hasn’t listened to it yet, but highly recommends it - she’s a great fan of David Horowitz, who guested on this show back in 2017, in episode 129 on Building a Distributed Business.

Podcast: Sliced Bread
Episode: Fitness Trackers (UK link, but look for it in your podcast app)
29 Feb 2023

Book Recommendations:

Scaling People: Tactics for Management and Company Building
by Claire Hughes Johnson

Collabor(h)ate: How to build incredible collaborative relationships at work (even if you’d rather work alone)

by Deb Mashek PhD

Supercommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection
by Charles Duhigg

The Coming Wave
by Mustafa Suleyman

Can’t Hurt Me
by David Goggings

Make Your Art No Matter What
by Beth Pickens

You can connect with Marcus Wermuth on LinkedIn and check out his website: www.marcuswermuth.com

Other episodes with Marcus:
WLP291 Starting a New Role Remotely

WLP219 OnBoarding (or Integration) in Remote Teams and Organisations

WLP188 - From Maker to Manager in a Distributed Company

Coffee Break Articles:

Listening Recommendations:

Book Recommendations:

TOPICS