I want to give you one idea this week. Go see it for yourself.
Think about how much of your work happens through a screen right now. Your team. Your customers. Maybe the people you're supposed to be leading. You know their faces from a little box. You know what they tell you on calls.
That's fine. A lot of good work gets done that way. Mine too.
But there's a difference between hearing about something and seeing it.
This week I spent two days on site with a client. I coach a group of their leaders, and almost all of it happens on video. They're spread across the country and they travel constantly. Virtual is the only way it works.
This time I got to be in the room. I sat in on a full team meeting run by one of the leaders I coach. I watched him lead. We debriefed after. I had lunch with his team, and dinner with a couple of his people.
I came home with a completely different picture of that team. Nobody told me anything secret. I could just finally see it. How the room felt when he talked. Who leaned in. What people said over dinner that they'd never say on a call.
Now when he and I talk, I'm not coaching the version of him that shows up on video. I'm coaching the guy I watched lead.
I learned this a long time ago in sales.
Years back I was in a competitive deal. The executives on the other side told us they were all in on a competitor's software. Happy with it. Not much reason to switch.
So I went and spent time with one of their field appraisers at a body shop. I just watched him work.
It turned out he wasn't using that software the way the executives thought. Not even close.
I never would have learned that in a conference room. But once I saw it, I could talk about their business the way the people doing the work talked about it. It changed the whole conversation, and it helped steer the deal.
That's the power of the room. You see things you'd never hear about. And you earn a kind of credibility that doesn't come any other way.
Here's the part I keep thinking about. Flying in wasn't part of the deal. Nobody asked me to. It would have been easy to keep everything on video and call it good.
But at some point, if you care about the result, you have to decide to show up. So I've decided. I'm going to spend a couple days a month on site, doing as many of these sessions live as I can.
I'm not saying give up video. It keeps you connected, and it makes a lot of good work possible. I'm saying don't let it be the only way you know your people.
And don't skip the meal. Some of the best conversations of my week happened over a meal.
So, here's one small thing for this week.
Think of one person you've only been seeing on a screen. A team member. A customer. Someone whose work you make decisions about.
Put time on the calendar to go see them where they work. Not to present. Just to watch and listen.
You'll be surprised what you see when you're actually there.