Back when most people were working face to face, it wasn’t difficult for a manager to keep up with what their team members were doing. Their behavior was observable because everyone was generally together in one place almost every hour of the workweek.

Today is different. Lots of folks work from home regularly. Team meetings happen on computer screens, not in conference rooms. In some organizations, nearly everyone fits the category of “works without supervision” at least a few days a week. Managers have had to get used to delegating to their people regardless of whether they are comfortable doing it.

High control managers aren’t happy about this turn of events. They believe when people work remotely without a supervisor, they are likely to goof off, procrastinate, and generally take their work less seriously. Their productivity will suffer—and it will reflect badly on the leader.

But servant leaders and their organizations have had a distinct advantage since people began working remotely. Why? Because their people were already empowered to make decisions and perform just as well on their own as they did when their leader was present.

The real proof that you are a trusted servant leader is how your people perform when you are not around. They know you trust them and they want to live up to the standards you have demonstrated. It’s plain to see that in this environment, trust goes both ways.

Here are a few simple steps to helping your people feel more empowered, trusted, and confident in their work:

• Work side by side with each person on your team to set specific, measurable, achievable goals.
• Provide team members with the direction and support they need to accomplish their goals.
• Communicate often so they know you care and that you are there if they need you.
• Catch them doing things right, praise progress, and redirect them if they get off track.
• Now step aside and watch them shine!

Trusting people to work on their own is easy when you empower them by setting goals together, praising or redirecting as needed, and keeping the lines of communication open. “The Most Important Part of Leadership Is What Happens When You’re Not There” is Simple Truth #44 in Simple Truths of Leadership: 52 Ways to Be a Servant Leader and Build Trust, my new book with Randy Conley. It’s on sale now at your favorite bookstore or online retailer. Download an eBook summary for a preview here!

Last week I announced the February 1 publication of my new book with longtime colleague and trust expert Randy Conley, Simple Truths of Leadership: 52 Ways to Be a Servant Leader and Build Trust. This week I’d like to talk about the inspiration behind the book and why I’m so excited about it.

The beginning of my mission statement is “I am a loving teacher and an example of simple truths.” From the time I was a young college professor, I have always looked for simple truths that reflect commonsense practices people can use to make their work and life—as well as the lives of the people they care about—happier and more satisfying.

Simple truths are not complicated but they are powerful. An example would be “All good performance starts with clear goals” or “Praise progress!” When I talk to audiences about these simple truths, I often add, “Duh!” because what I’m saying is so obvious. The audience always laughs because it’s common sense. The trouble is, too many people aren’t applying commonsense leadership principles in the workplace. When was the last time your leader took the time to review your goals with you? When was the last time your leader praised you, in specific detail, for a job well done? If it was recently, you’re one of the lucky ones.

Effective leadership is about implementing everyday, commonsense practices that will help your organization thrive. Yet so many leaders get caught up in the next urgent task that they forget to “walk the talk” and apply these basic good principles. That’s why we organized our book into 52 simple truths—one for each week of the year—which leaders can implement on the job. Each simple truth is described on a single page and can be read in about a minute. That’s brief enough for even the busiest leader!

When commonsense leadership is put into practice, everybody wins—leaders, their people, their organizations, and their stakeholders. If you’d like to know more, my coauthor Randy Conley and I will be talking about these common-sense practices in a webinar on Wednesday, January 26 at 7:00 a.m. Pacific Time. To sign up, click here: Simple Truths of Leadership: Becoming a Trusted Servant Leader. You won’t want to miss it!