If you expect that you’ll continue to lead teams distributed among multiple sites and home offices, these resolutions for remote and hybrid leaders are for you.

I’m a true advocate for face-to-face interactions with colleagues, and while I’m impressed with how well we’ve all adapted to virtual collaboration, I believe we risk eroding connection and relationships if we don’t actively adopt practices to mitigate for the loss of in-person time together. As a leader and executive, I’ve also learned that my digital behaviors carry extra weight with my team, and it takes conscious effort to avoid missteps and miscommunication.

With that in mind, here are some of my resolutions for 2022. Which one would make the biggest difference for your team?

Show up on our internal social channel: I’m going to join colleagues’ conversations on Teams (for you it may be Slack, Yammer, or Workplace). Adding a laughing emoji to a funny post is like letting colleagues see me laugh in the hallway. I can share photos as a substitute for what people might have formerly seen on my desk or in my office. It’s not just about having employees see that I’m here and get to know me as a person, it also gives me a chance to see what’s on employees’ minds.

Make recognition a daily practice: Sometimes a two-word “thank you” email is enough, but in the absence of handshakes and high-fives or thank-you lunches and happy hours, I’m going to commit to at least one more meaningful thank you or recognition each day. That may be as simple as an email with a couple of extra sentences describing what I appreciated, a few extra words in a 1:1 meeting, or a shoutout on Microsoft Teams.

Clarify expectations: Email is replacing a lot of conversations, including conversations that task people with work. Unfortunately, when I send an ask in an email, I can’t see if the receiver looks confused and needs more information. I’ve found that, especially because I’m an executive, employees may hesitate to email me back with follow-up questions. They don’t want to bother me (they wouldn’t) or look unintelligent (they wouldn’t). Instead, they may worry and guess what I want, which can create stress and errors. So I resolve to pause and reread emails that ask my team members to do something to ensure I’ve clearly communicated the ask and welcomed questions, especially when messaging people who are lower in the organization or new to the company. Of course, another way to prevent confusing asks is to make time for a phone call instead of an email.

Assume good intentions: When I receive an email that makes me bristle, I will reread the email imagining it in a genuine and pleasant tone. I will give the sender the benefit of the doubt and first try to see if there’s an alternate, better, interpretation that can guide my response. If it still seems disrespectful or off course, I’ll work to talk with the person live to resolve it. I will start with trust that my colleagues always mean well.

Text or message before an unplanned call: As a leader, I’ve learned that if my phone number pops up on someone’s caller ID when we don’t have a scheduled meeting, it can elevate their heart rate. Is it an emergency? Should they drop what they’re doing and answer? Sometimes it is urgent, and sometimes I’m just trying to chat quickly about something while I have time between meetings. It’s like I’m dropping by their office when I have a minute, but I can’t see if they look busy or are on a call — or away from their desk in the bathroom! To better check on others’ availability, I’ll plan to text or message someone before I call them when it’s not urgent.

Apply the camera test to meetings: When my camera is on, I’m signaling that I am fully present in the meeting. You can see that you have my attention. If I find myself tempted to keep my camera off during a meeting because I don’t think it needs my full attention, it means that meeting doesn’t pass the camera test. If it’s not important enough for me to be fully present, is it important enough for me to be partly there? Probably not. I’ll accept invites to meetings when I know I can be present and in the moment.

Check in about the how and not just the what: It’s easy to focus 1:1 meetings with my team members on “what” questions: What are you working on? What do you need? What did you decide? I resolve to ask “how” questions that can shape the ways we work together. How is your team doing with remote work? How can we work better together? How are you doing?

In a digital and distributed workplace, it’s easy to become hyper transactional. With these resolutions, I hope to stay connected with the humans behind the 1s and 0s. It’s the people, not the emails, who make our business succeed.