Blog | McKenna Sweazey

The blog has moved! Check out mckennasweazey.substack.com for my latest blog posts.

Nov 9, 20223 min read

How Do You Get S**T Done? Managing Your Own Productivity

I had a great time last week at the Indiana Conference For Women, and in my sessions, I got to hear a lot of amazing and insightful...

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mckennasweazey

Oct 28, 20223 min read

How Creative Writing Made Me Better at Giving Virtual Feedback

Your favorite digital empathy author gets a lesson in giving criticism from an unlikely source. I’ve recently started writing a fiction...

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Want Better Meetings - Here’s 3 Key Elements for Your Agenda

mckennasweazey

May 23, 20223 min read

Want Better Meetings - Here’s 3 Key Elements for Your Agenda

What’s the best format for a good meeting? One that follows the agenda! Routines can cause people to glaze over, so it’s not a question...

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Knowledge Distribution is Messy But Critical for Hybrid Work: 4 Ways to Make it Better

mckennasweazey

Apr 12, 20223 min read

Knowledge Distribution is Messy But Critical for Hybrid Work: 4 Ways to Make it Better

What is good knowledge distribution? Is it playbooks so new starters can get up to speed faster at complicated operations? Is it detailed...

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Using Digital Empathy When Dropping Slacks - A Guide to Being a Good Colleague

mckennasweazey

Mar 24, 20222 min read

Using Digital Empathy When Dropping Slacks - A Guide to Being a Good Colleague

Research on how emotions affect negotiation shows that people are less adept at conveying their emotions via email than they think they...

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Is Your Team Getting What They Want on Trello? 7 Tips For Virtual Collaboration & Negotiation

mckennasweazey

Feb 8, 20224 min read

Is Your Team Getting What They Want on Trello? 7 Tips For Virtual Collaboration & Negotiation

Where do you get work done with your remote colleagues? For many of us, work now happens within project management boards, tagging...

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What does a 1970’s perspective on engineers in the office tell us about effective remote work?

mckennasweazey

Jan 6, 20223 min read

What does a 1970’s perspective on engineers in the office tell us about effective remote work?

Or… how do we apply the Allen Curve to Slack and Zoom? The Allen Curve is a theory created by MIT Professor Thomas J. Allen. In the 70s,...

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Great Management Requires Teamwork: Keeping Remote Teams Engaged is a Shared Problem

mckennasweazey

Dec 20, 20214 min read

Great Management Requires Teamwork: Keeping Remote Teams Engaged is a Shared Problem

An ebb and flow of engagement is typical for all teams, but fixing it virtually is harder. We naturally feel less connected to and...

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Empathy For Leaders: 3 Tips to Improve Virtual Communications for Your Team

mckennasweazey

Dec 15, 20213 min read

Empathy For Leaders: 3 Tips to Improve Virtual Communications for Your Team

Modern corporate work involves relationship building, negotiation, camaraderie, and interpersonal challenges- all of which is aided by...

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mckennasweazey

Dec 7, 20212 min read

A new kind of office Secret Santa?

We’ve all been there, the office holiday gift exchange. You get someone’s name you barely know, find a gift that’s as inoffensive as...

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Did you know that emotions make you dumber?

mckennasweazey

Dec 1, 20213 min read

Did you know that emotions make you dumber?

We’ve all been there. You’re calmly sitting at your desk or kitchen counter, working away at a project, when out of left field, an...

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What questions do you ask in an interview to understand company culture?

mckennasweazey

Nov 30, 20212 min read

What questions do you ask in an interview to understand company culture?

When you’re interviewing remotely, it can be hard to know what the company is LIKE. How do colleagues treat each other? What are the...

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Which Is the Fake News? People Love Working From Home, or They Hate It?

mckennasweazey

Nov 9, 20213 min read

Which Is the Fake News? People Love Working From Home, or They Hate It?

You might feel like you’re getting whiplash reading the WFH news. Some articles say all employees hate the office and want to stay home...

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5 Scariest Emails You Can Get on a Friday

mckennasweazey

Oct 29, 20212 min read

5 Scariest Emails You Can Get on a Friday

We all know that feeling. You’re cruising into the weekend, tying up those last tasks, feeling good about the week. Then BAM. An email...

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How Automating Some Comms Is Necessary In a Remote Team

mckennasweazey

Oct 14, 20212 min read

How Automating Some Comms Is Necessary In a Remote Team

As we think about how technology aids knowledge distribution and transparency, I want to give a nod to the role workflow automation plays....

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The Guy with the Peloton in the Background - and 7 Other Coworkers You See on Zoom

mckennasweazey

Sep 27, 20211 min read

The Guy with the Peloton in the Background - and 7 Other Coworkers You See on Zoom

In a virtual-first office, people’s backgrounds are saying as much about them as their shoes do in person. That is to say, A LOT. What...

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mckennasweazey

Sep 21, 20212 min read

How to (Still) Thrive In Remote Work

The Delta variant has thrown me for a loop, I'll be honest. I was so excited to get back to the office. Since that dream has changed in...

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How to Manage Remote Workers Across Timezones

mckennasweazey

Sep 10, 20212 min read

How to Manage Remote Workers Across Timezones

The biggest challenge in a distributed, remote team is knowledge transparency Asynchronicity, the fact that people aren't all online at...

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mckennasweazey

Sep 7, 20212 min read

Why Remote Management Leads to Micromanagement

Micromanaging is an easy trap for remote managers to fall into while looking for some semblance of control. It's like managing with...

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mckennasweazey

Aug 3, 20212 min read

Quick Tips to Harness Empathy in Virtual Interviews

Prepare for a structured interview Harness empathetic listening Get your Zoom basics in order 1. Remote interviews tend to be more...

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