What happens when the feedback we usually provide – the kind that involves eye-rolls, horrified faces, or overwhelmed shrugs – needs to happen in our virtual workplace? Too often, the result is silence.

We need feedback to do our jobs well. The virtual workplace requires both managers and co-workers to learn how to more intentionally seek out people’s opinions, to ask questions, and to be willing to have hard conversations. When we are online, we can’t assume someone will be able to see our face and then easily read our mind. We need to be willing to take the risk and use our words to tell a co-worker or boss what we really think.