My First Remote Team Assignment

Your experiences with your family will serve as your foundation as to how you will serve the world-T’Edra

I was instructed with the task of planning a college tour for my baby sister, she is currently a senior in high school and we are preparing her for college. She is the last of us to graduate from high school, she is the 7th child. She’s currently located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana with my parents and I currently reside in Dallas, Texas.

My parents and I knew that we wanted to start touring college campuses in the spring, so in November I scheduled the tour to my sister first choice which is located in New Orleans, Louisiana. We were also searching for an ACT Prep Academy that would equip my sister with the necessary tools to excel on the ACT (I found an ACT Prep Academy through a flyer that my sister’s counselor had given me). The ACT Prep Academy had a parent orientation that was scheduled on the same day as the tour. So throughout this process coordinating my parents schedule and my sister schedule was a task but a task that I was determined to accomplish. I took the time to create a group with my parents and sister, scheduled reminder text messages leading up to the tour and orientation day and on the day of and before the tour I sent questions to ask during the college tour. It was essential for my sister and parents to have a seamless planning process because they were in for a day of information overload from the college tour and ACT Prep Parent Orientation.

Being that I recently completed a Master’s degree in Human Resources- My cohort and I always discussed remote teams and in some instances we created our own remote teams. I do not recall having the responsibility of fully leading a remote team. A virtual or remote team can be defined as (a small number of people with complementary skills, who are committed to a common purpose and performance goals) is comprised of team members who share responsibility for achieving defined objectives and who perform from a flexible mix of stationary, mobile and/or remote work environments.

This degree came in handy when it was time to help my family plan for our first college tour with my baby sister. After the day was over I realized a few things from my first remote team assignment.

1. My degree, talents, gifts and skills are not for me- they are for me to use to help enhance other’s lives-family included.

2. Communicate, communicate, communicate- I cannot say that enough- continue to communicate with your team, send updates to keep everyone on the same page (especially if you or your team members are in different time zones)

3. My mom, dad and sister was my first official remote team the skills I learned and enhanced from that experience and throughout my Master’s program are transferable to my corporate career (although I am new to the industry of Human Resources, I have the foundation and experiences to expand on – when the opportunity comes in my career for a remote team assignment I am confident and equipped)

4. There’s PURE FULFILLMENT in achieving the goal as a team

a. My fulfillment came from my sister texting me pictures when her and my parents parked on campus

b. My fulfillment was when my parents called to tell me that they were at the ACT Parent Orientation

c. My fulfillment came when my parents mentioned that yes they were tired lol but it was great information they received from both the tour and orientation.

5. THANK YOU-My fulfillment was from the many thank you and I love you when we ended the call at the end of the night

This was an experience for both my family and me but an experience that was totally worth it and as I tell my parents, we have 1 college tour down and 3 more to go.

It is my prayer that on this journey of being crowned you discover:

1) Your “WHY”- CREATED

2) Your journey as to knowing that God only and will always have your best interest- COVERED

3) Trusting and believing that God will carry you, when you feel as though you cannot go any further - CARRIED

4) Your skills, gifts, talents, story and use them to make this world a better place -CROWNED

Know that I am rooting for you, in the meantime; Stay Crowned Kings and Queens

-T’Edra