Leading Remote Teams
Remote work (also known as work from home [WFH] or telecommuting) is a type of flexible working arrangement that allows an employee to work from a remote location outside of corporate offices. Remote teams are groups of people who interact through electronic communications. Members of a remote team are usually located in different geographical regions.
Today’s global marketplace and the current world situation with the Coronavirus epidemic has caused many employees to switch to remote work. This trend will continue even after the pandemic is over. Thus, it’s essential to readjust and reevaluate their team leadership skills today. With the right tips and advice on how to effectively lead remote employees, you can continue to keep your departments productive. The results of proper leadership and motivation will definitely positively surprise you.
Tips on Leading Remote Teams:
1. BE CLEAR AND UPFRONT ABOUT YOUR REQUIREMENTS AND EXPECTATIONS
Discussing the rules with your employees will help you achieve your goals more effectively. You might want to set the following basic expectations:
Discuss work schedules with each team member, showing them that you care about their personal time. This will help in building a positive relationship with employees and let them know that there is nothing complicated about meeting an agreed-upon schedule.
2. CHOOSE A REMOTE TEAM AND PROJECT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
To manage your remote team, you can’t do without a CRM system. You need to create a “virtual office” where the main work with projects will be concentrated.
Trello is a colorful and intuitive platform where you can create project boards, assign a person to be responsible for a certain task, etc. For this, you can also try the following convenient and useful tools: Monday, Teamwork, and Wrike.
Asana is another convenient tool for planning and working with projects, which is used by Uber, Airbnb, and Pinterest. Here you can communicate with a remote team member, post-project tasks, and monitor employee productivity.
This service will allow your team to complete tasks faster, as well as track time, analyze, and report. Each of your team members will be able to subscribe to any task, discuss it, receive notifications, etc. LiquidPlanner is flexible, mobile, and adjusted to social networks.
You can also try Zoho Projects (for small and growing teams), Smartsheet, Clarizen; and Workzone.
Then you can also use PivotalTracker, which is agile-based project management software that helps teams collaborate and monitor progress in the project’s lifecycle) and VersionOne – a project management app that supports Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), enterprise scrum, and kanban.
Try several platforms and choose the one that you like best in terms of UI and features that your team needs. For example, Trello is suitable for managing a small remote team, and Monday is a great solution for large projects.
3. CHOOSE ADDITIONAL COLLABORATION TOOLS FOR YOUR TEAM
Finding convenient apps for remote work with projects as well as for communication with each member of your team is essential. We have selected the most popular (or not so popular but still effective) and convenient tools, which can be useful for your business.
Slack is a convenient corporate messenger for communication and file transfer. Easily integrates with Trello and many other applications.
You can also try Stencil or Easil to easily design images for digital and social media marketing.
4. TRUST YOUR EMPLOYEES.
One of the most important things you can do to work better remotely is to decrease required communication. Most of the time, people can self-manage goals and tasks, so instead of polling for updates (which can often feel like a chore), use markers to track progress only when necessary. Trust smart people to know the best way to approach a problem and manage themselves.
5. SET UP RECURRING ONE-ON-ONES.
One practice to manage effectively in any setting is having effective one-on-ones. Ensuring that your one-on-ones are recurring at the right interval and cover both goals and personal development is key to effective management. These three principles allow for regular check-ins, can be adjusted for pace and tenure, and drive engagement that will reward and develop your team.
6. HOST DAILY MEETINGS FOR ONGOING PROJECTS.
Daily meetings about an active project are great. Try to have them at the same time so you reach a flow state easily. This is different from micromanaging: You are letting contractors manage their own time while giving them your full attention once each day. Be ready to repeat things you have said, because information gets lost easily online.
7. ALLOW THE TEAM TO DO THEIR 'THING'.
We’ve always had remote staff and contractors in locations around the globe. The best advice I can give for managing this kind of staff is to trust them. Have clear expectations for what they need to achieve, but then let them do their work.
8. INVOLVE THE TEAM IN SELECTING NEW HIRES.
We are a remote company, so the pandemic has been “business as usual.” What we have perfected is our hiring practice. We run candidates through a virtual review panel with all department heads and some staff, and everyone gets a vote. We no longer hire people who are not a fit, which makes everything run more smoothly.
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9. USE TECHNOLOGY TO YOUR ADVANTAGE.
It’s important to set up proper processes and task platforms early on. This not only helps you manage projects that involve multiple team members or vendors but also creates task and project status visibility so leaders know their team has a good handle on everything. Tools like ClickUp, Asana, Monday.com, or Basecamp are great ways to get this done. Make it a system!
10. ENCOURAGE COMMUNICATION.
Create “water cooler” moments. This can be done by reaching out to people that you don’t normally speak to. The goal? Help people get a sense of belonging. The opportunity is twofold: First, you help someone feel valued by getting to know them as a person. Second, you encourage continuity by creating an action/follow-up so the relationship builds. This is scalable if you have several leaders following this practice.
11. LET EMPLOYEES KNOW YOU’RE INVESTED IN THEM.
First and foremost, be empathetic. Never let your employees forget that you look at them as human beings first and are invested in their lives. Next, there must be full communication around expectations, including goals, deadlines, and how they can play a part in embracing and enhancing the existing company culture.
12. OPT FOR SHORTER MEETINGS.
With recent shifting lifestyles forcing organizations to reassess their outlooks on changing working circumstances, employers are looking at innovative ways to reconnect with old and new employees. Short daily scrums versus two-hour-long meetings are helping businesses encourage communication, identify problems faster, work on them quickly, become more agile, and develop a good cadence in the long run.
13. ENSURE EVERYONE FEELS INCLUDED.
When you work closely with contractors and remote team members, I think it is vital to treat them like you would treat employees working in the office down the hall. Add them to your teams. Include them in communications. Schedule one-on-one sessions. Invite them into your systems with the appropriate roles and permissions. It is important to do everything we can to make people feel like part of a whole.
14. KEEP EVERYONE ON THE SAME PAGE.
Communicate, communicate, and communicate again—especially if you have a new person on your team. If you just had a call and agreed on some course of action, write a follow-up message summarizing what you have just decided. Surprisingly, people understand things differently. What may sound obvious to one person is not so clear to another.
15. CREATE MEETING ROUTINES.
Hold regular “all hands” meetings. In these meetings, reinforce the strategic context of everyone’s work so they are reminded how and where they fit into the bigger picture. Invite new team members to introduce themselves, and publically recognize members of the team whose efforts are making a difference—in results, culture, partnerships, teamwork, and so on.
16. DON’T AVOID VIDEO CALLS.
There is definitely Zoom fatigue, but do get on those video calls. It’s worth it because looking people in the eye and being together visually drives peer accountability. It is much harder to let someone down if you know you will be looking them in the eye and if it is someone whose face you can see in your mind. We are visual creatures, so keep up the in-person(ish) camaraderie.
17. CELEBRATE SUCCESSES.
Clarify how you measure success, and make sure the metrics focus not only on quality, time, and financial factors but also on personal well-being. When your team feels mentally, physically, and emotionally great, it will show in their overall performance. Then, find ways to celebrate success. When you celebrate, your body produces oxytocin and endorphins, which reduce stress and boost your immune system.
18. PLAN VIRTUAL ACTIVITIES.
It’s important to create a remote culture and cohesiveness using the various tools available online. Just like an in-office team, a remote team can still get together virtually for a happy hour, games, or other team-building activities. It’s important not to skip this step—culture is everything, even when the company is partially or fully remote.
Light-hearted team building initiatives can be just as unifying when leading remote employees. Shared interests and experiences are what relationships are built on, so creating opportunities for employees to connect is a management best practice, especially when managing remote employees. One way to do this is by creating discussion threads on your communication platform of choice about non-work related topics. Favorite movies, family photos, and dream vacation destinations are among the many fun things you might use to start conversations among colleagues.
19. LEAD WITH EMPATHY.
I believe that creating psychological safety, especially for remote or hybrid teams, is critical. You can do so by creating a shared purpose, asking for team members’ perspectives, showing empathy, and creating opportunities for levity and team bonding. Then watch your team’s collective confidence, creativity, and productivity rise.
20. HOLD RETREATS( at least once)
According to health experts, It’s important that employees of a remote team have the opportunity to meet in person, socialize, and have a great time together in person, at least once a year. Large companies arrange employee meetings in different countries, choosing locations depending on the preferences of the team. Such meetings are an opportunity not only to relax but also to bond together.
For example, you can create an annual 7-day Grand Meetup retreat for your employees from all over the world. Professionals will get to know each other, discuss projects, share experiences, and simply have fun.
The first month of leading a remote team can seem like a daunting challenge until you set up remote business processes. Once communication between everyone involved in the project is established, and the team spirit emerges, your organization’s business will take off. Allow employees to be more independent, encourage them, motivate them to work for results, enjoy on-site meetings. All of this will make your team members friends who trust and help each other grow and achieve success.
NB: Use was made of www.gartner.com, www.blog.logicearth.com, www.biz30.timedoctor.com, www.sweetprocess.com and www.wikipedia.com in researching for this article.
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