How to Manage and Lead Remote Teams
/In 2020 we saw a lot of companies either completely shut down or transition to a remote environment. As worked resumed, remote work became more common, with some companies deciding to stay fully remote for the foreseeable future. The initial transition to remote work had its fair share of struggles, but there are still limitations and concerns that a lot of leaders have about managing their teams remotely. The following are some tips to provide your teams with the structure and feedback they need to thrive, personally and professionally, in a remote environment.
Set Up Clear Communication Channels
One of the biggest initial struggles was faced by teams that didn’t already have a way to quickly communicate with their teams online. At this stage of remote work, most have utilized a communication tool, whether that be Google Hangouts within the Google Workspace Suite or Slack or one of the other many programs available to chat with your teams. But it’s crucial in a remote work environment that teams have ways to easily collaborate or get additional clarity or support from one another that is not through email.
It is important, however, that these tools are used to increase productivity rather than detract from it. One of the things I noticed, especially at the beginning of the remote work transition, is that people had a tendency to overuse chat as a way to prove that they were working, which often meant engaging in unnecessary conversation instead of actually being able to get work done. I quickly realized that because we weren’t all sitting in an office where we could see each other and knew when someone got up to walk away from their computer that people were worried that if they didn’t immediately respond to a chat people would assume they weren’t working. Teams that feel the need to prove they are working is indicative of a more significant culture issue, and one that should be addressed quickly.
Schedule Regular Check-ins with Your Team
You should do this whether you are remote or in person, if I’m being honest. You should also have individual check-ins and team check-ins. It’s necessary to keep open communication, however, it’s more important in a remote environment to continue to establish culture, team connectedness, and to identify areas where team members could help on another. Individually, it also provides an opportunity to discuss struggles or concerns. You should have predetermined agendas for these meetings ahead of time so people have an opportunity to collect their thoughts prior to the meeting to make sure they don’t miss or forget something that they wanted to cover. By making these agendas available ahead of time, you also give people an opportunity to add discussion items as they arise so they don’t forget about something that happened a week prior to the meeting happening.
Set Clear Expectations & Invest in a Project Management System
Working on a remote team means over-communicating. It means that you need to set clear expectations when you request something from a team member. Make sure you provide adequate direction and information so they can get you a good first draft. Good direction can include information like any specific details that need to be included, if there is a template or previous example they should use as a reference, if there is a specific format you need, when you need to have a draft in hand, when it needs to be delivered to the client, and any other specific details that are going to help someone determine how to best accomplish the task.
One of the best ways to do this effectively, and to create accountability is with a project management system. There are so many to choose from that you really have to look at your options and decide what works best for the structure of your organization and teams. Many companies that were already working on Microsoft platforms utilized Microsoft Teams because it functions not only as a project management platform, but also has the communications function discussed above and other functions that fit into a company’s business. Some of the other most popular project management software options include, Asana, Basecamp, JIRA, Monday, among many many others.
Know When To Take The Communication Offline
One of the most important things to do is to have the emotional intelligence to know when to pull the conversation offline. Communications through chat or messaging can easily come off wrong, or can be taken personally when that is not the intent. If you can sense that a team member is getting frustrated, you’ve had messages going back and forth, or you could easily explain something more clearly by explaining it on a video call, those are all instances where the conversation would be better suited in person or over video as opposed to chat or email.
I feel like I shouldn’t need to say this, but online chat or messaging is also not the place to give difficult feedback or criticism, even if it’s constructive. People have a tendency to do this because having difficult conversations is naturally uncomfortable, however, by avoiding the confrontation or sending a passive aggressive, or just aggressive message is only going to create a bigger situation. Be kind to your team, and have the conversation in person or over video.
Encourage Practices That Create Healthy Boundaries
Remote work isn’t for everyone, but overwhelmingly, statistics have shown that people are actually more productive in a remote environment than they are in an office. While there are the distractions of home, I would argue those are much less than the distractions of being surrounded by your coworkers all day. You don’t get engulfed in that conversation in the break room, or walk into a coworkers office for a quick question but then spending 20 minutes talking about what you did over the weekend.
That said, at home, there is less of a separation in your day because you aren’t commuting to an office so there isn’t a hard start or stop in your day. People are actually working longer on average, but people are also accomplishing more in less time. While this is great for business, it’s also important as a leader that you encourage the team to create healthy boundaries so they don’t burn themselves out. That also means if they need some heads down work time during their day, giving them the option to turn off chat and make themselves “unavailable” for a couple of hours. It means encouraging breaks, turning off in the evenings and weekends, scheduling regular time off to refill their tank. There are plenty of things you can do to help them set those boundaries for themselves, the best way is to practice them yourself as the leader.
Remote work is not going to go away anytime soon, if ever. It has opened doors to a new way of work, and given companies access to endless talent that is not limited by location. That doesn’t, however, mean that we won’t continue to have issues associated with the remote work environment, but we have to be mindful of those potential pitfalls and make sure we are creating plans when and if those issues arise. I’d love to help re-engage your remote teams and help create a culture of connectedness in a remote or hybrid world. You can also follow me on Facebook or LinkedIn, or sign up for my newsletter in the footer to for more. I promise I won’t spam you.
