The arrival of the pandemic has changed the working environment completely. Yes, companies are opening, and people are coming back to offices, but still, some offices are working remotely. Some firms have even adopted permanent work from home. However, with remote working, there are some challenges, and employee management is at the top of them. This blog post deals with the same. Here are the secrets using which you can effectively manage a remote team.
Set Expectations
When remotely managing a team, the most crucial thing you can do is to define expectations with all parties involved. Virtual work hours, project scheduling, and revisions to production timeline charts are all part of these expectations.
Make sure your staff understands how you intend to manage them from afar. Random video calls, for example, might be startling if employees aren’t expecting them. Setting expectations is probably best accomplished by a single group call followed by one-on-one talks or small group outreach. During that one-on-one time, you may explain nuanced expectations to various members of your team, which will be crucial if you lead a cross-functional team.
Schedule Weekly Meetings
It’s vital to get your complete remote team together digitally at least once a week. You already have weekly or daily team meetings, and remote working should not affect that.
These sessions should be professional and effective. They should also allow for some humour and empathy. There’s nothing wrong with a toddler rushing across the room now and then. Allow your weekly meetings to fulfil a professional function while also humanising the work and messaging avatars that have replaced in-person conversations.
Give Importance To Results Over Activities
Work-life balance should not be disturbed. It’s tempting to keep track of when your team members are signed in and working, but part of learning to manage remotely is realising that results should speak for themselves.
ou must be assured that you and your talent management teams have assembled a talented staff. This is true even if you’re not working remotely, but it’s extremely important when leading a remote team. People have varied habits and environments, which may be more favourable to productivity in the early morning or late at night. There’s no need to specify how work must be accomplished as long as the product is good and the goals are reached.
Give A Sense Of Freedom
Remote working is like a trade-off between the office and the rest of the world. Encourage your staff to work from the garden or spend a free day outside of meetings and necessary office hours. Learning to manage people remotely requires instilling a feeling of freedom in your team.
Your staff has to feel that it’s their call to balance work, family, and interests. By instilling a feeling of freedom in them, you can help them nurture and enhance their work-life balance. The best you can do is to set an example by scheduling time for yourself and your activities on your calendar.
Exercise Patience & Kindness
Learning to lead a team remotely will inevitably result in some growing pains. It’s possible that project planning will have to change. The atmosphere at group sessions will be different. It might be tough to rejoice in victories.
However, despite all the growing pains, the best thing you can do is to show empathy and tolerance in your actions and words. Remember that some people will adjust to remote work more easily than others. Some people require the social connections that come from working in an office. Make sure to set aside some time to check in on everyone working remotely.
Bottomline
Managing teams remotely may be difficult. However, by following the best practices, you can create an open and productive remote work environment for your staff. At CrazyAlgo, we think that data is the key to realising remote teams’ full potential. Gaining insight into the working styles of your staff allows you to take action to assist them in work.
