Managing your team remotely

By Sherif Attar

In a world of ever-changing ambiguity and uncertainty, executives have to face two challenges: excellent performance and people development. Where many managers think those endeavours are “competing”, this author believes they are “completing”. GET DOWN TO BUSINESS argues.

Achieving target together, while
apart!

Once upon a time – before the days of videoconferencing, Zoom, intranets, and email – teams generally needed to be in the same location to work effectively.

But that story is long gone. Now, thanks to Covid-19, many employees work from home or in different buildings, or even cities. In cases, team members may be in different time zones and speak different languages.

Managing a team spread out in many locations is a challenge. How to ensure that everyone feels they’re treated fairly? How to prevent remote team members from feeling isolated? And how to get all members to buy into team’s objectives? Let’s examine those hows.

Competencies of the right team players

• Self-motivated – can work independently.
• Good communication skills – There may be limited face-to-face contact, so workers should have strong communication skills, and be comfortable with technologies.
• Result-driven – They should be comfortable with being assessed using key performance indicators (KPIs).
• Open and honest – to rely on them to come with problems, suggestions, and feedback.

Defining team purpose

Everyone must agree on team’s goals.  Creating a road-map is an excellent way to achieve this.

Strong team dynamics

With remote workers, there’s no body language. Watch for these warning signs:

• Reduced output.
• Short/abrupt emails.
• Reluctance to engage in telephone/video calls.
• Shortage of new ideas.

Feedback and rewarding performance

• Stay in contact with everyone – Schedule a telephone call or offer feedback by email.
• Make sure feedback is fair and consistent – Set aside time for one-on-one calls. Remote staff may feel unmotivated. Stay in regular contact so that they never feel forgotten.
• Ensure that rewards are equal – Reward appropriately according to guidelines. Do workers in remote offices feel as valued and rewarded as those in the office next door to you?

Promoting team bonding

Be creative about ways to achieve team bonding if workers are physically separated.

Get your team together whenever possible. If budget is tight, here are some ideas:

• Set up team Facebook page – with a forum for suggestions or ideas on projects. Include photographs of team members.
• Build a virtual team room – less formal than a team page. It’s the virtual equivalent of your office’s coffee break. Workers could share personal information, and you can put up photos of cakes to celebrate birthdays (zero calories too)!
• Use webcams during phone calls and Zoom conversations. This helps your team feel more connected to one another.
• Be sensitive to language barriers – If your workers speak different languages, make sure you have guidelines for the language used during a call. Test regularly to make sure everyone understands. A written agenda for the meeting helps, as well as written meeting minutes.

Adapted from Mind Tools

For questions or suggestions, please send your comments.

Sherif Attar, an independent
management consultant/trainer
and organisation development authority,

delivers seminars in the US, Europe,

Middle East and the Far East.

[email protected]