After the shift from a physical office to a remote job can be challenging. Due to new circumstances and rules, people often fail to get the same result from their remote team compared to physical offices. So, if you want to keep your productiveness uncompromised, here are 5 ways to excel at managing remote teams.
Get used to online management
If you are in a managerial position of a remote team, your team members will expect you to lead from the front. So, to successfully manage one, you must be aware of the whole system and related technologies and micromanage everything online. Online management was relevant way before the COVID pandemic hit us. But after the pandemic, it becomes more prevalent.
So, you need to get used to it first, whether it’s a new project, new team member or new technology. Leading a team online instead of face-to-face is a different ball game; embracing the experience instead of avoiding it will help you a lot.
Lay out proper communication guidelines
Everyone will agree about the importance of communication in remote jobs. However, when managing a team, you need to be more precise and airtight about the communication, so there is no room for misunderstanding.
Setting up proper communication guidelines will help you share your plans quickly, and team members will know how to implement the guidelines and execute a plan. In addition, a clear communication channel means your team members will feel connected to you when a question or problem arises.
Set expectations
Remote working is a reasonably new trend, and with the adaptation of this new system, employees are more clueless than ever. Most of the new team members in a remote team seem unaware of what their team precisely expects from them. Expectations can be hard to set, and it can often confuse what to expect from others.
However, if you manage the team, you have to set the expectations early and often so that your team member has a clear vision. Setting expectations will also help employees understand how success will be measured and how they should approach the work.
Hire the right people
Management is the key to getting the best out of your team. But if you are in the right position to hire members, managing the team will be much easier later. You can consider this recruitment as part of the management. A weak link can ruin the productivity of the whole team.
So, you must remove them from the team and hire the right people to contribute positively. Self-motivation and team players can be tremendous assets for any remote team, and you should look for these qualities to make management more effortless.
Encourage results, not procedures
As the team manager, your only job is to get the job done no matter how. But many managers make the mistake of focusing more on procedures and how things are done instead of the result.
Every individual has a routine, and the critical perk of remote working is that you can follow the routine simultaneously at home and work. However, you have to understand that remote working is flexible, and if you allow your team members freedom to deliver the result, they will listen to you and work harder.
