Moving from an office-based culture to one where most, or all, of the team is working remotely is challenging in a number of ways. There may be a whole lot of new issues to address, and it is important to take the time to check in with employees who may be struggling in their work-from-home situation.
On the plus side, the move to all-remote teams could prove to be the spur that some businesses need to rethink processes that were no longer productive and were ripe for review. Here are some tips for managing remote teams:
- Remember that managing a remote team effectively requires trust.
Working effectively as a remote team takes trust. This may be a good time to reflect on the fact that everyone in the business was hired for a reason — and that they have the talent and experience to do their job.
Giving people the flexibility to manage their own hours is important because they may be in complex situations — having to tag team with their spouse home-schooling children, for instance — or sharing a limited workspace. It may not be convenient for them to work the same office hours as everyone else, and it’s important to be conscious of this.
Equally, it is important to encourage people to set boundaries. Some people are putting in more work than ever because they feel they are expected to be permanently on call. That two-hour daily commute to the office and back may have seemed a drag at the time, but it punctuated the beginning and end of the workday. If you replace that time with more hours at the desk — and if you feel obliged to shoot out a reply to every email or message right away — that can lead to overwork and burnout.
- Don’t allow group meetings to proliferate, but keep communication open.
In the past, people may have assumed their colleagues were traveling or otherwise engaged, so they didn’t expect instant responses or 100% attendance at every meeting. Because everyone is at home and available, they may find now they are attending more group meetings than they did in the past, so make sure your meetings are really necessary.
It can be exhausting to participate in hour after hour of virtual meetings, and it may even be counterproductive if it prevents people from getting on with their roles. I have started to make a conscious effort to decline group meetings that I felt I had become sucked into attending. I am quite happy for people to meet without me, and I trust them to ask for my opinion afterward, if necessary. Then, I tend to be asked only about specific items that were debated, and I don’t have to cast my opinion on all of them.
That said, a high degree of communication remains vital. It is much easier for teams to succeed if they have clarity about what the company’s strategic goals are, how they plan to achieve them and what the time scales are.
And when you do have meetings, take a few minutes at the beginning and end to check in with colleagues through informal chat. After all, that is what happens in real life — you gather at the coffee stall or the watercooler, and we all know that sometimes the most important communication happens there. There can be a tendency to launch straight into the agenda or PowerPoint at a virtual meeting, but the civilities do matter, especially in a time of increased remote work.
- Encourage decentralized decision-making.
As a colleague of mine puts it, a company where the CEO makes all the decisions is a company where the CEO doesn’t sleep. And what is bad for the CEO is also bad for the business. When decision-making bottlenecks arise, they cause delays, frustrate employees and disappoint customers.
If projects are to be successfully delivered by remote teams, it is important to have a culture where the people on the ground are encouraged to make decisions and where they feel it is safe to do so. That means you don’t have a blame culture — it is OK to make mistakes as long as that is part of the learning process. For me, it is more important to hone the decision-making process than to debate individual decisions. Everyone makes mistakes from time to time, but a good process delivers more consistently good results.
To deliver successful and profitable engagements, project managers will need access to relevant and accurate information, not just on the project goals, but also on the commercial details. Ensure that project managers can see what the effect of something will be on the profitability of a project. However, nobody can check their own work, so it is important that there is a high degree of visibility when it comes to what is happening in each project — and that people understand when they should consult managers or escalate concerns.
Managing remote teams requires putting into practice some of the principles we strive for during standard operations but don’t always get the time to perfect. Operate in an atmosphere of trust and mutual respect. Set appropriate boundaries, and avoid being sucked into unnecessary meetings. Also, give people on the ground access to up-to-date and relevant information, and encourage them to use their judgment to make appropriate decisions.
Written by Mark Robinson, Forbes Council Member