Remote teams are getting more complex as time goes by. Due to the pandemic, virtual teams became the de facto basic unit of businesses. Managing members from different physical locations can be challenging, but this doesn’t mean it’s impossible. Read on to find out the most efficient ways to manage remote teams.
Managing remote teams has its own challenges, from virtual team building to consistent online collaborations. Here are 7 great ways to manage remote teams and build a high-performing team to handle the pressure.
1. Create Clear Communication Guidelines
Communication can easily fall by the wayside when you work remotely and your team operates pretty independently. Yet this is precisely what you should avoid. Instead, you should create an environment of trust in your virtual team.
As a remote work community member, your team needs to understand each other. Teams who know and understand each other perform better, so a team agreement or guidelines are important.
Create clear communication guidelines and rules so everyone understands what is expected from them. You must define the channels that the team can use to communicate. This is a crucial task because you want to ensure that your team members are communicating and working together.
2. Schedule Daily Check-Ins
Things can get confusing when you work on a virtual team with individuals in different time zones. While some team members are at work or asleep, others might be enjoying their leisure time, while others may be traveling.
The last thing you want is for things to get lost in translation. That’s why it’s crucial to schedule daily check-ins with everybody on the team. By planning the calls and ensuring everyone is present, you enable everyone to be on the same page.
Schedule a daily or weekly meeting to review what everyone is working on and for any team member who needs support. The agenda for these discussions should be short; 15 to 30 minutes is enough. This should be enough to have everyone on the same page for the day.
3. Learn Together
Learning and educating each other should be a priority for every company member. Education can help the whole team grow, so you need to set some time aside for education. Instilling the culture of learning in remote teams can help improve employee retention.
Try to run workshops or webinars where each team member will get to learn something new. This can be anything from an introductory IT lesson to how to run a presentation in a digital setting.
You can also hold internal training sessions, where everyone can learn more about a specific topic. Whatever you do, try to educate and grow together.
4. Overcommunicate Effectively
This is another great way to manage remote teams. Being in an online world, it’s natural to assume that people are more connected than ever. However, this isn’t always the case. Take the time to communicate with your people and find ways to reach out to them.
You can use the tools available for your platform to contact your stakeholders constantly. This helps you stay connected with people and ensures that someone is always available.
Be proactive and look for indirect ways to reach your teammate. For instance, ask your colleagues to share what they’ve been working on via direct messages instead of waiting for them to email you.
5. Set Goals and Objectives
One of the biggest mistakes organizations make when working with a distributed team is that they don’t set goals and prioritize objectives. This is one of the biggest obstacles to success, and you have to avoid it.
Set clear and specific goals for each task and have a clear objective for every project. This will help improve your productivity. As a member of that group, you need to meet those deadlines and expectations.
Every member of your workforce should know what their role is, and how it contributes to the overall objectives of your group. Virtual teams are no different than physical ones; they have a goal and need to achieve it.
6. Be Human
Building trust and being transparent are key traits that you should cultivate in your community of employees. Being in the digital age, it sometimes seems like you can’t connect with anyone anymore, which means that your interactions with your coworkers are occasionally robotic.
Even though technology is changing the way we work, you should still treat your co-workers like humans. This is the only way to create strong bonds and a more humane working environment.
Take time to get to know your members and form relationships. This can be difficult in the digital world, but treating each other with respect and empathy will go a long way. These will help you build better relationships.
If you’re working with people from different cultures, make sure to show respect. Don’t judge or assume that one culture is better than another. Instill a culture of communication, and build trust with each person you work with.
7. Set A Chain of Command For Easy Decision Making
In a non-digital era, it was easy to tell who makes the decisions and who handles the day-to-day operations. In a digital world, things are more complicated. Decisions are harder to make because you don’t know who makes the decision.
It can be confusing for the entire team and can lead to miscommunication. This is why you must set a chain of command. You need to have a system in place that clearly defines the roles and responsibilities of each member of the team. You also need people who don’t need to wait for approval before deciding on a task’s direction.
This will also help you manage conflicts effectively. Without a clear structure, it can be challenging to identify who you should be talking to. Decide who the group leader is and how you will deal with any disagreements.
The Bottom Line
Working in a digital age is challenging, and creating a highly effective team of people in different locations can be even more difficult. Your community is your greatest asset, and you need to find a way to manage your resources wisely.
With the rise of technology, it may seem like working digitally is easier than working in a physical environment. Working virtually has its own set of difficulties, so you must manage your remote teams effectively. Use these tips to help you create the perfect virtual environment for your employees.