Dear Yogesh,

In the past few weeks, we have totally changed the way we function. From a few departments to our complete office, we all have started working from home, and it’s unclear when this will continue. I have a team of 8 people and I am feeling anxious so-as-to how I’m going to manage these teams remotely. It’s a sudden shift from face-to-face interactions to this kind of work and it’s my responsibility to maintain positivity, passion, and a sense of accountability among all of them. Looking for your guidance on how I can manage them virtually, especially at this time of uncertainty and anxiety.

Yours Sincerely
Sangeeta

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Dear Sangeeta,

Thank you for bringing up your concern and believing in me. I am sure, this is a matter of concern for you, and everyone around the world. The world is going through a storm of fear and anxiety and keeping the team intact, positive, and going is a reflection of your responsibility and great leadership skills. Whilst fighting the pandemic COVID19 and looking at all the negative things happening around us, we must also look at the positive side of it; this is the time when most of the people in your teams will show their true colors. You must already be facing issues in dealing with the ones who lack commitment, and sincerity and are always available with some or the other excuses.

Before I give you some very easy and implementable tips, I’d like you to know some very important highlights of the recent survey on the impacts of COVID-19, done by VitalSmarts, US. Here are the glimpses:

• Many organizations have been agile in taking measures for the health and safety of their employees.
• More than 1 in 5 employees feel the collaboration, communication, and habits of their teams working from home need improvement.
• Employees say that 1 in 5 leaders are either very unprepared or unprepared to manage remote teams.

Distance has always been a challenge in managing teams. While working remotely, people, very conveniently drag their concerns or highlight them only when asked, which results in poor performance, deteriorating productivity, loss of time, and eventually a failure of a team.

This is clear that communication is the key to managing remote teams. Like we teach in our Crucial skills training- teams that can hold candid and effective dialogue—minus the emotions and politics—experience higher morale and team cohesion.

And, as a manager, it’s your responsibility to foster a culture of open dialogue. This is what you can do:

1. Have frequent check-ins: When working remotely for a longer duration, you need to have a routine for yourself where you keep a consistent check on your team. It can vary from a con call with everyone to a separate one-on-one call with each team member. These check-ins may be scheduled daily, weekly or bi-monthly as per the format and nature of your work.
    
2. Direct interactions: while direct face-to-face interactions aren’t possible, you can still insist your teams interact directly on the phone, on video calls, or face time (virtual face-to-face interaction). This will help you keep the teams intact and will be able to see each other occasionally.
    
3. Solid communication skills managing teams remotely require a lot of patience and listening. You have to be a great listener, communicate with trust and respect, and ensure it happens on both sides. Also, keep conversing on the calls to resolve dependencies and concerns, but don’t nag. You can always share emails on the points you're discussed (minutes of the meeting) to ensure that you and your teams are on the same page.
    
4. Establish Expectations: Establishing expectations with respect to work, sincerity, discipline, daily calls, and adherence to the rules of work is very important. I am sure you must have done this while planning your work, but you must keep it documented and keep reminding your teams about it, whenever you feel the need for it.
    
5. Be available: Technology has changed the way we’ve been working, and this is the best time to make use of it. Be available on phone calls, use face time, WhatsApp calls, video conferencing over ZOOM, etc to ensure your availability for your teams and management. This ensures your approachability, so the work continuity isn’t hampered.
    
6. Value People: whilst working remotely, team building, and camaraderie become even more important. This will be challenging, and you’d have to put in extra effort to ensure that relationships are not compromised. You can have a specified meeting as ‘cooler sessions’ that will be specified to sharing thoughts, personal and professional experiences, and brainstorming. These kinds of conversations eventually result in strengthened teams at both, workplaces and remote locations.

Hope this helps, wishing you all the best!

Best Wishes,

Yogesh Sood

This blog is inspired by the thoughts of Justin Hale which he shared on 18th March 2020.

https://cruciallearning.com/blog/how-to-manage-newly-remote-teams/

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