The task of managing a team can be challenging enough for the individual. However, now, managers around the globe are confronted with the challenges of managing everything online.
For some, it’s only temporary. For others, remote teamwork isn’t going to change shortly. Even when the dust has settled, and the pandemic has passed us, the necessity to manage remote teams efficiently will continue to a certain extent.
Remote work comes with its own set of typical challenges of managing. However, it also offers exciting new challenges.
These obstacles can separate team managers from leaders. Guidelines and organization are more important than ever, but being supportive and understanding is equally important. It is also essential to be resilient.
Use this article as your tool for managing remote employees. We’ll look at the significant challenges faced by today’s “virtual leaders” and some of the best methods and means you can employ to conquer these obstacles and guide your team to greatness.
Challenges of Managing Remote Employees
Before we begin to work to find solutions, we’ll take a closer look at the main problems of managing remote workers: Structure and communication, as well as productivity and trust.
StructureWe’re creatures of routine. From the early morning stretch until a mid-afternoon briefing, relaxing with a good book after a long and tiring day. Our practices are pretty constant.
However, now that many workers work at home, it’s upside down. It’s as if they must create a new routine in addition to the stress of trying to balance both professional and personal lives within the same building. And that’s not even including homeschooling.
Include a variety of brand-new communication tools and techniques and a completely new work environment, and it’s easy to see why working with remote workers can become a blur.
Communication
The majority of people will admit that face-to-face communications are the most effective. Professionals could go into their colleague’s office and resolve a problem in just a few minutes.
Our inboxes are flooded more than ever, and we’re constantly pinging one another frequently via messaging tools. As communication is rapidly shifting towards technology, Many find it harder to work together and find the answers they require in the time needed.
Productivity
If you mix an absence of structure and communication barriers, productivity issues result. This is true for the workplace, but it’s magnified in the personal space where working-life balance is more crucial than ever.
I do not know about you, but I’m at my best, clear-headed, and productive in a setting where I can share my concentration with like-minded individuals. This is a significant benefit of working in a workplace… but sadly, it’s gone.
What has it been substituted by? It is the exact spot where we enjoy ice cream in the living room or take random naps and then think, “I should get to that,” when we look at the massive pile of unfolded laundry.
Confidence
When you manage remotely-based teams, it’s essential to maintain your team’s trust in their reliability, dependability, teamwork, and confidence that you are there for them.
However, losing this confidence is more complex than ever when everyone is trying to discover new processes and tools and communicate them quickly.
The research isn’t changing as well. Managing remote teams is much more difficult when your team doesn’t feel they’re being heard. Wants and needs.
To top it all off, accounting for the other physical and mental health issues associated with a global public health epidemic is essential.
The simple truth is that managers must be more focused than ever to help their teams.
Create a weekly or daily check-in time
Like regular meetings for your team in the office, move your discussions to a virtual environment. You may even wish to include additional check-ins until your team can find their rhythm and they are at their best. You can then re-evaluate and reduce your efforts when you feel it is appropriate.
For a start, I suggest scheduling a weekly meeting that is only 15 minutes(depending on the size of your team, obviously).
At these meetings, you can move around in circles. Each team member gets the chance to speak:
What’s on their plates during the week or the day?
If they are facing any barriers that prevent them from completing any project or task
What are they seeking from the other team members to remove those obstacles or make things easier?
Ensure the time is suitable for everyone, for example, ten or even 11 a.m. if you work an ordinary 9-to-5 working day. This allows them time to perform independently while allowing them to tackle their challenges earlier to have the time to complete their tasks.
Make a list of the workflows, processes, and roles
Remote teams working together can become a mess very quickly. When you move all your internal processes to virtualize the world, many steps and things could slip through the gaps.
The best way to ensure everything runs effortlessly is to sketch as much of the plan as possible. It’s not just in your head.
Develop tangible documents that offer step-by-step directions on how things must be completed when they must be completed, and who should be responsible for them.
They could include:
Checklists for every element of a project.
“Playbooks” that do a deep dive into protocols and procedures.
Flow charts that show how to respond in the face of changing circumstances.
Team members can efficiently complete Templates such as outreach scripts or reports.
Place these documents on the shared drive or management system so everyone can access them anytime.
Remote tools for managing teams are a great way of ensuring team members don’t get stuck waiting for information that needs to be sourced from another.