Working remotely is not without its challenges. If you are a team leader, keeping the rest of the team organized and on track in completing important tasks is a big hurdle. Micro-managing everything is certainly not an option. You have to rely on your remote team to remain in sync and organized.
There are several ways you can keep your remote team in sync. Good project (and task) management sits at the heart of working with remote teams. These next few tips and tricks will help you integrate good project management and keep a remote team in sync without hassle.
1- Visualize Tasks
As mentioned before, good project management is crucial when working with remote team members. You want every team member to be able to see the tasks that they need to complete. You also want to make sure that all tasks are displayed in a transparent way.
This is where approaches like the Kanban system comes in handy. Using a digital Kanban board, you can convert tasks into cards, attach all the necessary details to each card, and have team members report their progress on the board.
The visual nature of digital Kanban boards allows you to keep a bird’s-eye view of the entire team. At the same time, you can anticipate bottlenecks, see team members’ performance while working remotely, and encourage better collaboration among key players.
2- Collaboration in the Cloud
The best – and perhaps the only – way to work effectively as a team when everyone is working remotely is by leveraging cloud collaboration tools. Whether you are working on a microservice or an app, or editing a document together, using a cloud collaboration tool makes the process easier.
Google Docs, for instance, lets you edit a document in real-time. Other team members can see the changes you make immediately, and everyone can do their work in a more seamless way. Collaborating in real-time eliminates gaps and delays effectively.
Other collaboration tools are just as useful. For example, you can easily share files and resources using Google Drive. Tools such as automatic versioning and instant backups will keep the collaborative effort in check.
3- Automate!
Automation is another resource that you want to leverage when working with a remote team. The goal here is eliminating as many mundane and repetitive tasks as possible, and automation is the perfect way to do that.
For example, you can automate the synchronization of customer information across multiple business solutions. This way, you can continue using tools such as HubSpot and Salesforce without having to manually move data from one platform to another.
Automation is also handy for tasks such as order processing, digital marketing, and reporting. Set up triggers and actions so that you and your team members can stop worrying about these mundane tasks and can focus more on working together.
4- Monitor and Evaluate
To maintain effectiveness, make sure you monitor the overall performance of your team. Certain metrics can help you understand how your team members are doing, identify distractions and bottlenecks, and make recommendations that will help them be more effective.
A good way to start is by reviewing the schedules of your team member. First, integrate other scheduling and task management tools with Google Calendar. You can back up your Google Calendar information with the help of TimeTackle.
Once the data is collected in an Excel spreadsheet, it is easy to analyze how your team members – and yourself – are doing when working remotely. You can see if a sufficient amount of time gets allocated to certain tasks.
These 4 tips and tricks will help you manage your remote team better. Micro-managing is not a solution, so switch to these approaches to help your team remain effective while working remotely.
