Keeping everyone on the same page, be it in a meeting room or scattered at homes offices around the world, takes finesse. It also takes a contrasting set of skills to achieve.

Top Tips and Tricks To Efficiently Manage a Remote Team

The main objectives of an in-house team and a remote team are the same.

Getting to that deadline is about knowing how to manage personal and keep everyone working together. Where the remote team differs most is in accountability and expectation setting.

It’s a lot easier for someone without a boss looking over their shoulder to overpromise and underlever. The following explains the pitfalls and how to avoid them.

Remote Team Management

First, the remote team needs to still be treated as professionals. These are people who work and get paid for that work. They aren’t students in a group project trying to get the best grade for the least effort.

Too often a manager loses the personal touch of a comrade in arms and starts dictating from the pulpit, ie making the team feel like subordinates. This dehumanization quickly is reflected in poor work and productivity.

Ask Twice, Schedule Once

The first thing that a remote team loses is their sense of time. Don’t feel bad posting a link to all time zones. A team isn’t accountable if they get confused about the ‘when’, so remove that excuse and teach everyone to think more globally at the same time.

When scheduling the meeting times for updates and deadlines for sharing progress, always confirm the availability of the team several times before scheduling the actual meeting.

This ensures that the majority of the team will be able to make it and lowers confusion. The third time you have to ‘reschedule’ a meeting, the team starts seeing them as optional.

Establish Productivity Markers

While some work can be shared through a file system, other elements may require more hands-on verification.

For those times, learn how to conduct remote audits and utilize the tools available for such. This isn’t about calling an employee out for miscounting products in the warehouse or missing a page in a document, it’s about giving everything a second pass.

Working remotely makes people feel paranoid and untrusted. Remove those suspicions by treating team members fairly and providing the same productivity markers remotely that you would in-house.

Don’t Micromanage

Team members won’t work if they feel like all of their work will just be redone by someone else. Micromanaging gives teams the impression that they aren’t good enough and that their work isn’t valued.

Only step in when there is a correction to be made or when meetings are being missed. Proactive ‘stitch in time’ behaviors are seen as prying.

Again, by setting expectations early and holding members accountable, you get all the management in without wasting your time or the time of the team.

Work Smarter

When it comes to remote team management, a strong battleplan and a light touch net the best results. Structure needs to exist to get things done but the ends are the only real metric.

Check back with us for more ideas about how to grow and handle your business.

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