How to Successfully Lead a Remote Team

Remote teams have become a pressing issue, especially post-pandemic. Since the last two years, professionals have been exposed to new challenges. One of them is virtual leadership.

Virtual leadership can be troublesome, especially in these uncertain times.

As a Manager, it is your responsibility to come up with solutions and make sure that your team is energetic and motivated.

Providing a healthy and protected workspace is a necessity.

You cannot expect your employee to work their best potential while they’re surrounded by domestic chaos.

Worry not!

We have something for your rescue.

10 Tips to lead a Remote Team Successfully –

1. Your Team needs Flexibility

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Adam Henderson went on LinkedIn and asked a thought-provoking question, “If you can’t trust your employees to work flexibly, why them in the first place?” Do you have any answers? Well, Deloitte can help.

A survey conducted by the company revealed that 88% of employees prefer to work flexibly. In a remote environment, your team cannot be working on their desks for 8 hours straight.

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They need time for a walk, dinner, dropping their kids, receiving Amazon parcels, and other commitments.

Being flexible with the team can up their motivation levels. This in turn can level up their productivity more than ever.

 2. Try Hurdle for your Remote Team building

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Simon Sinek, a British American author, and an inspirational speaker introduced the practice of “Hurdle” for his remote team.

‘Hurdle’ is a video conferencing call that takes place on a weekly basis.

It is entirely devoted to building healthy relationships with each other. (Every team needs this) Colleagues share their feelings and appreciate each other.

This is a good idea because it allows your team to stay motivated and feel connected. It completely eliminates the loneliness that works from home brings.

3. Active Team Engagement

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You don’t want your team to be lazy or unenergetic.

The only way to avoid that situation is to keep in touch with them.

• Ask about nuances pertaining to life outside work. Involve your team members in activities that require interpersonal communication.
• Appreciate them for achieving little milestones
• Conduct regular meetings and discussions for clarity about tasks.

4. Acknowledge your Remote Team’s struggle

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The work-from-home environment has unforeseen struggles that need to be acknowledged.

Working remotely can give birth to some problems like arguing with a partner or household chores.

You need to understand that not every remote employee may not have a proper work setting.

A remote time tracking tool can save time on redundant tasks. A good time tracker can also help in managing time to a great extent.

5. Be Empathetic towards your Virtual Team.

(source: peoplematters.in)

Now that you are aware of your employee’s problems, showing empathy goes a long way in building the team’s trust. It also fosters relationships.

Sinek in his famous Ted talk mentioned that empathy is a must for a leader.

Ask your employee about their problems and guide them.

Probe them to voice out their concerns that could be pulling them down.

What is important is to make your team feel valued.

Who wouldn’t like to feel special during the lockdown?

6. Communicate your Expectations

Your expectations can be different in a physical environment as compared to a remote environment.

It’s essential that your team learns about aspects that are expected from them. This also lets them align their ‘to-do’ list with the set expectations. This helps the team to utilize their time in the best possible way.

Taking control over remote time management can help your team hit the expected milestones.

7. Focus on your Remote Team’s Outcome

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Working in an environment where every step is being micromanaged is devastating.

Remote team productivity calls for limited micromanagement.

Your employees are not trained like baseball players to handle this pressure. As much as your team needs flexibility, they want to eliminate micro-management.

Focusing only on the output of your employee not only gives them space but also indicates that you trust them.

So, don’t let micro-management ruin your healthy workspace.

8. Your Team deserves absolute Clarity

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Aimless and vague goals make no sense as they would end up nowhere. Being specific about hitting a goal or a milestone can bring about clarity for the team.

Meeting targets with a specific intent in mind can bring an exceptional outcome in work delivery.

Share details with them, include them in the decisions, ask them their opinion. Make them feel that they are involved in something bigger than just meeting the deadline. This will add excitement and joy to their work.

9. Provide Resources to your team

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Creating a personal workspace can be daunting for employees. To soothe this pain point, make sure that you equip your team with all the necessary resources such as a good Wi-Fi connection or an electronic device.

When they will have all the resources and your support, they will meet your working expectations.

Guess what? Chances are they will over-deliver!

(Mission accomplished right?)

10. Utilize Technology to stay Connected

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Your purpose should be to provide a comfortable working environment.

You can only do that by knowing their current environment and checking if there is a gap that you can fulfill.

Orangescrum integrates slack, Zoom, and Google Drive for better sharing and collaboration purposes.

As a Project Manager, Orangescrum can be your go-to productivity tool.

Ace your Remote Team Management.

Providing an encouraging environment for your team online is challenging. Using these strategies, you will be able to accomplish that.

In the end, it is important to understand that current situations are unstable but we need to prioritize our health and mindset.