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6 Project Management Tips on How to Motivate Your Remote Team

Managing a remote team poses some unique challenges, especially if you are doing it for the first time. Working with a distributed team and managing projects at the same time can make the process tense.

Team motivation is the driving force behind productivity and the success of your projects. Here, project managers play a pivotal role in inspiring and maintaining the motivation of the remote team members.

There are so many different benefits which come with managing a remote team, but these can only be obtained if you are able to do so correctly.

Here are some of the best tips to help you motivate your team and achieve the goals you are after.

1. Make Communication Easier

A project’s success and team’s productivity can improve significantly when all the members are communicating effectively. To enhance the team’s motivation and overall productivity it becomes essential to foster a sense of comfort and seamless communication among team members.

If you too are managing a remote team you should implement the below mentioned methods to facilitate a seamless communication among team members. You can carry-out various virtual team-building activities that you can organize to establish trust and enhance mutual understanding among your team members.

You can also use different tools to make communication between team members easier. Some of the most common and easy to use communication channels for your team are:

  • Emails
  • Chat programs
  • Video call apps such as Skype
  • Text messages
  • Screen sharing tools
  • File sharing apps and platforms
  • Online calendars and planner

All of these tools will help your team members get to know one another better and have certain tools which will allow them to communicate regularly.

2. Use The Right Tracking Tools

Something that will help your team cooperate better and work in unison is setting goals. While this might be the easiest part of the process, what’s challenging is keeping track of your progress, especially when you can’t communicate with each member of your team one on one and in person.

The best way to overcome this issue is by using tracking tools, which will give every member of your team the chance to easily keep an eye on their progress and also see their remaining responsibilities. There are quite a few different things you can consider to track their productivity. Some of the simplest yet most useful things you can track are the hours they work daily, their ongoing projects, and the number of tasks completed.

Keeping track of these variables can help your employees stay more focused while they work and help them eliminate distractions during their working hours. Some project and time tracking tools that can help you achieve this are Orangescrum, Time Doctor, and Top Tracker.

Project collaboration and time tracking tools help your team keep track of their working hours, their task progress, and allow you to track your team’s resource utilization from the comfort of your own office.

3. Don’t Overdo It With Emails

Sending the right number of emails is essential when it comes to establishing good communication with your team and motivating them to work harder. Emails should be used to communicate specific important issues, such as reminders of upcoming events, meetings, and milestones your team has reached regarding the project.

To make it easier to communicate with your team, you should limit the number of emails you send to the minimum and avoid overusing them. Too many emails can create a sense of pressure on your team and reduce their productivity.

While you might feel the need to keep reminding them of deadlines, milestones, and goals through various emails, it would be a better idea for you to use a tool such as Google Calendar to help your team keep track of everything on their own. Constant emails and reminders will simply create tension and decrease your team’s motivation to work.

Online project collaboration tools offer a host of useful features, such as real-time alerts, email notifications, in-app chat, and reminders, to keep everyone informed about key upcoming events and their due dates.

This way, you prevent things from falling through the cracks and have a robust work management process. Also, everyone is informed about the key activities, their assignments, their status, and their due dates.

As a result, teams are more inclined to step up and help each other get things done on time.

4. Have Virtual Meetings

For teams that don’t have the chance to meet often, virtual meetings offer a great way to strengthen the relationship among your members and improve their communication. Virtual meetings allow the entire team to be present in the same “room” at the same time and discuss certain matters in real-time.

This can really help your members feel like they belong to a team rather than working by themselves. You will have the chance to present them with anything new without having to reach out to each of them individually.

Virtual meetings can also motivate your team to work harder if you decide to present everyone with their achievements between meetings. This will promote a friendly competitive atmosphere and help everyone stay focused on completing their projects on time.

5. Arrange Meetings In Person

While virtual meetings can help bridge the gap for the necessary team meetings, nothing can bring a team closer than meeting in person. While this might not be feasible in every scenario, it would be a good idea for you to try and bring the team together if a company event comes up.

This will be a great opportunity for all of you to get to know each other better and to become closer as a team. Knowing the people they work with personally will help everyone feel like they need to consistently do their part to not let their team down.

6. Create A Common Team Feeling

Last but not least, another thing you need to take into consideration is that any team will perform better if they feel like they are working in unison for achieving a common goal. With remote teams, this can prove to be a challenge as they won’t be able to meet in person regularly.

The best thing you can do is to make sure to always arrange meetings over Skype and to send out chain emails where they will be able to reply to one another easily. As the leader of this group, you will have to be the example and treat everyone equally and with respect.

Here are Top 20 Tips to Help Keep Your Remote Team Motivated

  1. Set Clear Expectations: Provide clear guidelines, expectations, and goals for remote team members to reduce uncertainty.
  2. Regular Communication: Keep communication channels open through regular video calls, chats, and emails to maintain a strong connection.
  3. Use Video Conferencing: Video calls help create a more personal connection and foster a sense of belonging.
  4. Goal Setting: Set achievable short-term and long-term goals to keep team members motivated and focused.
  5. Acknowledge Achievements: Celebrate milestones and achievements, no matter how small, to boost morale.
  6. Provide Feedback: Offer constructive feedback regularly to help team members improve and grow.
  7. Encourage Breaks: Promote work-life balance by encouraging regular breaks and time away from screens.
  8. Flexibility: Allow flexible working hours when possible to accommodate personal needs and preferences.
  9. Invest in Training: Provide opportunities for skill development and training to help team members feel empowered.
  10. Team Building: Organize virtual team-building activities to strengthen team bonds and foster a sense of camaraderie.
  11. Recognize Effort: Recognize and reward hard work with incentives, bonuses, or public appreciation.
  12. Offer Professional Development: Support career growth by providing resources for professional development and advancement.
  13. Encourage Collaboration: Promote collaboration and idea sharing to create a sense of teamwork.
  14. Transparent Leadership: Be open and transparent about company updates, challenges, and successes.
  15. Trust and Autonomy: Trust your team members to manage their work independently and avoid micromanagement.
  16. Ergonomic Workspace: Encourage team members to create comfortable and ergonomic workspaces to enhance productivity.
  17. Wellness Initiatives: Offer wellness programs and initiatives to support mental and physical health.
  18. Check-In Regularly: Schedule regular one-on-one check-ins with team members to address concerns and provide support.
  19. Recognize Individuality: Acknowledge and respect the individual needs and preferences of team members.
  20. Lead by Example: Show enthusiasm, commitment, and a positive attitude to motivate your remote team through your own actions.

Motivating Your Team To Be Successful

Any team will be successful as long as it is working in unison and thanks to the power of the Internet, remote teams can now work together without any boundaries affecting their performance. By using the right tools and apps to your advantage, you can promote effective communication and help your team stay productive and positive.

Do you have any tips on motivating a remote team? Let us know in the comments!

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