7 Best Tips to Effectively Manage a Remote Team in 2023
Congrats! You’ve been promoted as the new manager of your team. You’re excited to take on this new chapter in your career. Now, here’s a situation. Your company has been practicing remote work setup since the COVID pandemic.
This long-distance relationship surely brings in more challenges vs. simply managing a team you can observe from your office. The question is, are you ready?
People frequently express uncertainty about how to work on projects when the subject of remote work is brought up. The process entails establishing connections between project teams and solopreneurs who reside in other nations or continents.
Each employee looks forward to promoting the culture of remote work. Now, how do you do it? How can managers ensure a solid foundation of work connection for their remote teams?
As a remote/virtual team trainer, I’ve seen some managers overwhelmed with handling virtual employees. It really is, but with the right knowledge and help, you’d see this as an easy task and you might find yourself thriving in this field.
You can check out the virtual remote team management service I offer to businesses and organizations. I also manage a remote team myself; thus, I wanted to share some of the things I’ve learned here in this article. Hope this helps!
What are the Challenges of Remote Employee Management?
The effects of the pandemic and technological innovation led to a significant paradigm change in the workplace in favor of remote work. While offering a virtual setup has many benefits, employers are also learning that managing remote workers has its own set of difficulties. The following are some examples:
- Establishing solid communication between employees
- Creating a healthy work culture
- Isolation/declining mental health
- Digital complexity
- Overcoming schedule challenges, and so many more.
If your team presently operates from remote locations and in the coming years, you’ve undoubtedly already encountered some of these difficulties. It’s not just you. In reality, executives in all remote work environments—whether they include teams working remotely from various offices or employees working from their homes—face similar difficulties daily.
Now, your responsibility as a manager and virtual team leader is to guide your team members through these difficulties and succeed in remote work. If you can successfully navigate these areas, you will benefit and, most significantly, your employees – a win-win situation!
How to Manage Your Remote Team Effectively
Numerous managers and team leaders have found themselves suddenly in charge of remote teams.
It can be frightening to adjust to this new work style, especially if there isn’t enough time to plan ahead. You’d get the best output from your remote workers if you learned how to manage remote teams effectively.
I share some ways I practice as a remote team manager and a remote team trainer to get great results from your virtual teams.
Encourage communication
The effectiveness of hybrid teams depends on effective communication. Without proper communication, you run the danger of confusion spreading throughout the team and causing projects to stop and slow down.
Choose the most effective communication tools for your team and the best times to use each to ensure proper and clear communication. Include the team in selecting the tools they feel most at ease using.
Additionally, remember that most of the time, communication happens asynchronously. Inform your employees of significant updates during meetings, and provide a written channel so everyone can participate online.
Provide team members with the right tools
If you’re a business owner or manager trying to learn how to manage a remote workforce, you should prioritize providing your employees the right tools. Some examples of collaboration tools your team can use are:
For remote workers, this can mean providing personal computers/laptops, webcams, headsets, or Wi-Fi. This will make it more likely that they complete their work and communicate with the rest of the team when needed. You can also provide learning resources such as webinars (e.g., social media webinars), digital marketing courses, books, e-books, and etc.
With so many online businesses, providing your staff with these tools will increase productivity and position them for success.
Prioritize outcomes over activity
Nobody benefits from busywork, especially distant workers. Although it may be tempting to check in on your team members as they work, part of learning how to remotely manage is realizing that results should speak for themselves.
Have the confidence that you and your talent management teams successfully assembled a skilled (and responsible) team who can thrive in a virtual setup.
Although this is true for work that isn’t done remotely, managing a remote team makes it much more critical. Different people have different routines and environments. Some can be more productive early in the morning or late at night.
Learn to reward and recognize your employees for what they have accomplished, not for how they accomplished it.
Be patient and emphatic
You might have seen those humorous Buzzfeed articles about folks who are switching to remote work and encountering tech problems. It can be difficult to adjust to new technology; examples include turning themselves into potatoes and forgetting to mute calls. Even if it occasionally provides a much-needed chuckle, this can be frustrating.
When you manage a remote workforce, it is essential to include the qualities of patience and empathy. The reality is that technological aptitudes and productivity levels when working from home vary substantially. While some of your team members will find it easy to work remotely, others may find it difficult.
Be patient and continue to provide collaboration opportunities to your employees – all will be worth it!
Educate yourself on remote management
You may better prepare yourself to deal with any difficulties when managing a remote or hybrid workforce by being aware of them in advance.
No matter where they are, you need to know how to retain employee engagement. Prepare for the challenges you might face and plan out solutions you can do once any of these issues arise.
You can always check out the leading remote team training I offer myself if you find everything about here overwhelming. You don’t have to be alone. Help is always available around.
Ready?
You don’t need to be an expert in every area of your business to manage a remote staff. Nevertheless, you should be aware of each team member’s duties, difficulties, and obligations. It is impossible to show leadership or empathy if you don’t have the answers.
The most crucial task when managing remote teams is good communication. So, ensure you constantly check in with all teams and selected participants, adjust procedures as needed, and lead by example by taking the initiative.
Your workforce is your most precious resource. When it comes to them, a lot is at stake.
If you’re looking for a remote team management keynote speaker to help you, I’m just a call away! I have assisted businesses and organizations realize ways to thrive in a remote setup.
Contact me today or visit my site to learn more about how I can help you.