9 Tips for Managing Remote Teams

Is managing your remote team leaving you feeling confused and overwhelmed? Are unanswered emails piling up and are projects stalling? Can you feel the team morale dropping faster than your internet connection?

Here's the truth.

Most leaders are not equipped to handle the unique challenges of remote work.

It's because we learned how to lead in traditional office settings and remote team settings require a whole new different skill set from leaders.

But don't worry, this episode will equip you with the tools that you need to thrive as a remote leader.

We're going to explore nine actionable strategies to boost engagement, improve communication, and unlock the full potential of your remote team.

Hey everyone, I'm Doug Howard. I'm a leadership coach and consultant for engineering companies and leaders. I use this YouTube channel to teach leaders in any industry, how to unlock the full potential of your people. Each episode focuses on the human side of management by exploring topics like emotional intelligence, influence, and motivation.

So if you're a leader who wants to learn how to unleash the full potential of your team, make sure you hit that subscribe button.

Common Pain Points of Remote Work

As a leadership consultant myself, I see the tremendous potential of remote work firsthand, but I also see the pitfalls, like communication breakdowns, keeping the team connected when everyone's scattered, and the difficulty engaging individual performance without the benefit of in person interaction.

Now let's dive deeper into some of the common pain points.

First, we have communication silos. Information gets lost in email threads, and important updates get missed. If you manage remote teams, I'm sure you've been in situations before where someone was finishing a crucial project update on a Friday afternoon, but the other people on the team, their colleagues, they worked in different time zones, or maybe they had an early out and they didn't see the email update until Monday morning, which caused big delays and confusion amongst the whole project team and perhaps the client.

Another common pain point for managing remote teams is a diminished team spirit. Working remotely can lead to feelings of isolation and can make people feel disconnected from the rest of the team and the team culture itself. When team members don't have opportunities for casual interaction with each other and when they don't have opportunities for team building, they're going to feel like cogs in a machine rather than feeling like valued members of a collaborative unit.

Another challenge that leaders of remote teams have is finding ways to motivate your remote team. It's harder to keep remote workers motivated without the in person interaction and the natural camaraderie that happens organically in an office setting. Without regular encouragement and without regular recognition, remote workers are going to struggle to stay focused, driven, and motivated.

Another big challenge for remote team managers is measuring performance, without direct observation over your employees. When you're managing a remote team and you don't have direct observation over your team. It becomes really difficult to measure productivity and it becomes difficult for you to identify roadblocks.

This creates a situation where managers unintentionally become micromanagers, and it's not because you want to be a micromanager. It's just because you feel like you're, leading in the dark. You don't know what's going on with your team. You don't know where projects are. You don't know what people are working on. Then all of a sudden you blink your eye and you realize, Oh my God, I'm micromanaging my team. I'm asking them for updates on every little thing. When you do this, when you are a micromanager, this is only going to further demotivate and further disengage your team.

Root Cause of Remote Teams Challenges

These challenges often stem from a fundamental misunderstanding of remote work. Leaders who are accustomed to traditional office settings might struggle to adapt their communication styles and struggle to adapt their management approaches. Here's why these problems arise.

First, it's lack of trust. Micromanagement and a lack of trust in remote workers can breed resentment from the team and again, breed further disengagement. If you constantly check in on your team's every move, you're sending the message that you don't trust them to get the job done.

Another reason remote teams struggle is because of poor communication strategies. When you're relying solely on email, it's going to lead to misunderstandings and missed information. Email is obviously a great tool for asynchronous communication, but it's not ideal for complex discussions or building rapport or expanding ideas or co creating solutions.

Another reason why remote teams struggle is because of a disjointed team culture. Remote teams require deliberate effort to foster a sense of belonging and connection. You can't rely on water cooler conversations or team lunches to build those relationships organically.

One of the biggest reasons why remote team struggle is because of unstructured feedback loops. When your team doesn't get regular feedback, remote workers are going to feel lost and they're going to feel unsure of their performance. If your team members don't know how they're doing or how well they're doing, it's going to be difficult for them to stay motivated and it's going to be difficult for them to figure out how they can improve.

Now, all these problems I've just outlined, they make managing remote teams sound pretty doom and gloom, but there is a brighter side of this story. By implementing the following strategies, you can create a thriving remote team environment where everyone feels valued, connected, and empowered to do their best work.

9 Actionable Strategies for Managing Remote Teams

Here are nine actionable strategies designed to boost your team engagement.

Strategy 1 - Over Communicate & Transparency

Strategy one is over communicate and transparency. You want to make sure you're keeping your team informed. So share updates regularly and be open and honest with them. The more transparent you are, the more it's going to build trust throughout your team and the more it's going to foster a sense of shared purpose.

Some examples of how to do this. You can hold weekly all hands on deck meetings, even if they're brief, just to share company news, project updates, and upcoming deadlines. I used to do this with the teams I managed just to make sure everyone was in the loop and nothing was getting misconstrued or rumorville wasn't starting, especially when we had major updates coming like budget constraints or cutbacks or if we were doing layoffs or something like that.

I wanted to make sure that message came from me so that I can control the message versus letting the message take a life of its own. Letting people make up their own stories and their own reasons, their own assumptions behind the news that came down to them

To do this effectively, utilize common communication platforms like Slack or Teams to share team updates, share announcements, and even have fun water cooler type content throughout the day. When COVID first started and my team started working from home for the first time, obviously we had formal communication channels, but then we also had a just for fun communication channel where people were sending silly pictures of, obstacles in their work from home transition. They would send a picture of their cat sitting on their hand, while they're trying to use their mouse or something like that. We kept it fun and light and it was a way to replace the fun banter that happens in the office that you lose when you're working on remote teams.

Strategy 2 - Embrace Videoconferencing

Strategy number two is embrace videoconferencing. You want to foster face to face connection and build rapport through regular video calls. Seeing faces, not just the names, helps strengthen relationships and improves communication effectiveness. Now, I know that, it's not always fun to put your camera on, whether you're someone who's on the team or you're the leader of the team, because if you're working remote, there's a good chance, you're wearing gym clothes and things like that. You're not probably looking the most professional, let's be honest. But as a leader, you want to make sure you're encouraging people to turn their cameras on because the more you have that face to face interaction remote, the more it's going to create that empathy and that rapport and that trust throughout your team.

I recommend scheduling daily standup meetings or daily project check ins if you're working on long term projects. But when you do this, do it via video conferencing to keep everyone on the same page and to address any roadblocks early on. Keeping that video on just helps people feel more connected versus people hiding behind the camera.

Other ways to utilize video calls, you can do them for brainstorming sessions, team building exercises, and anything that you can do to just create a more personal connection with your team. Remember, you're trying to replicate that feeling of in the office that people feel connected to you. The best way to do it is by showing your face and encouraging them to show their face.

Strategy 3 - Prioritize Collaborative Tools

Strategy number three is prioritize collaborative tools. Utilize project management tools like Asana, Monday. com, or Trello. You also want to utilize communication platforms like Slack or Teams, as I already mentioned. Another thing to look into is virtual whiteboards like Miro. This helps streamline collaboration and it ensures everyone's on the same page.

These tools also provide a central location for project documents and project discussions and updates, which eliminates information silos and it keeps everyone on the same page. If you invest in any of these softwares, also invest in training your team on these tools to ensure that they're using them effectively.

Strategy 4 - Set Clear Expectations & Goals

Strategy four, set clear expectations and goals. Ensure everyone understands their roles, responsibilities, and performance metrics. Clearly defined goals provide direction and a sense of accomplishment.

So make sure you outline individual and team goals at the beginning of each project or at the beginning of each quarter. Then hold regular check ins with team members to discuss progress and address any challenges they might be facing.

Strategy 5 - Recognize & Reward All Achievements

Strategy five, recognize and reward all achievements. Make sure you're celebrating successes, both individual and team based to boost morale and show appreciation.

Public recognition is going to motivate and reinforce positive behaviors throughout your team. So make sure you publicly acknowledge a team member's accomplishment during a video call or a company wide email. Also offer rewards and incentives for achieving milestones or exceeding expectations.

Strategy 6 - Encourage Social Interaction

Strategy number six, encourage social interaction. Create virtual social events and opportunities for informal team building.

These activities can be anything from online game nights to virtual coffee chats, but anything that fosters a sense of community and belonging. You can host a virtual happy hour on a Friday afternoon or organize a remote team trivia night. All these activities like this help your team connect on a personal level and it helps build stronger relationships.

Strategy 7 - Invest in Professional Development

Strategy number seven, invest in professional development. Offer remote friendly training and development opportunities for your team members. Investing in their growth is going to keep them engaged and it future proofs your team's skill sets.

Provide online courses, webinars, or access to professional development resources that are relevant to their roles. Encourage your team to attend industry conferences to stay up to date on the latest trends and technologies.

Strategy 8 - Promote Work Life Balance

Strategy eight, promote work life balance. If you want a happier and more productive team, make sure you're encouraging healthy boundaries and you're respecting people's personal time. When you respect work life balance, it's going to reduce burnout and foster a sustainable work environment on your team. So make sure you set clear expectations.

For example, you could discourage after hours emails unless they're absolutely urgent. Now to do this effectively, you want to lead by example and ensure that you're not constantly checking work emails outside of work yourself.

Strategy 9 - Seek Feedback & Adapt

The ninth and final strategy is seek feedback and adapt. You wanna regularly solicit feedback from your team and your approach based on their needs. An open feedback loop allows you to identify challenges and continuously improve your remote leadership style.

Conduct anonymous surveys to gather feedback on communication, workload, and overall team satisfaction. Schedule regular one-on-one meetings with your team members to discuss their concerns and suggestions.

By implementing these strategies, you can create a thriving remote team environment where everyone feels valued, connected, and empowered to do their best work. Just remember, remote work is not about replicating the office. Instead it's about creating a new and innovative way to collaborate and achieve success together.

If you want more leadership development tips, make sure you check out my episode called How To Motivate An Underperforming Direct Report In one Conversation. You're going to learn powerful communication strategies to get your team member to take ownership of improving their own performance. I hope you check it out.

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