Managing remotely

Managing remotely is difficult. If you give instructions face to face, people can ask you questions. When you give instructions by email or even by phone, the technology can get in the way of clarity. However, there are some ways of working that will make managing remotely more effective.

Managing employees

The most important thing when managing remote employees is to establish clarity. If people are not face to face with you they may not have an opportunity to ask you questions or they may feel constrained about asking for clarification. So ensure instructions given are clear and have SMART objectives attached to them so that people understand what success looks like (and what you expect of them). Ask the employee to confirm their understanding of what they need to do.

Employees working at home will be in an informal environment with different pressures on them e.g. from co-residents. But they have a longer time available for work as they don’t need to commute. Accept that working hours may be different (e.g. they start and finish earlier or have several breaks and finish later). Be flexible about what is acceptable: you may want to insist on some “core hours”. Agree a regular work schedule with them in writing.

Understand that people away from a structured work environment may lack access to support from you, from other team members, and from specialist colleagues e.g. IT and HR. It is important to provide this. Ensure people know how to find support and when this support will be available.

People working from home may feel isolated, forgotten and unappreciated. So keep in touch with employees every day. If possible, get them to physically attend their place of work on a regular basis at a time when others are around.  And tell them when things have gone well (more feedback than usual is needed) and share this good news with everyone.

Managing upwards

Managing the people you report to is important if you don’t want them to have unrealistic expectations about what you can achieve. It’s easy for managers to be too demanding when they can’t see you and when they assume you are available 24 hours a day.

Start by negotiating with your manager which hours you will be available when you are not in your place of work, and when you will not. Formalise this in a “Working with me” document that you can share with them and also with colleagues. And respect their time, as you wish them to respect yours.

Don’t hide your triumphs. It may seem awkward to “boast” to your manager that you have done things well or received a compliment. But if you don’t, who will? So tell your manager when you have completed objectives or achieved success. And consider doing this by email: an email may look formal but it is a permanent document, easily be shared with HR.

Managing across

As well as managing senior colleagues it’s important to keep your peers on your side. Managing colleagues can be hard when you don’t see them everyday, so make the effort foster good relationships.

Communicate regularly with fellow team members and ask for their advice or offer help in the hope of a returned favour. Join in with informal online communication (unless it gets out of hand). If you hear a team member being praised, share the news with them and with their manager.

Don’t let professional disagreements become personal. Where there is a danger of people getting cross, pinpoint the issue before it becomes a problem and take steps to work it out.

Managing a project team

With less face to face communication and feedback, it can be hard for virtual teams to work well. Team leaders need to take extra efforts to ensure projects succeed.

The most important thing is to stay connected. Communication between team members is crucial but it can suffer if people don’t bump into their colleagues on a regular basis, at meetings or informally.

Agree a communication charter with the team that defines when and how communication should happen and sets out rules and etiquette. Personal communication such as voice calls or teleconferences should be established regularly so that their rhythm drives expectation and familiarity. And if possible, ensure that physical meetings happen from time to time.

Remote team managers also need to drive effectiveness. When teams are not together all the time, it’s easy for misunderstandings to arise. So make sure team members understand their common and individual goals. Agree roles and clarify objectives and the processes for achieving them.

Revisit objectives regularly with the team to maintain focus on them. Arrange regular sessions to review completed and upcoming tasks, and any issues and opportunities.

If an issue only involves a part of the team, don’t try to address it during a meeting involving the whole team: this may cause embarrassment and will certainly cause boredom and reduce engagement. And remember: be fair: don’t place all of the burden of administration on a few team members.

Another important technique is to facilitate collaboration. If the technical side of being part of a team is poor of difficult to use, team members will avoid collaborating. So agree on project software everybody can use and provide support if people are unfamiliar with it. Avoid software that is over-engineered -for your project and that will shower people with unnecessary alerts.

In addition, it is important to make sure that people’s assumptions are identified and questions and make sure that words and measures used are understood in the same way by everyone. You don’t want to repeat the problems that the Mars Orbiter experienced.

A useful technique to improve collaboration is to start meetings with a “water cooler” moment – a time for relaxed talking between team members. As well as establishing an informal and trusting atmosphere this can allow people to express concerns or ask questions about previous meetings in an informal and unthreatening environment.

Building mutual trust is another crucial element of managing remote project teams. Virtual teams have few opportunities to bond together which can mean that trust does not develop effectively. Encourage relationship building by setting small challenges for team members who have not worked together before.

Another way to build trust is to share project leadership by allocating task leadership to individual team members e.g. defining best practice or scoping a market. And encourage people to share their expertise with the rest of the team. Give them praise and thanks when they do. In addition, highlight and thank any instances of team members being helpful and sharing ideas.