Staying In Touch: The Best Way To Manage Teams Remotely

It can be tough enough managing a team when you are all in the office, working within sight of each other. But when you take away that physical workplace environment the challenges of coordinating and leading that team are greatly magnified. As a manager you need to be able to trust your team to get on with things in your absence whilst maintaining as much of a virtual presence as possible.

Managing remotely can be a real eye opener as it throws into sharp relief the practices that get swept under the carpet at the office. When there is no physical shared space there is a much greater reliance on the meetings and consultation that are viewed as pointless 'red tape' exercises when in the office. With a workforce dispersed into cyberspace there is great importance in making sure everyone is on the same page.

For example, it is vital when managing remotely to make extra sure from the outset that everybody knows what they are supposed to be doing. Clear expectations are integral to the success of any project but even more so when it is that much harder to have a clarifying one to one with a particular team member. Ambiguous instructions at the beginning can send the project spinning off in completely the wrong direction and make it that much harder to pull back together.

For similar reasons regular feedback is also essential as you will not have the chance to host physical meetings with team members to discuss the progress of the project or their own individual input. This is where technology really comes into play as there are numerous methods of maintaining crucial contact from emails to video conferencing and full and productive usage of these is absolutely paramount to making a success of remote management.

It is easy for a team member to feel undervalued when being managed remotely as the amount of direct contact they get with their manager is obviously minimised. The only way to address this issue is to make sure that, as a manager, you are providing constructive feedback either online or via phone to your team members to maintain team morale.

On a similar note, working remotely can lead to the loss of the communal atmosphere engendered by working in an office. Team members may miss the banter and camaraderie of belonging to the same physical team. For this reason it is wise to include more informal, social chat when conducting remote meetings and conferencing to ensure that the team members retain that affection for and loyalty to the office dynamic.

But working away from the office can also all too readily be used as an excuse to ease up away from prying eyes and not put the same amount of effort in as they would do at the office. Again the only real way to monitor the work rate of your team is by constant feedback and virtual meetings. Staying in touch really is the best way to manage remotely.