5 Keys To Managing Your Remote Team
This global pandemic has forced all of us to work from home and brings with it new challenges we must face head-on. Some of us are facing emotional distress. We have burning questions: Will our at-risk loved ones be all right? How soon will the world return to normalcy? Is my job secure? Will I be able to pay my rent?
In addition to these widespread concerns, we are suffering from isolation, looming dread, difficulty focusing, waning motivation, and lack of face-to-face interaction.
As leaders, we must be conscious and empathetic toward the emotions of our people. We need to address these issues and find ways to make life easier, not only for our teams but for our customers. Demonstrating understanding of the challenges your remote teams face is the first step in solving those challenges.
As industry leaders, we may be wondering: Is working remotely sustainable long-term? What will be the bottom line for our businesses and our long-term operations?
Ultimately, whether remote work is sustainable or not is out of our control. All we can do is take steps to give our remote teams the best opportunity for high performance. At Datapath, certain changes to our tools and practices have helped us manage our teams, our customers, and our operations with increased efficiency and success.
Here’s our guide for managers to help your virtual team perform to its full potential. These are five actions you can take as a leader to manage your remote team more effectively:
1. Build and Grow Manager–Employee Trust
Treat Your Employees with Empathy First
Remember, first and foremost, your team members are people. Many of them are facing emotional challenges, whether it’s fear of the global pandemic, loneliness, or mental overload. Some of them even may have family members directly affected by the coronavirus. According to data from the CDC, as of May 10, 2020, there are 1,300,696 cases in the United States alone and 78,771 deaths. You could very likely have team members who’ve lost loved ones and are trying to power through as if everything’s okay.
It’s important for managers to display empathy. Be proactive about this; don’t wait for your employee to bring to you something they’re struggling with.
We must lead by example. Early in the process of managing a remote team, leaders should define the shared goal we are working toward. We can instill confidence in our workforce by being confident that we will get through this together.
At the same time, we must be realistic and down to earth. Overconfidence may appear disingenuous or tone deaf.
The values you display to your team will trickle down the company and even into your employee-customer relationships. When your remote sales team and your customer base feel valued and appreciated, that’s a win-win.
Employees value and trust managers that treat them with empathy. By simply asking your team members how they’re doing and listening to what they have to say, you’ll foster loyalty in your remote teams and working relationships—and you’ll be doing the right thing.
In addition to listening to your remote team members’ challenges, managers should make a point to celebrate their wins together. Even seemingly minor victories should be celebrated by the whole team. This will build rapport and bring a sense of joy to the proceedings.
Provide Frequent and Structured Communication
Good communications are essential at all levels of manager-employee interaction, whether it’s company-wide, scrum team meetings, or one-on-ones. In all cases, managers should lead by example so successful communication can trickle down through the ranks.
According to Harvard Business Review, managers should:
1. Standardize Communications. Keep everyone on the same page by setting clear times for meetings and clear rules for engaging in work chats.
2. Communicate Clearly. Avoid ambiguity and take the time to spell out your thoughts and instructions. When communicating only via chat, things like subtext and tone can get “lost in translation.”
3. Keep it Businesslike. Don’t bombard the chat with lots of non-work talk. Frequent notifications can be distracting and anxiety-inducing, so be aware of your “digital volume.”
Structured communications will keep your remote team informed and focused on the right things and help them tackle their duties efficiently. Here’s one example of an effective structured communication schedule for a large remote team (savvy managers should adapt this schedule to the needs and makeup of their specific team):
Monday: company-wide meeting. Discuss weekly goals and assignments. If your company is very large, this should be the CEO addressing the company, potentially with time allotted for Q&A.
Tuesday-Thursday: Break out for one-on-one sessions. Motivate remote team members with stretch goals. Meet with scrum teams to collaborate on specific, achievable goals.
Friday: Reflection time. Managers should ask team members what they’re reflecting on and what they’ve achieved that week.
Whatever your schedule, establishing a pattern is paramount for managing your remote team effectively.
Try Virtual Team Building Exercises
Another way to foster rapport among your remote teams is with virtual non-work related activities. Here are a few ideas:
Virtual escape rooms
Before Covid-19, escape rooms were a popular team-building exercise. They teach problem-solving and communication in a fun environment. They also force your team to talk through problems together toward achieving a common goal. In essence, escape rooms mirror a workplace environment and some of its pressures (the positive kind of pressure that results in improved communication and morale).
There are several free online virtual escape rooms to choose from. Try one of the following:
Hop on a video call, share your screen, and get solving!
Team Webinars
Try a team-building class, workshop, or webinar. Personal development, improvement, and education are all key aspects of long-term success with any team. This shouldn’t change just because we are all working from home for a while.
Team Movie Night
Choose a movie to watch together as a team outside of work hours and discuss. Bonus points if the movie is relevant to your industry or offers some positive message about teamwork.
Netflix Party is a Google Chrome extension that allows your team to stream a movie with an open chat window for timestamped discussions. It’s good to share a laugh or a thrill as a team.
Encourage Virtual “Water Cooler” Talk
As managers, we may be glad to be rid of water cooler talk in this time of Covid-19. However, studies have shown water cooler talk increases workplace productivity. Managers should allow and even encourage casual discussions about non-work related topics between our team members, especially when many of them are isolated and starved for casual social interactions, updates on family and friends, and the latest madness that happened on Tiger King.
Remember, we are all real people outside of work. You can kick off water cooler chat with brief exercises and discussion topics. For example, tell your team members to show a childhood photo and tell a one-sentence story describing it. Or perhaps each member could share two truths and a lie about themselves, while other team members have to guess which is the lie. Your team members will enjoy sharing and learning things about each other they may have never had the opportunity to share when working face to face.
Whatever you choose, assign your team these fun tasks in advance. After brief socialization and laughter, they will be ready to put their heads down and jump into the tasks you assign them.
These simple activities are important for building and maintaining your remote team’s morale. A team that enjoys talking and sharing moments is a team primed for success when it’s time to dig in and tackle important tasks.
2. Provide Tech Support to Your Remote Teams
Remote Monitoring and Management
Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) tools allow you to roll out patches and updates remotely, and solve issues from the comfort of home.
When the coronavirus forced us to adjust all our operations to be remote, many companies were forced to reduce or eliminate some of the services they offer. But RMM tools afford us some flexibility. Those of us who use RMM tools to act as Managed Service Providers (MSPs) have always benefited from this flexibility. Fast-acting companies can follow suit by switching to RMM tools as a workaround to let them keep providing services they expected to have to cancel.
RMMs helped Datapath be prepared for disaster. Without them, we would have been left behind when our operations were forced to shift to 100% remote. By having your RMM network in place, you won’t lose a step when the next crisis occurs.
Protect Your Team from New Security Risks
With everyone working from home, managers have limited oversight of their teams and may have slower response time when troubleshooting security issues.
Your remote workers probably have less secure wi-fi networks at home than they had in the office. And those members of your team who live in apartment complexes or other high-traffic areas are more susceptible to attacks by hackers.
Phishing scams have been around forever. But your remote teams are more vulnerable at home, where lax security measures can allow scammers to access their device and the sensitive data within.
Insecure passwords at home are another source of easy access for security breaches.
It’s important for managers to instill good security practices to protect their remote workers and the company’s valuable data. Make sure your team members are wary of potential phishing scams and contact from unfamiliar sources. Ensure your remote team is equipped with anti-malware and anti-virus software, and that they are using proper security protocols with account and wi-fi passwords.
3. Maximize the Capabilities of Your Remote Infrastructure
Master the Zoom Call
Zoom has become the standard videocall software of choice at many companies. At Datapath, Zoom constitutes our primary means of communication and meetings. It’s also an essential tool to use when communicating with teams and leaders from other companies.
Managers must lead by example and make sure that we have expert knowledge of our tools so we can communicate clearly with our teams. We should also be sure our remote teams are informed of key features of the platform. Remote tools like Zoom work best when we don’t have to think about how to use them—when they are extensions of our hands and brain rather than hindrances.
Here are a few features that will make your Zoom video calls a more pleasant overall experience:
Record Key Meetings for Later Reference
ALT+R (CMD+SHIFT+R)
If you have a one-on-one meeting or some other call that may include important information you’d like to access later, you can record your meeting. You can use this keyboard shortcut to start and stop your recording.
This is also a handy feature for recording yourself to share detailed instructions with your remote team. You can send your remote team member the recording and they can refer to it any time.
Familiarize Yourself with Zoom’s Keyboard Shortcuts
When you need to mute yourself, share your screen, or make some other change in a hurry, the last thing you need is to stumble about under pressure, digging for the right buttons to click. Learn your keyboard shortcuts so you can adjust and adapt to video call needs on the fly.
To mute yourself, press ALT+A (or CMD+SHIFT+A on a mac).
To share your screen, or to stop sharing it, press ALT+SHIFT+S (or CMD+SHIFT+S on a mac). Screen-sharing is ideal for sharing visual instructions with a team member, for providing visual feedback, or for demonstrating progress on a task. The ability to stop screensharing with a keyboard shortcut may be beneficial in many cases, so it is wise to commit this keyboard shortcut to memory.
While in Settings, you can also click the Keyboard Shortcuts tab to view and change your keyboard shortcuts.
Optimize Your Settings
Click the Audio tab. Check “Mute microphone when joining a meeting.” This will give you control of when to start sharing audio. It will also give you the freedom to join a meeting and listen to audio before you’re reading to jump into the conversation verbally.
Click the Video tab. Check “Touch up my appearance.” It’s just one click to look your best and make a good impression.
Click the Virtual Background tab. If your home isn’t spotless in the background of your video call, or if your lighting isn’t ideal, it can negatively affect your remote team’s perception of you, even unconsciously.
A Virtual Background can alleviate the problem of a messy background, and can also hide things you don’t want your remote team to see, like your partner walking around in the background without pants. Choose something professional and pleasing to the eyes, like a clean office background or an idyllic setting in nature.
How we appear on video calls may seem minor, but subtle changes can have a dramatic impact on how we’re perceived by our remote team members and peers.
Be Real
Despite their best efforts, video chats still lack some of the human quality of real, face to face interactions. But there are few steps we can take to appear more present when video chatting with our remote team members.
Proper ergonomics will go a long way in maintaining a human presence. Your camera should be at eye level and when speaking you should look into the lens rather than the screen. This will have the effect of eye contact. In the same vein, don’t spend too much time staring at your self-cam. It’s better to look at your team members who are speaking, to gauge their body language and facial expressions. Harvard Business Review indicates a distance of 2.5-3 feet from the camera is ideal for displaying your full range of body language and movement, and body language equals human presence.
Good posture will also make you appear more engaged and awake during video meetings. Sit up straight with your shoulders back. Before the meeting, or when not speaking, perform chin tucks and scapular retractions to stay loose and prevent long-term injury.
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Zoom is by no means a perfect tool. As its userbase ballooned to 300 million in April due to the coronavirus, it was beset with hackers and other attacks. However, Zoom recently acquired the security software Keybase, and the company has focused much of its bandwidth on combating security issues and assuaging its users’ understandable concerns. In the wake of the Keybase acquisition, Zoom has pledged to build end-to-end encryption as its next major undertaking.
As long as you instill good data security habits in your remote teams, you’ll have nothing to worry about with data security while using Zoom.
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Zoom’s wealth of features is just one example of making the most of your remote infrastructure. Other remote productivity tools, like Trello, Slack, Google Drive, etc., can all benefit from studying their ins-and-outs and mastering their features. As always, Managers must lead by example by taking the time to learn the tools intimately and exhibiting expertise and confidence with the features and limitations of their remote infrastructure.
4. Improve Your Physical Remote Workspace
Sometimes, strengthening our remote tools and software isn’t enough. Managers also need to teach their remote teams good behaviors and practices to improve their morale when working from home. Better morale means better results, now and in the future.
Your remote team is likely still adjusting to the work from home life. We are all straining to stay productive and engaged while we face new challenges. We have toddlers, pets, and partners disrupting our work calls or interrupting our productivity. The physical space we occupy has a dramatic impact on our ability to work with efficiency.
Here are a few keys steps we can take to improve our physical workspace, and teach our team members to follow suit:
Eliminate or minimize distractions
No, we aren’t telling you to lock your dog outside. Limit your notifications, and don’t check your personal phone or email during head-down work time. If your personal phone is a constant distraction, keep it in another room until break time or lunch.
When in doubt, don’t do things you couldn’t do at the office, such as blasting music or folding laundry while naked. It may not feel detrimental, but home activities like this can have the effect of pulling you out of “work mode.” Ultimately, trying to reduce home activity during work time will help improve efficiency.
Work hard, play hard
Engagement grows when we keep our work area and play areas as separate as possible. Set boundaries to keep your loved ones out of your workspace if possible. If you have a door, close it.
On the flip side, when work time is over, it’s over. Spend time with your family, share a meal, binge-watch a TV show, and try not to think about work until the next day.
5. Prioritize Your Team’s Remote Tasks to Maximize Productivity and Engagement
When assigning tasks to their remote teams, managers should strike a balance between oversight and laissez-faire attitude. You want your employees to be free to be creative and adaptive, but still have enough structure to be held accountable for their duties.
Another balance that must be struck is big picture vs. nitty-gritty. When working from home, it’s easy for your employees to lose sight of long-term planning and big pictures. Harvard Business Review agrees: remote teams should adapt to solve bigger problems instead of focusing on tactical work. Both managers and remote team members will benefit by keeping their company’s long-term goals at the forefront of their minds.
Many companies have had to pivot some of the services they provide. This is an example of a big-picture change. For example, if your business is a fine-dining restaurant, you were either forced to close, or you adjusted your business model and menu to allow take-out. Maybe you started selling bottles or cases of wine from your inventory. Managers in every industry must adjust their business model and approach their business from a bird’s-eye view to stay afloat. This big-picture attitude of adaptation and adjustment should permeate the company at every level.
Distribute Power and Responsibility
Managers need to be willing to share power more often when working with remote teams. When delegating tasks, you have the final say of the result, but have the advantage of empowering your team. The team member you delegate a task to becomes a virtual leader until the task moves to its next stage.
Employees who are empowered to experiment are more motivated.
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Covid-19 has affected all of us in different ways. We need to adapt in these uncertain times. But we can’t just be reactive; we also have to be proactive for the future. Changes we make now will not only improve lives in the short term, but also benefit our workforce and our customers when the situation has returned to relative normalcy.
If we respond properly to the Covid-19 crisis forcing our hands, we will end up being better for it. We are on our way to being more adept at working from home, at communicating and expressing ourselves with our coworkers, at reacting to uncertainty, and at preparing for future difficulties.
Implementing some or all of these simple changes will improve your remote team’s morale and productivity. Humanity has faced similar challenges in the past and come through the other side better than we were before. This crisis is an opportunity to improve ourselves, our empathy, our communication, and our lives.
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