4 ways to Manage High Performing Remote Teams
In today’s world, there has been a major shift from the traditional brick and mortar, 9 to 5 office framework to one that is a lot more flexible.
While businesses are gradually emerging from the impact of the pandemic, at least from a financial point of view, there are still many organizations that require their employees work remotely for extended periods of time.
A recent study conducted by the team at VIZON Research (which you can find on our website, www.vizonresearch.com ) shows that as much as 70% of employees want to keep working remotely…or at best, in a hybrid manner where they come in a few times a week, as long as they deliver on their KPIs.
For managers who oversee large teams, there is a growing trend where they find that to make hybrid work, they need to put in place a strong set of guidelines and policies to support their processes and ensure every one stays productive, connected and motivated.
So if leading a team remotely is something you are currently facing, these are some of the great measures you can put in place to make hybrid work for you:
Top on the list is planning. There is a general saying that those who plan ahead stand a higher chance of winning. And so this is something you should consider doing early. At my company, for example, we make it mandatory to have all our key activates on group calendars months ahead so everyone knows which key company meetings are important for either a virtual call or physical meeting so that they can work around that schedule.
We also make it priority to establish daily, and sometimes hourly check-ins, depending on the scenario with my colleagues, this way we’re able to get stuff done quickly and get it done well.
Thanks to technology, there are several different project management tools such as Microsoft Office and even WhatsApp for immediate team calls which you can try out as well. These tools help to ensure a constant flow of information between every one and no one gets to work in silos.
Next, set very clear rules of engagement, such as ‘no African time’, ‘no yelling on calls’ and ‘timeframes to respond to emails’. This way there are no grey areas on what the company’s expectations are on how staff should conduct themselves during work hours.
And then, something I’ve learned recently is to create multiple opportunities for online social interactions, either through workshops or virtual cocktail parties so we retain that sense of team bonding.
I know that a lot of managers are still trying to figure out how to lead their hybrid teams but as the future of work continues to evolve, there’s a high chance that this type of engagement will become normalized. So the sooner you get a hang of it, the better.
I’d be happy to hear the other things you do at your organisation to make hybrid work successful. Feel free to send me a DM or leave a comment and we can engage further on this.
Cheers!
