Several years ago, it was hard to imagine this remote work that captured the world of IT, development, copywriting and another Internet involved spheres. It is important to take into account, that working remotely means being responsible, self-managing and in general to have a specific mindset. But the truth is that when you go remote, it is a rare case of going back.
Image Source: Pixabay
I would like to share a quotation from Brian Tracy “Be a lifelong student. The more you learn, the more you earn and more self-confidence you will have.” It is about eternal learning, that is never a shame.
This leads broad-minded employers to the perplexing learning question: “how to manage a remote team properly?”
This article can help you to find an answer to this.
How Popular Is Remote Work and Why?
The world is big, so you should understand that being located in New York or California doesn’t mean that all the talents of your field gathered around you in the same place.
I can say even more: the best people aren’t in one city.
They are scattered all over the world, have their own lives, but still – you need them in your team. Remote work of nowadays shows that a success doesn’t depend on a distance.
Micromanagement can explain the popularity of this kind of work: if the person prefers attending a gym in the afternoon – let him do it.
Living their own life encourage people for more consistent work.
You should be stick to some criteria for managing a remote team appropriately:
- Dealing with multicultural features of a team (country, time),
- Keeping your team motivated (video calls, proper tools, and an equal amount of work), and
- Keeping in touch with them (be empathetic)
What Do You Need for Managing a Remote Team?
The diversity of different members of team forces you to be careful in your tone and behavior. Video calls and chats lack one thing – body language. For not being misinterpreted keep your voice and phrases neutral, it can help you to avoid conflicts.
It must be admitted that managing a remote team isn’t easy to deal, but it pays off financially.
An employee organizes his work environment on his own, it saves the company’s money for “watercooler” and the office occupation.
The most popular remote work is among IT specialists. The number of benefits it brings is obvious, starting from access to the global talent pool and lower salaries of the same specialists – get more info, ending with the ability to work from anywhere.
Of course, there’s always another side. For example, dealing with time difference can be a real issue.
Free your mind with the help of “Every time zone” tool. Therefore, the most important is to gather all the team just for settling down the most crucial discussion, while you can divide similar time zone into separate groups and communicate with them in the most suitable time.
Remind your workers that remote doesn’t mean absent. It can be scheduled in advance when you have your “report days”. Use Slack for communicating with your remote team.
It is not a rare case to ask yourself “how to increase team productivity”. Motivate them with praising workers’ positive traits. Let them know what job from them you are satisfied with the most, because remote it support. As you are not working “face-to-face” communicate with them “word-by-word”.
Use efficient team management software and tools, such as Zoom for online conferences or Trello for project management. It provides you and your team with rapidness and convenience.
Working with remote teams can be a bit of a challenge, but it’s definitely doable if you know how to work efficiently. One thing that can help is by using Microsoft Teams phone number. This will allow your team to stay connected and organized no matter where they are in the world. It can be hard to get everyone on the same page when you have multiple people working in different locations. This is why it’s important that all members of your remote team use Microsoft Teams phone number so they know what needs to happen and how things are going with their work tasks. If some members of your team need help with Microsoft Teams phone number, you can learn more here.
In a case you handle remote support team:
- Agile principles do a half of your job. Continuous improvement and flexibility in communicating help to coordinate better with co-workers and you, as a manager.
- Watch data security with the help of monitoring tools of a worker.
How to Handle Offshore Team
- Voice/visual conversation is the best decision for cooperating with your offshore development team
- Treat to the offshore team as competent and professional. Being nice with a person of different country and culture (as probably this kind of team you work with) is a crucial key to the flourishing job.
- Utilize time zones attaching to a developed plan in advance. If a worker is behind your time zone (or ahead), plan his list-to-do and organize your tasks exactly for the needs of your in-house solutions.
Bottom line
Such criteria as time difference, control of a work or a cultural variety of members’ team are not obstacles for a manager if to follow some guiding principles that are our answer to how to manage a remote team question.
Keep in touch with your team with the help of video calls and chats and use different software and tools to improve your management.
Stay neutral in your emotions as lack of body language can become your enemy, especially if native languages of you and your team differ.
Remember that world of remote teams and workers increasing, therefore sticking to some rules, which are mentioned above can make your management work easier.
