Manage remote teams
These are challenging times. As leaders recalibrate what it means for teams to be their best, consider these strategies that leaders use to manage remote teams.
1. Step back and realize it’s not work as usual.
Employees are also challenged with schools closed, social distancing, loved ones at risk and much more. In such a stressful environment, compassion and understanding are paramount. What that means is showing much more flexibility around how employees work and manage their responsibilities. Because family may take precedence over work at times. As a leader, your primary concern should be “are you and your family safe and healthy?
2. Distractions happen much more in a remote work environment.
Employees don’t work 9 to 5 at home. Families have emergencies and priorities that are different from when they work in an office environment. Yes, employees may under perform at times but take a broader and long term view. These are not permanent work situations. They are likely to change and come back to normal. Some of your top employees may underperform because they’re distracted by legitimate concerns in a home environment. This is probably not the time to assess the value of an employee.
3. Deadlines matter or do they?
If you lead teams in hard hit sectors like entertainment, food service, retail, or travel and leisure it is even more important to be flexible. A CEO of a fitness company reassigned teams to quickly develop content for online training programs. This required a significant redesign of job responsibilities of teams. By stepping back and letting teams figure out strategies, she built trust and empowered teams to solve problems themselves and innovate quickly.
4. Meetings and work hours are less important.
What matters is how teams work together facilitated by collaboration software. Let teams figure out how and when they collaborate. They are likely to be more productive if they feel excited about solving problems as a team and owning outcomes. It will be important to understand each employees expectations. Let them create their own work schedules and collaboration strategies.
5. Employees want to be productive and succeed.
Give them the space opportunities to make a difference. That means appreciating their contributions, and challenges they face when working remotely. Patience and understanding are paramount. If employees feel appreciated, they will work much harder to achieve team goals.
Service coverage
The variety, breadth, and depth of the projects where Arcus can be a resource are made unique by each client’s specific needs. By providing a very small sample of projects we’ve completed, we can help you understand how and when to use our services. Visit the links below to find out more about a specific problem or opportunity you would like to address.
Below is a sample of the range of services that Arcus has provided to clients.
- A survey of 2,350 consumers and 1,320 business leaders for feedback on sustainability trends
- Architecting a multi-year change strategy for a Fortune 500 company
- Mentoring a CEO on organizational change
- Excellence transformation of a leading B2B services company
- Creating a new sales deployment model for a healthcare company
- Developing a position evaluation and compensation model for a professional medical association
- Improving services to customer segments by deepening their understanding of customer attitudes
Additional Resources
Harvard Business School: Working Remotely
People who work on remote teams face unique communications challenges. To protect employees from Coronavirus, organizations may increasingly cancel in-person meetings. Learn twelve steps to make your meeting a success. Leaders thrust into working virtually need to hone their long-distance collaboration skills. >