Managing a remote team is completely different to managing a team in the office.
From the amount of contact you have with them, to being able to read their body language. It’s just not the same…
That explains why 40% of managers admit to having low self-confidence in their ability to manage workers remotely.
So In this post, we’re going to help remote managers become more confident by covering the 5 biggest mistakes they make and how to solve them. Because if you can avoid these mistakes, you’ll be on your way to being a better manager.
Mistake #1: Not understanding the way you communicate will change
It’s easy for managers to think communication will flow just fine when working from home. You can simply give your colleagues a call or send them an email.
Unfortunately, it’s just not that simple.
Remote employees tend to work different hours, have flexible lunch breaks or are located in different time zones. So getting hold of someone is not always as easy as you’d imagine.
It can also be pretty overwhelming if your team are communicating in different ways, and eventually, it will become difficult to keep up with it.
How to get it right:
When working from home, you need to find a quick way to pass on information and not let the important stuff slide through the cracks.
You can do this by keeping your team in one channel of communication and ditching the other methods.
Microsoft Teams is our go-to channel because it’s easy to use and you’re able to keep all communication in one place.
Some of the key features include:
- Using the @ function to target messages towards certain colleagues.
- A chat function for teams, groups and individuals.
- Enjoy seamless and fast video calls with colleagues or clients.
- Attend online meetings with up to 10,000 users.
- Replace your business phone system with Teams Calling..
This software has been designed with remote working in mind, so by moving over to this channel, you can be sure to avoid some of the consequences that other managers face.
How To Use Analytics 365 To Get It Right
Understanding best practice can be difficult, as many organisations use Microsoft Teams in different ways. However, with collaboration analytics natively within the Teams application, you can understand your usage patterns and identify changes over time. With this in place, you’ll be well equipped to see the impact of any changes on your team – from the introduction of formal policies, to employee engagement, to a change in strategic priorities.
A key metric for this is sentiment, understanding the general mood of your team. Another is collaboration networks, where you can understand the impact on teamwork, or identify where inefficient communication may be taking place.
Mistake #2: Disregarding employee wellbeing
It’s not uncommon that remote work can take a toll on your employee’s wellbeing. Forbes reported that nearly two-thirds of remote employees sometimes feel isolated or lonely, and 17% feel like this all the time.
This should be a real eye-opener for organisations operating in the remote world because it proves that managers are not doing nearly enough to care for their employees.
So if you’re not doing enough to look after your team, you can’t expect them to go out of their way.
How to get it right:
There are several things you can do to support your team, but you need to first understand how to spot signs of burnout or isolation.
This can seem a little tricky, especially when you don’t have the same visual cues that you normally would in the office. If you’re looking for tips on monitoring your employees’ wellbeing, we’ve got a great post here.
Being aware of your team’s wellbeing is only half the battle. You also need to make sure that you have processes in place to ensure you have a healthy culture that prioritises it.
Below are 4 things that you can easily do to prioritise it:
- Encourage a positive work-life balance by establishing boundaries between work and personal time.
- Check in regularly to see how your employees are feeling.
- Recreate the team’s social scene with virtual coffee breaks, lunches and games.
- Provide an employee assistance programme for their workplace or personal issues.
Mistake #3: Not creating team-building opportunities
Some organisations working remotely have become completely out of touch with their people, culture and connections they once had.
In the office, you would check in to see how their weekend was, how their family are doing and then catch up on sports news and anything else.
But in a remote environment, it’s really easy to drop the little things.
Many managers have forgotten that on the other side of the computer screen, there is a person that wants to feel valued and be connected to their team.
But as time goes on, these people will crave the culture they once had and eventually find a company that can fulfill this.
How to get it right:
Firstly, start with the small stuff.
- Schedule a morning catch-up with your team to see how they’re doing. Keep it casual, and don’t make it all about projects and deadlines.
- Create a separate channel in Microsoft Teams that’s dedicated to small talk, and encourage your team to use it.
- Set up a scheduled weekly or monthly casual lunch where teammates can get together to discuss non-work-related topics.
Once you’ve got these three things in place, you can shift your attention to the bigger stuff like offsites and team socials.
At a minimum, we recommend arranging a quarterly event, which will give most of them enough time to organise travel, accommodation and iron their favourite outfit.
Mistake #4: Failing to acknowledge staff differences
A huge mistake managers make when going remote is a failure to acknowledge that not all employees are equal when it comes to having access to a quiet space to work from or their abilities to use technology.
You might have the luxury of a home office. But what about those who live in a small flat with their children and pets? You just can’t expect them all to adapt to remote working similarly.
How to get it right:
You should carry out an assessment to understand which employees need support to do their jobs properly.
For technology-related support, look at what training courses are available to give them the uplift they need. But don’t solely rely on the courses. Make sure these people always have a point of contact when they need that extra bit of guidance.
Now for accommodating everyone’s home situation – this can be trickier.
If you have got a large number of employees that are unable to work from home, then you might have to consider a hybrid model where you have an office open for when they need it.
Once you’ve overcome these hurdles, make sure you provide all your employees with the essentials, such as laptops, office equipment and biscuits.
Mistake #5: Micromanaging the team
When some managers lose the ability to observe their team in the office, they start worrying about what they’re doing day-to-day. This leads them to become too heavily involved in their work, sending an unnecessary amount of messages and being labelled as the dreaded ‘Micromanager’.
Micromanaging over a long period will cause a loss of trust, lower morale and a reduction in collaboration. So it’s essential that you know how to monitor your team without falling into the ‘’micromanagement cycle’’.
How to get it right:
If you’re unaware of what your team are working on during the week, then how can you trust that they are not slacking off throughout the day?
This will only force you to be on their case, determining if projects are being worked on and if deadlines can be achieved.
So to get around this, schedule a team standup at the beginning of the week that covers:
- Tasks outstanding
- Their progress
- What are the priorities
- How can you support them
After each team standup, you’ll clearly understand where they’re at with their work and where your support is needed.
Now, these are just a few tips to help you avoid Micromanagement. But we’ve also got a whole post dedicated to this matter. Here we share all our tips and tricks to help you Monitor Remote Employees Without Being A Micromanager.
Avoid these mistakes and build a thriving virtual team
So these are 5 big mistakes managers make when managing remote teams. If you’re still new to the remote world, you have the chance to avoid them on your management journey.
But if you’ve already experienced some of these pitfalls, then this learning curve will help you put it right.
If you’re looking for some additional tips for managing remote teams, we’ve got some fantastic posts on Tips For Managing Remote Teams and 6 Tips For Keeping Remote Workers Connected.
