Just a few years ago, the idea that millions of people would be working remotely would never have crossed anyone’s mind. To begin with, up until the early 2000s and perhaps even later, the technology simply didn’t exist to allow for it. For another thing, why change a system that was working?
The question, of course, is whether that system really was working. Did it actually make sense for workers to leave home, commute to an office, do their work, and then return home again every day for years and years? It was how it had always been done, but that didn’t mean it was the best way to do it.
The necessity of remote working through the coronavirus pandemic put things into perspective for not just workers but for employers as well. They could save money on office space, their employees were happier with a better work-life balance, and overall there was more productivity – for the most part, at least.
There are issues with remote working, of course, and one of the biggest is for managers and leaders. It’s very hard to be a good leader when you are not working in the same place as your team all the time. When you can’t oversee what they are doing, it’s hard to know how to lead in the first place. What do people need, and how can you offer it to them? In an office, this is a simple thing to work out, but with homeworkers, it’s a lot harder.
With that in mind, read on for some advice about how to be a good leader with a remote team and ensure that your business is as productive and successful as possible in this new era of remote working.
Be Good With Time Management
As a leader, you are the one who is most often tasked with coming up with jobs for your team to do. You’ll also determine how long those jobs should take and when you need to see the results, so you’ll work on the deadlines as well. When people are working from home, it can be easy to keep piling work on them until they feel overwhelmed and their productivity suffers. Either that or they will hit their deadlines, but to the detriment of their work-life balance. Even if this means their work is done in the short-term, in the long-term, this can affect their productivity.
Therefore, you need to be entirely aware of what you are asking people to do and the deadlines you are asking them to work towards. It’s not always easy to do this, and it is something like walking a fine line between what you need and what can be sensibly achieved, but try to imagine yourself doing the work of your individual employees. Would you be able to do it? If not, you need to pull back.
It’s also crucial that your team is able to ask for help if they feel they have been given too much to do. Make sure they know how to get hold of you when they need you and that you are approachable enough to speak to about this issue – and any others they may have.
Stay Connected
Although there are many positive things to think about when it comes to remote working, one of the biggest issues is the isolation it can bring about. It’s true that some people will relish being able to work in their own space without interruptions or having colleagues around them, others are sure to miss the atmosphere of a traditional office workspace.
As the leader of a remote team, you need to be aware of this fact and ensure that you do everything you can to stop it being an issue. One option is to check the software you are offering is the best in terms of not just the work that people are able to do on it, but the way they can collaborate with one another during break times. If the software you use allows for messages to be sent and face-to-face discussions to occur, people won’t feel as though they have been simply left to their own devices, and their feelings of isolation will be much less. In fact, this is the thing that could improve their work-life balance considerably, allowing them to be more productive and then shutting the tools down once work is over, just as though they are leaving the office for the day.
Choosing the right collaborating tools is a good start, but it’s not everything that’s needed. You’ll also need to ensure you set time aside for having one on one meetings with every member of your team. If you can do this, they will see that you are taking the time to make sure they are all right. Use this opportunity to get any feedback that might be useful about how to make this aspect (or any aspect) of remote working better, and you can get even more out of this. At the very least, however, you’ll find that morale is improved, which, again, links directly to more productive, more efficient workers.
Make Changes When You Need To
As we mentioned above, just because something is done in a certain way and the results seem satisfactory, that doesn’t mean it’s the best way to do things. As a leader of your remote team, you’ll need to implement necessary changes to make the working environment better and to stay on top of various trends and rules within your sector and within the business world.
You’ll therefore need to do plenty of research to ensure that you are able to keep up to date with the things that have to change. This might include reading journals or blogs, attending conferences, networking with people who have in-depth knowledge about the new Google update and other important business information, and so on. No matter how you do it (and it will probably require a combination of some of these methods, if not all of them), it must be done. In this way, you can ensure you are able to impart this new information to your team so they feel they are getting a good sense of where the business is and how much you’re staying on top of things.
If your employees can rely on you to give them the information they need to move forward or at least stay at the same level as the competition, they will feel grateful. Even better is if you can give them training should it be needed. When things change in business, this might mean that the way you do things has to change too. Rather than just telling your team what has to be done differently, take the opportunity to train them (or outsource this training) to help them do their jobs more effectively and help them feel more in control.
We mentioned feedback above, and again this is going to be useful when it comes to making changes. As a good leader, you need to know that you don’t know everything. You have an overview of the business, but you don’t have the level of deep knowledge that your workers do when it comes to their own jobs. Therefore, you can’t just assume you know what’s best and not listen to the people who are using the tools and doing the work. Instead, you have to hear them out. They might have a better way of doing things, they might need something that you can provide, or they might have a question that starts you thinking of how to improve their working conditions. Listening to your team is one of the most crucial elements of being a good leader, and when it comes to implementing the changes they suggest, it’s something that can help not on their self-esteem and loyalty levels, but the company you’re part of as well.
Focus On The Results
One of the best ways to increase engagement and to ensure a happy, focused team when you are a leader, whether they are remote or not (but perhaps especially if they are remote working), is to forget about the process of the work being done and instead look at the results. Are the results what you want? Is the work being completed on time and within budget? Is it good quality?
If the answer is yes, then it shouldn’t really matter when or even how (to some extent, at least) the work is being done. So essentially, a good leader will be happy for workers to complete their tasks at times that suit them as long as deadlines are met. This means there is no micromanaging involved, which is beneficial to the worker, but also helps the manager or leader focus on their own tasks while still overseeing everything that is happening.
The key to ensuring this kind of working environment is successful is to clearly set out guidelines, goals, and tasks in the right way. The more information you can give at the start, the fewer questions will be needed, and the more productive people will be.
HR Future Staff Writer
