Leading Remote Teams
During the time of Covid-19, here are a few tips for leading remote teams:
Trust. It’s no secret that great teams function on high degrees of trust - their ability to share ideas, opinions and feelings without fear of being judged. For teams who don’t often work remotely, this can become a bit more challenging when everyone is working remotely. Leaders, continue to leverage each individual’s core strengths to the team’s advantage. Be transparent about your hopes for the team during this time, and set boundaries around working hours so people don’t feel obligated to be online 24/7. Open a line of inquiry with your team about how they’d like to share and receive ideas and feedback while remote. Are there new aspects that you can bake into your team meetings to ensure strong alignment?
Fun. Leverage gifs and emojis to make email exchanges and instant messaging more fun. According to Alex Chung, CEO & co-founder of Giphy, “the average GIF contains 60 frames, and is capable of conveying 60,000 words.” It’s no wonder that visual content is more engaging, dynamic, and compelling. Keep the teams’ spirits up and send appropriate GIFs to the crew!
Personalization. In order to avoid the trap of team members feeling like their work is unseen, make sure to send a personalized 1:1 note to each team member each day either to ask what they had for lunch or commend them on their progress on a particular project or task. This will help team members feel supported and recognized for their efforts and help you keep a pulse on the team’s well-being and productivity.
Coaching. Knowing what your team broadly needs support on while remote can be challenging to pin down. Try browsing your learning management system for search trends - this might help shed some light on what the collective team needs extra help on. You can bake these topics into team meetings and offer extra training support.
Community. Find ways to connect and “hang” as a team remotely. Zoom, Houseparty, and Google Hangouts are great tools for informal communal lunches or morning virtual coffee breaks. Sometimes large group sessions in this forum can feel daunting as only one person can speak at a time. Pick a topic of dialogue and have each person contribute one at a time. Keep it simple and use it as a way to get to know each other better. (Questions could range from: “What is the moment you’re most proud of from your career?” to “What is your dream vacation?”) Your team will likely enjoy the opportunity to share and learn from one another. By asking each person to go one at a time, you also ensure that no one feels excluded.
Productivity. Designate a different team member each day (or week) to report out that day’s accomplishments or outputs. This helps create shared accountability and also sets a team member up to shine! If you want to add a twist, ask them to accompany the report with their favorite quote or a shout-out to another team member.
While leading remotely might feel a little uncomfortable at first, know that you’re not alone - ask for help from your team when you need it and lean on your management peers for additional ideas and support!
If you’re looking for personalized support, register for a free 1:1 intro coaching session below.