Become A Great Remote Manager With These 5 Effective Practices

31st October 2022

With the global COVID-19 pandemic, most of the workforce started to work from home. And even the post COVID-19 phase too, managers are planning the best remote working guidelines to lead their teams effectively. A positive remote manager must direct effective technology, communication as well as workflows for their remote staff. The manager needs certain traits to become a great remote manager.

Luckily, there are precise and research-based steps that you can take. These are proven to improve the engagement along with the productivity of remote employees. Today, some companies are 100% remote, while others provide a variety of office and remote options (hybrid model). There are some managers who are using different tracking software to ensure people are working while some managers trust their teams entirely.

Before proceeding let us quickly understand the various challenges that managers generally face in a remote work setting. Here are the common ones ---

Remote work culture is extremely demanding at present but with time, there are some common challenges occurred:
 

• Lack of face-to-face supervision
• Lack of access to information
• Social isolation
• Distractions at home
• Higher issues with already existing silos
• Working across different time zones
• Building and preserving strong company culture
• Lack of routine and time-management
• Blurred work-life boundaries
• Increased cybersecurity risk
• Resolving technical challenges

The biggest and the most common challenge with remote working is managing projects when your team is spread out across several locations.

How Managers Can Better Lead Remote Teams?

Here are our five tips for managing remote teams successfully.

Add New Policies and Processes

It’s easy to detach when employees work in diverse locations. Communication is a strong pillar for any type of team management, so set clear communication guidelines. Daily meetings about an ongoing project are great. As your employees will be working in different time zones, hence, try to rotate meeting times.

Daily check-ins have to be a compulsory step of opening a day. The best approach to keeping in touch with your workforce is day-to-day video conferencing. But then again remember, over communication can lead to a greater overhead as well, so be careful!

Be Techno-Friendly

Try to set up appropriate processes and task platforms early on. There are a number of tools for everything from remote team management to tracing at present. Using various tools to your advantage like Google-Meeting, Hangouts, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, etc., can aid managers to keep track of their respective teams and leading them remotely.

The tools simplify social communication and keep records of all discussions. Managers are freed up to focus on the superior picture and aid individuals when they see a probable challenge in the workflow.

Show Empathy

Well, it is important for managers to recognize stress. Try to listen to employees’ concerns and anxieties, and empathize with their struggles. Improve your emotional intelligence skills. Remember happy team members = happy customers. Showing appreciation is another important part of supporting remote workers. Being an effective remote manager means building a strong support system for your squad. Arrange the one-on-one time, clarify the misunderstandings (if happened) and plan regular Ask Me Anything (AMA) meetings.

Prioritize Inclusion

Needless to say, there have to be some employees who always prefer to take the back row, isn’t it? Well, in a remote setting, such people may disappear in total. Therefore, make an effort to get each team member into meetings. Create some “water cooler” moments for providing a sense of belonging.

Certainly, this does not always have to be job-related. It could be anything, as simple as asking everyone to say what the best thing that happened to them and so on. Or maybe you can ask them a word to describe how they’re feeling and a number to measure their energy levels.

Invest In Them

Learning is personal. Effective remote managers generally ask about one's career goals proactively. They also frequently discuss how a report is moving towards a specific career objective. Try to deliver your team members professional training so they can become better at their work. By teaming individuals with variable experiences, they can learn from each other.

The Bottom Line

The above-mentioned tips are simple but not easy. Each of the steps needs proper time, attention, and steadiness. As an effective remote team manager, you’ll have to come up with diverse ways of safeguarding that your team members do not suffer from social loneliness. Professional Diploma in Train the Trainer is something that you can consider. Lastly, it's very crucial to be open-minded on how you can remove blockers to foster better association.

Looking for earning a corporate training certification? If yes then call us at +919830029766 or +91 6292146549. Chat with our expert if you have any questions or send us an email at info@ctpdasia.com to find out more.

Written By : Victoria Lewis