Jenny West
Workplace transformation leader,
global business division, Knoll
With today’s technology-enabled mobility, supervising a partially distributed team has become more commonplace. But if your entire staff has had to move to a remote framework, navigating your role as a leader can feel a bit daunting. There’s no doubt that change can be hard for everyone on your team – including you.
Whatever your managerial experience has been, it likely involved face-to-face interaction with your team members. In a remote setting, you will need some specific strategies to foster connection and productivity while keeping your team enthusiastic and engaged. If your team is unexpectedly spread out in various home office or off-site locations, there is bound to be a disruption of routines and social interaction.
Your team will be looking to you for guidance – and the good news is that you can help them thrive. Start with these simple strategies and listen in as three local team leaders share their methods for helping their team thrive through these challenging times.
Succeeding in a changing environment is all about communication and flexibility.
At the outset, there are a number of things to keep in mind.
Set expectations. For you as a manager, shifting to a remote working scenario may be uncharted territory. But workplace researcher and strategist Kate Lister, president of Global Workplace Analytics, suggests that taking the right steps now can help your team create a real-time framework for success.
As you embark on a remote work structure, start a dialogue on expectations and ask your team for their input on developing a realistic framework. Make sure that you’re in agreement as it relates to measurement metrics, expectations for productivity and team member accessibility. Determine how and when your off-site team will meet – daily, every few days or once a week – and put the structure in place.
Once you’re underway, you can adapt as you go based upon team needs and feedback. In fact, according to flexible work strategist Cali Williams Yost, CEO and founder of Flex+Strategy Group, your adaptability will equip you for the long term to attract and retain talent, increase productivity, optimize resources and be prepared for what comes next.
Agree on priorities and processes. Help your team prioritize what is possible – and not possible – to achieve from off-site. Empower your employees by asking what assignments they would like to translate into virtual work. Meet with each employee to review what they specifically will be working on, both short- and long-term, and discuss realistic metrics, milestones and how and when your communication will happen.
Make clear to your employees that even though they may be working from home, the business day will still retain structure and have familiar work flows to follow, though communications frequency and modes will differ from the norm.
With the new expectation of home-schooling kids, parents often have to work beyond the 8-5 norm and take breaks throughout the day with them. Although normal, general business hours are respected for collaboration with peers, focus time outside of those hours for noninterrupted work time are a norm.
Of course, 24/7 availability can be a detriment to telework, so encourage all on the team to be mindful of your organization’s general business hours when texting, emailing, calling or sending meeting requests. In fact, be sure to assure your team that the workday will end when normal business hours are over. We suggest that as a leader you can do this by modeling work-life boundaries appropriate to your organizational culture.
Along the way, managers should be diligent of the following:
Manage expectations. From the outset, you may get varying reactions from your team. Some workers may enjoy working remotely and will easily thrive, while others may struggle with staying productive or battling loneliness.
Regardless of the employee’s perspective, point out that this phase will allow you to explore how a remote structure could work long term, and always acknowledge that it is a work in progress for everyone – and that’s OK.
Roth also advises that managing expectations means being flexible and empathetic during the process. For example, it may take some time and experimentation for home-based workers to find a rhythm to the workday, particularly if they are managing children, pets, work-at-home spouses and other responsibilities. Distractions may need to be forgiven rather than managed in some cases, she adds.
Use familiar tools. As you and your team adapt to remote work and a new check-in process, it’s helpful to keep some workflow aspects unchanged. For example, if you already use a tool like Zoom, Skype or Google Meet, don’t try to switch it up while you’re adapting to a new remote work structure. Instead, leverage the tech that the team is familiar with, whether it’s a popular project management app like Asana, a collaborative tool like Slack, or even a simple shared Google sheet.
Lister suggests that whatever tools your team is using, encourage them to make use of all of the tool’s capabilities, such as virtual commenting boxes during group calls or presentations. This can increase team engagement from afar.
“We have shifted many of our external marketing efforts to internal with the goal of maximizing connectivity,” said Traci Lounsbury, CEO and owner, elements. “We are promoting contests around attire, home office design, pets, etc. Leadership is consistently reaching out through Microsoft Teams for a quick face-to-face hello and random check in throughout the organization – not just direct reports. Happy hours are frequent. We will launch an internal newsletter this Friday around sharing ‘Happy News.’ Birthdays, anniversaries, good things happening in the community and the world. Our culture remains strong and people want to connect with one another. In the long run, we will become a better organization.”
Communicate, communicate – and communicate again. Amidst changes to place and space, the heart of managerial success lies in communication. This is especially true when the move to off-site work was unexpected. Lister notes that when managing remote workers, it’s important to communicate more, not less – whether it’s by email, text or jumping on a quick video call. Remember, increased communication doesn’t mean you are micromanaging; rather, these processes are the replacement for in-person dialogue since you are no longer face to face.
For example, your team might decide to text quick updates, email more in-depth questions, and jump on a Zoom call when you need to feel more connected. Each platform gives a different experience for staying connected, and each staff member may have a preferred tool.
For example, some people are shy about on-camera video calls but can let their sense of humor shine on Slack, explains Knoll’s Roth. These different media give people a chance to “speak up” and “share” in the ways they feel comfortable, and can showcase the different personality types that make your team unique, she added.
Trust your team. Delegate assignments just as you would if you were all in the same location. When you are in virtual meetings, make sure there are leaders assigned to specific tasks and that everyone is clear about who owns what task. As Lister notes, managing when you can’t see your team can be a challenge for some leaders – but you need to trust that your people are, in fact, working. Everyone works differently, especially in remote settings and when blending “work and life” in the same space. But when you combine accountability with breathing space, you’ll give your team the opportunity to thrive.
Foster team spirit. Be positive! In fact, aim to have fun at the same level as would take place if you were in the office together. If you are having a virtual staff meeting, invite the team to chime into the conversation or use emojis to express their personalities. With video calls, invite staff to adopt “virtual backgrounds” that show a favorite location they’ve visited or a place on their bucket list; you can begin your weekly all-staff video calls by guessing “where” each employee is.
“After having just wrapped up my first full week of working from home, I’ve quickly found that video check-ins are a must,” said Shahana Wyss, senior director, facilities and security, HomeAdvisor/ Angie’s List. “Even though it’s in my nature to shoot over a quick message, Zoom calls have proven to be an easy way to engage – both for me and my employees. It’s a nice break to be able to chat with them rather than just stare at my monitors all day. We even did a tropical-themed team Zoom call for a team member’s birthday – everyone loved it! It was a chance to laugh at each other’s get-ups and reconnect with the team!”
Socializing is important, and your team may be missing the camaraderie of a shared workplace. If it fits your company culture, encourage them to find each other on Instagram or Facebook, and to group text silly memes or GIFs for a healthy dose of daily humor.
Spend the first few minutes of team calls chatting about family, pets, hobbies or other nonwork topics that you’d normally share during an in office coffee run. If you recognize birthdays in the office, try a Zoom-based cupcake break; or, after a successful week of accomplishments, have the team sign on with their beverage of choice in hand for a Friday afternoon happy hour. You might even invite them to “bring” kids and pets to the meet-up.
Every day, managers should try to:
Learn and grow. Even if you are new to managing a virtual work group, always reflect on what is working and what could be done better. Encourage your staff to give you feedback and be upfront about how this new dynamic is working for them. Continue to ask yourself: What am I learning?
Your flexibility can allow your team to thrive. It also can be the blueprint for your future shared “work space,” and reveal what that space could look like moving forward – for example, a long-term framework that supports employees facing personal challenges, such as child care needs or managing an aging parent.
As Roth reiterates, change can be hard and the members of your team will adjust to it in different ways and at different speeds. But for you as a manager, adapting to change provides opportunities to create new ways of working and doing business. So embrace the opportunity to grow – and watch your team grow right along with you! For more on this topic, download our white paper: www.knoll.com/knollnewsdetail/strategies-for-managing-a-remote-team.
