Melissa Lamson* has advice for managing on keeping team members involved when they are in different cities across many time zones.
You manage a team that is working from multiple locations and time zones.
Initially, everything looked really good. You developed the project plan, created timelines, task lists and met with the team to kick the project off.
However, after a while your team members lost energy and began to miss meetings.
Now you’re concerned. You’re looking for solutions, for tips or ideas on how to get the project back on track and manage your dispersed teams successfully.
Leading a virtual group can present real challenges. Maintaining clear communication, engagement, and focus can be tough.
For more and more managers this is a daily reality as the number of organisations with remote workers continues to grow.
Chief Executive of FlexJobs, Sara Sutton Fell says there are occasional stories of a company ending its remote work program.
“However, the long-term trends all show steady growth in the number of people working remotely,” she says.
As a result, leaders are discovering innovative ways to rally and connect teams no matter how far away they are from each other.
There are best practices for leading a team of remote workers successfully and building a sense of trust, belonging, and commitment.
In my workshops about building and leading effective virtual teams, one of our first activities is designed to increase awareness of team characteristics and complexities.
We talk about what works well and what must be done to achieve positive results.
Over the years I have learned some of the best practices for managing dispersed teams.
Create context
As the leader, it’s your job to provide the context for the team.
In addition to sharing the project specifications and requirements, you need to paint the big picture for them and bring the importance of their roles to the forefront.
Help your employees understand, not only what their roles are, but why they matter — and why each of them benefits individually from being truly engaged in the team’s goal.
While this may sound like Leadership 101, a dispersed team needs help understanding the behind-the-scenes information they miss by working at distance.
Teams need to know exactly how they are expected to collaborate.
Working remotely, while offering fantastic benefits to both employees and organisations, can provoke feelings of isolation and disconnection.
As part of creating context, set clear and measurable performance goals and make sure your team understands how those goals figure into the project.
It’s on you, as their leader, to help the members of the group connect the dots, get to know you and each other and feel like part of a team, working together toward a common purpose.
Communicate, maybe even over-communicate
Communication is one of the first things to go in a virtual team setting.
The inability to read non-verbal clues presents hurdles to dispersed team members that don’t exist for in-person teams.
It’s all too easy to misunderstand a text or email because virtual communication lacks the non-verbal clues we get from face-to-face interaction.
It’s better when communication is through video chatting tools like Skype or Slack.
Physical distance can contribute to avoidance of conflict, and it’s easier to default to “dealing with it later” if an exchange was tense or unclear.
If you don’t handle a conflict proactively, unresolved negativity can fester.
So set up the ground rules with regular check-ins using a video conferencing tool.
Also make a point of meeting face-to-face at least once during the project — that contact will increase your team’s productivity by as much as 50 per cent.
This effort will pay off for you in increased engagement and strong connections with each of your team members.
I like to remind people of the 10 times rule: Phone calls are 10 times more effective than email or text, and face-to-face communication is 10 times more effective than a phone call.
Cultivate community and respect
We all work better when we feel like we are part of something larger.
In addition to creating context, cultivate a feeling of community for your team.
Develop a strategy to pull each of the team members into the group and then cement that feeling of community by acknowledging the team’s efforts and celebrating its successes.
Work to develop a feeling of trust between you and your team and between the team members themselves.
Make a point of being accessible to the team, and allow one-on-one time for each of your employees.
Be considerate of their obligations, work commitments, and especially the time zones they are working in.
Set meetings and calls as thoughtfully as your own schedule allows, and include group meetings on a regular basis as a way of touching base and offering encouragement.
Ask your team for feedback. What works for them? What isn’t working? What can you improve or create differently?
Not only will you learn important information about your employees and the project, but you may also find new leaders within the group.
Be respectful of the individual group members and the team as a whole.
This feeling of respect and community will go a long way toward building trust and engagement from a team that takes pride in delivering top-notch performances.
*Melissa Lamson is a leadership expert with experience in more than 40 countries. As President and Chief Executive of Lamson Consulting she helps companies and business leaders cultivate a successful global mindset. She can be contacted at @melissa_lamson1.
This article first appeared on the Inc.com website.
