Managing a team remotely is no easy task. Here are a few key tips to help you manage a team and “WFH” indefinitely…
1. Trust your team
Don’t even try to micromanage. Trust me; I speak from experience. You’ll waste time, add stress to your plate, and cause inefficiencies. If someone isn’t pulling their weight remotely, you’ll find out. Despite popular belief, working remotely hides nothing. Clockify helped me “check-in” on team inefficiencies from a distance. You can set up projects and tasks and view the amount of time a specific team member or the collective is taking per project/task. To take that one step further, you can set expectations on estimated time/hours for a given project or recurring task. By time-bounding the scope of work, the team (including yourself) can collectively come to understand and manage expectations.
2. Over-communicate
It will take some time to learn what needs to be communicated over the phone or video call verses by email or Slack. When in doubt, do both. This is not to be confused with micro-managing, as its about making sure you and your team are aligned on projects and due dates. This will be annoying and seem redundant at first, but it’ll become a habit and save you from miscommunications in the long run. Soon enough, you’ll get into a groove. That groove will depend on the task and working style of your team members individually and as a group, but is also determined by your communication style as a leader. For me, I live and die by my lists. Any time I go into a meeting or kick-off a project, I need to see an agenda, meeting minutes, clear action items and a timeline or workback with next steps. This helps me manage my expectations and even more importantly, lets the team know what I expect of them. #ManageExpectations
3. Define your channels of communication
As a team, you should first decide on the means of communication. What has worked best for Serotina is: email is for external communication (ie. mostly account manager or directors dealing with client relations); Slack is for internal discussions; and Google Drive is our house and foundation for all things (internal and external facing client docs, meeting minutes, content calendars – you name it). To take it one step further, each one of our clients has an internal “meeting minutes” log in which the project manager and/or account manager are responsible for updating both internal and external communications. I know what you’re thinking – this seems like a ridiculous amount of work. But I can’t even count how many times this has saved myself, the team and/or a client. It serves as a reference point, and you better believe it keeps everyone accountable and in check. #GetEverythingInWriting
4. Schedule recurring team meetings
Two to three times a week, have a virtual team meeting to check-in and get a status update on all things, big and small. Your team won’t be able to poke their head in and touch base with you as easily or readily as they would in an office when working from home, so give them the time to ask random questions or bring up ideas. Make it something everyone can count on weekly – it’s important to have a communal touch-base point. Sometimes this will feel like a waste of time, as you or the team will have no updates; but it brings a sense of routine and human interaction into your new “WFH” life. To add to this point: make sure your team knows when you’re available, should they need to speak with you outside of collective meetings. This would be the equivalent to peeping your head into their office or vice versa.
5. Avoid threads like the CORONAVIRUS *Cardi B voice*
Nothing will get you down or waste your time like email hunting or deep diving into Slack. I understand this can be difficult when you have multiple collaborators on a project or deliverables, but it will save you hours of time searching and miscommunicating. Instead, have a Google Drive folder or a Google Docs “house” where all information related to a given project can live – like a Master Google Doc, if you will, or a virtual Project Manager. Use the Google Drive “comment” feature to tag and notify team members of updates. I promise you, this will simplify your life and save so much time.
Don’t expect the process to develop overnight. Give it a minute, and you’ll figure out what works for your team.
– Daphne Barron, Founder
@serotinamedia
#KEEPSOCIAL
