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Leading and Managing a remote team? Here are some hints and tips that may help!

Leading and managing a team is not as straightforward as it used to be. The reality today is that many of us have to have to lead teams that operate across countries with different languages, cultures and time zones.

The challenges to managing teams remotely can be considerable with different cultures, languages, business practices and attitudes to things such as hierarchy.

However, our experience shows that there are a number of practical things that managers can do to maximise team effectiveness and cohesion.
a) Be aware of cultural risks and other challenges. Get the team to think about the unique challenges that it will face particularly those relating to different cultures. For example, face to face communication is seen as highly important in European and Eastern cultures whereas North Americans have a greater tolerance of ‘virtual communications’. By understanding the most likely challenges to occur, you can take proactive measures to prevent them from occurring in the first place.
b) Understand local HR practices. HR practices vary widely by country and so it is important that as a leader you have an understanding of the differences. For example, laws relating to working hours are important in some countries, but not others.
c) Maximise ‘face to face’ time. If you are forming a new team where members will be working remotely from each other, make sure that it is launched at a ‘face to face’ meeting to enable everyone to get to know each other. Also get the team together as many times per year as budgets will permit. These meetings will be invaluable in strengthening relationships and solving problems.
d) Help to build relationships. Early on, team communications should have a significant 'getting to know you' component. Members need to feel valued for who they are, not just what they do. Building trust at a distance is difficult and chances for misunderstanding are great. It is therefore vital that team members feel ‘connected’ through all communications.
e) Provide clarity and focus. Spend time with the team clarifying the team's purpose and individual roles and responsibilities. There is a fair degree of ambiguity when working apart and this shouldn’t be made worse by team members not knowing what their role is or what they are expected to deliver. Make sure each team member not only understands their own objectives, but those of the other team members as well.
e) Respect others situations. Team members should know what time it is appropriate to call each other (remember time zones), and what days are off limits due to cultural, family or other commitments. Rotate team meeting times, so that no one team member or members are continually inconvenienced.
f) Create a team charter or contract. Related to the above set up ‘operating agreements’ in the form of a team charter or contract. The agreement will provide the team with shared guidelines around working together. The agreements can cover issues such as team behaviour, team processes, communication, problem solving etc as well as the overall team purpose and results needed.
g) Use appropriate technologies. Keep all team communications and records relating to the team on a shared database (in this way it can act as a historical database of the groups work for new team members). Think about using collaborate software such as WebEx, Lotus Notes, and as well as tele or videoconferencing (see h) below). As the team leader think about the most appropriate way to keep your team up to speed with what is going on perhaps via an intranet site, bulletin boards, or chat areas etc.
h) Manage teleconferencing effectively. If is quite common to see groups of people gathered round a video or teleconference microphone for a meeting with colleagues from a number of remote locations. However, often these meetings go unmanaged with some people refraining from getting involved while others have side conversations. It is even more important therefore to manage and facilitate individual contribution. To get round this dilemma some organisations ask the attendees to stay at their desk and ‘dial in’ to the teleconference, thus preventing side meetings and discussion.
i) Handle serious conflicts face to face. Distance between people means that the chances for misunderstandings, misinterpretations and conflict are greater. Therefore whenever possible handle serious conflicts face to face. Overt conflicts often conceal underlying issues that are around trust and respect, and our experience shows that promoting goodwill and discussion will solve most problems. Keeping people apart will only make them feel isolated and create further tensions and mistrust.
j) Protect personal time with team members. Because team members reside remotely it is even more important to allocate and protect time to find out how they are getting on, what issues they are facing out how they feel about things. When working remotely it is all too easy to focus on the task and forget about the individual.
As stated earlier the risks to managing teams remotely can be considerable, but by applying these tips managers can minimise these risks, and adopt approaches beyond those familiar from managing conventional work teams.

If you wish to find out more about how you can equip your managers with the skills, confidence and capability to lead teams across different geographies, time zones and cultures, please contact Developing People on 02380 695929, or alternatively via enquiries@developingpeople.co.uk.