You could say that I was “lucky” when I was first promoted to manager. One half of my team was in my city, and the other half was 1000 miles away. 90% of upper management was also 1000 miles away…but that is a different article.
Yes, managing a remote team is harder.
Off the top of my head, here is a short list of (not-so-minor) things that you don’t have at your disposal with remote working teams:
- facial expressions and body language (my team didn’t like video calls, and the technology was admittedly worse back then)
- the water cooler and lunches together
- hallway encounters
- visibility on in-team friendships
In short, you can’t read the room. Weekly team meetings are awkward (“hello, is the remote team there? oh, they’re offline, there is a fibre outage at the office…”).
You’re going to be fine.
Here are a few things that I did to “offset” the distance:
Communicate open and often
Tools like Slack and Teams have made this so much easier in recent years. You want to be in the open channels, creating clarity around requirements, voicing concerns, asking the questions everyone is burning to ask (but no one is). Sometimes even (hopefully often) pitching in with a joke, some banter or a meme.
Your team must “see” you.
Identify the leaders, and use them
Most teams have one or two people that others gravitate towards. You’ve probably heard them speak up in project discussions, or your weekly team meeting. Use your 1:1 meetings with these people as strategically as possible. Of course you have to focus on them first, but set aside dedicated time with them to discuss the team.
Share your challenges with them and elicit their opinions.
Jump at in person opportunities (if you can)
If your company allows travel, or requires it from time to time, try to make an in person visit. Schedule some 1:1s, have a few walks, do a lunch. Especially if you have new hires in the team. It builds the foundation and makes every following voice-or-video call easier and more open.
Be prepared
Use the first 15 to 30 minutes of your day (ideally before the working day starts) to plan who you want to talk to that day. Review a few of your past notes, take stock of goal progress, fire away a few direct messages to people that are in close work vicinity of who you want to talk to (shared project, same office, ride-sharing colleague).
Broaden your preparations outside of just the immediate work that the team member is busy with.
Just say hi
You’re probably not going to talk to everyone, every day (depending on the size of your team). So when you do, they’re going to expect that you are asking about that deadline. Don’t.
Sometimes a simple “hey, how are you doing? how was the school concert?” goes far.
You will adapt, get use to the awkward of it all, shrug off the uncontrollable elements, and just get on with it. You’re going to be fine.
👋 Ruan – co-founder of Prescience