i3 - September/October 2020 - 34

Business

By Scott Steinberg

FO RWA R D ST R AT EG I E S

How to
Successfully
Manage
Teams
Remotely

OVID-19 has impacted how consumer technology firms market to customers, manage
supply chains and mitigate risks. It's also paved the rise of mass teleworking and
remote collaboration, and changed how teams communicate in the workplace. With
75% of employees now interested in working from home, and over three-quarters of HR executives expecting this to continue, it's vital for executives to master the art of remote leadership.
Maintain
Professionalism

Lack of face-to-face
supervision can detract
from productivity. This
can be offset by scheduling regular, structured
check-ins with remote
workers and providing
your team multiple
ways to stay in touch
from business communications platforms to
online chat services. To
be effective when working remotely, predesignate different
communication methods for diverse types of
exchanges (e.g. sensitive interactions are
best handled via videoconference versus
email or instant messages where nuance
can be lost). Likewise,
teams should know the
best ways and times to
reach you, and how
you'd like high-priority
queries handled.

Although it is tempting
to adopt a more leisurely
attitude when communicating with employees
from home, it's important to maintain professionalism in all
exchanges. The same
rules of conduct and
dress codes that are
used when working at
the office should also be
applied when working
remotely. Likewise, be
mindful of what's visible
in the background when
you're presenting via
video or use a free virtual backdrop. Take the
lead on setting remote
meetings, especially
one-on-one exchanges
since this lets others
know these meetings
are a priority.

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Encourage
Employees to
Stay in Touch

Many leaders set 50% of
the topics to be discussed
during remote meetings
and let direct reports
determine the other 50%.
This helps to ensure that
everyone's concerns are
addressed, schedules are
maintained, and projects
stay on task and also
allows a healthy dialogue.
Remote work can be isolating and create a sense
of removal from one's
team, vision and purpose.
Taking a few minutes to
catch up on how others
are doing, can rekindle
empathy. From a teambuilding standpoint, set
aside times for employee
gatherings such as virtual
happy hours to offset the
isolating effects of social
distancing.

Inform Your
Staff

Offer Ongoing
Support

With so much uncertainty, keep the team
abreast of current
events, maintain a sense
of direction and minimize colleagues' sense
of disruption. Regularly
check in with direct
reports and explain how
company actions are
helping create positive
outcomes. If you have to
convey bad news, be
straightforward and
empathetic. While furloughs, project delays
and other changes aren't
easy to talk about, being
honest and respectful
with coworkers is the
best policy. Prepare for
questions that employees may ask, have supporting information
ready in advance, and
walk through how
impending changes may
impact your team as well
as next steps.

During tough times,
leaders should acknowledge employees may
be stressed due to
uncertainty and seek
ways to empathize.
Especially when working
remotely, it's important
to regularly ask others
how they're doing.
Exercising emotional
intelligence, and providing others with comfortable contexts to air their
feelings is a crucial part
of leadership. The more
you make listening to
others a priority, while
simultaneously projecting calm and control,
the more successful
you'll be. Top leaders
inspire confidence and
also provide encouragement to their team.
Elenabs/Getty Images

Formalize
Remote Working

I T I S I N N O VAT I O N

9/2/20 4:04 PM

i3 - September/October 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of i3 - September/October 2020