How to Effectively Lead Your Team During Remote Working
As per a research report, 77% of business leaders never expected to manage a team fully remotely.
The reason behind most of the leaders not having the experience to manage their team remotely is that in the pre-coronavirus days there was no need for remote workers, as such.
Key statistics from a report shows that only 19% of business leaders had a work from home strategy prior to COVID-19.
Moreover, 61% of remote working strategies in different companies are less than one year old.
However, now that the situation has completely changed for many businesses, new circumstances and challenges arose for the leaders.
First comes the need to measure employees’ productivity. According to the latest report, leaders find it difficult to have complete knowledge of their team’s productivity level.
However, by now, many leaders have joined hands with tracking tools to measure their team’s productivity levels. Nevertheless, 78% of leaders state that they trust employees rather than using tracking tools.
However, if you want to be the leader who wants to lead their team with utmost effectiveness while the pandemic is still going on, we sorted out a few ways for you.
Here are those ways:
Use Zoom Wisely
The new work conditions heavily rely on remote platforms that provide features to face-to-face meetings and more. Zoom is one name that is being used a lot. However, with the high usage of Zoom, many employees are facing Zoom fatigue.
So as a manager or a team leader it is up to you to set a good example on how to use Zoom wisely.
Make sure you provide your workers with the right training needed to implement the background, use the audio properly, when to mute or unmute, basically use Zoom most professionally.
But for this, you need to make sure that your worker has an appropriate internet connection to access Zoom and use it for their benefit. By having slow internet service, they can start facing a lot of troubles without even starting with the Zoom application.
Therefore employees must have a high-speed internet service like Hughesnet that provides the HughesNet unlimited plan for trouble-free access to internet platforms.
Once you know that your staff has a good internet service next thing you need to makes sure you do not overload them with information. Make sure that they can understand the application step by step.
Other than this, you can show them how they can use Zoom for fun. Zoom can be used to have less-corporate meetings as well. Just a fun time with some colleagues can help workers feel a little better about the whole work from home situation.
Be Innovative in Team Building
The time we live is restricting us from doing a lot of things. For instance, we can no longer step out and have a drink or just throw a Frisbee around during the lunch hour to make corporate life less boring. Now that all of us are working remotely, it has become much easier to have strictly professional interactions.
However, this strict professional barrier has created a gap between the team. And when the team communicates less, it shows in the work.
Therefore, if you want your team to perform their best you need to encourage them and keep the juices flowing.
Therefore you need to make sure that the actual happy hours have something constructive going on except for communication between words. For instance, you can come up with a karaoke contest, virtual scavenger hunts, and much more to entertain and keep your team excited for work.
Maintain Boundaries
While flexibility is an advantage that came with remote working it can also lead to either less productivity or burnout. In both cases, an effective leader knows how to maintain boundaries.
Make sure you keep your team on the schedule. This means that make sure that your workers are giving their best time to the work while also keeping their non-professional life alive.
You can do this by leading your workers through example. Instead of just preaching time management to the team, make sure you practice it as well.
Lastly, be Empathetic
By now we all have understood that remote working is not all about comfort and good times. So instead of overburdening your team with unrealistic expectations, make sure you come out as the best version of yourself with them.
You can start by being empathetic towards your team and keeping them motivated throughout.