By now, you may have already figured out some tricks for working effectively with your remote team. Even so, maintaining motivation while social distancing can still be a challenge. So how can you make sure that your team remains engaged with the work that they do?
At first, working remotely can be quite a challenge as you and your team try to navigate the right systems and processes to make things work. Once you become a little more settled, working remotely with your team can be as smooth as working with them in an office.
However, without the right processes and routines in place, it’s easy for team members to experience disconnection. As a manager, it’s up to you to keep your team constantly engaged, even when you don’t get to physically see one another for quick office updates.
Understanding your team’s perspective
When you have two or more members in your remote team, it’s important to remember that each of them will work differently. Having the same processes or timetables for everyone could lead to no one being happy which will ultimately affect productivity.
Try to find the right balance between giving clear directives that everyone has to follow and being accommodating towards individual working styles and preferences.
Doing this remotely can be tough, but here are a few things that can help.
1. Consider assessment tools
Each of your team members have different personalities and behaviors. Some may be a bit shy in expressing their thoughts while others may be more outspoken. Some will be a little sensitive while others are not. There are many tools that you can consider, such as DISC or Myers-Briggs. These will help give an insight into how to best communicate with different types of people.
2. Find some clues
When you already have a guide or a model, it can be easier for you to see clues about people’s behaviors that could help you interact better with your team. How do they want to be treated? How do they wish to be communicated with? Once you can answer these questions, you can learn to adapt and lead your staff in greater ways.
3. Be flexible
If you do things the same way for everyone, you won’t be really getting the results that you want. When it comes to communication, being flexible is important. You need to figure out what works best for each of your team members when it comes to training them or supporting their needs.
4. Ask your team members
Talk to your team members and ask them how you can provide support or train them effectively. This is usually the best way to understand their point of view, but it’s amazing how often managers try to come up with the answer without ever asking this direct question. Armed with this information, you’ll be able to move forward and really make progress when it comes to working remotely. This also helps avoid misunderstandings and in turn, helps you achieve better results.
Building trust with your team
Trust is earned and it doesn’t happen accidentally. Building trust is one of the biggest challenges that remote leaders face when working with their remote team. It affects your ability to motivate and inspire your staff. Here’s a few tips on how you can build trust with your team.
1. Have a common purpose
What is the goal for your team? This is something you should always be thinking about, especially when you’re working from a distance. There are fewer visible reminders of the things you need to do as you don’t get to see each other in the office. But if you want to build trust, you need to ensure that everyone is heading in the same direction and working towards the same purpose.
2. Show competence
People can easily trust you when they believe that you know what you’re doing. When you are working well and displaying competence in the work that you do, your team will trust you even more. Additionally, you also have to believe that your team is capable of doing good work as well. Help them see that everyone has the skills to support and help one another.
3. Establish clear motives
What are your staff’s motives? Are they genuine? Are they working for everyone’s best interests and for the good of the company? This is harder to determine when working remotely. As a leader, you need to make sure that everything is in the right place. Motivate your team to achieve your common goals. Remember that trust must be put into action.
Build a dedicated team with Cloudstaff
With working from home becoming the new norm around the world due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, cases, it’s likely that remote working will be necessary for the foreseeable future. For many businesses this is a new challenge but at Cloudstaff we have been helping businesses set up and thrive with cloud-based teams for over 10 years.
We provide our clients not just with professional staff that are highly skilled in a wide range of roles, but also with top level security measures and safeguards that makes the remote working model safe and dependable.
Need to grow your team to support your business needs? Choose your staff with the skills you’re looking for. Contact Cloudstaff today at info@cloudstaff.com and we’ll help you find the right people.
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