7 Requirements for Managing Remotely

The pandemic has forced many to immediately shift to working from home. This crisis will undoubtedly accelerate the ongoing shift to working remotely. Pre Covid, approximately 70% of the global workforce worked remotely at least 1 day per week. For managers, the ability to effectively manage employees remotely has become a required skill. Below are 7 areas of focus to make you the most effective remote manager.

1. Ensure You Have The Right People

As Jim Collins said in his book Good To Great, you must first make sure you have the right people on the bus. Some managers have told me that they cannot trust some employees to work remotely. I cannot state this strongly enough, if you cannot trust someone to work remotely, you have a performance problem, NOT a “working remote” problem. If an employee is not self motivated and engaged, they will be an issue, regardless of location.

2. Define Expectations

Agree on things like core hours and response times. You will avoid many interpersonal issues by establishing these up front. “I want you to respond whenever someone needs you” is not a reasonable expectation. If we, as managers, expect our team to devote nights and weekends when work dictates, we should enable flexibility when work allows.

3. Don’t Waste Time In Meetings

When at home, competition for our time is greater and the value of time is more palpable. You should never waste people’s time, but especially with the additional challenge of working remotely.

Schedule only valuable meetings – Don’t have a meeting if it will not provide tangible value. Invite only required attendees.

Ensure frictionless communication – Prevent the always frustrating, “I can’t connect”, “Can you hear me?” Ensure technology works and people are on time & engaged.

Keep meeting focused and short – Send agenda well in advance, direct discussion toward meeting goals, arrest digressions and end when goals are met.

Follow up – Capture the value of meetings! Send out notes with tasks, owners and due dates. Follow up when tasks are due.

4. Reach Out

When teammates are remote and you don’t have impromptu conversations, it is easy to go days without checking in. Ensure consistent communication with all members of your team. Choose the method that works best for that employee; be it Slack, phone or text. Don’t just ping them with “How’s it going?” Use the opportunity to follow up on topics. If a teammate is struggling with a work challenge, ask them how you can help. If they have confided in you about a personal issue, empathize with their situation and ask what you can do to help the situation. Remember the person behind the work. We all need help at times.

5. Solve Problems

Listen when your team talks. At times, teammates just want to be heard. Sometimes they need help. If a teammate has an issue that needs your help, do what you say, when you say you will do it. Don’t make them ask for an update. Struggling to resolve an issue can make people feel helpless, adding physical remoteness makes them feel abandoned.

6. Track Valuable Metrics

Use valuable metrics to track your team’s true progress. Number of hours online is a useless metric. Your goal should be to track tangible progress through tools like workflow software without having to ask for updates. Weekly status reports make you look like Bill Lumbergh.

7. Connect In Person

Notwithstanding a pandemic, it is critical that remote employees get together periodically. Collaboration between colleagues is exponentially greater when they know each other as people vs. a name in Slack. Make room in your budget for travel and fill the time with collaborative work and social interaction.