Remote teamwork is today more popular than ever – and it requires a new management style most team managers yet need to embrace. If you expect to work exclusively with on-site teams, think twice –
this study shows that around 80% of managers today coordinate teams, which are at least partially dispersed. It's very likely that at some point in your career, you'll be managing workers located in other countries, cities or those working from home – and you'll need to be prepared for that.
Delivering projects in remote might become more difficult and time-consuming than doing the same in an on-site setting. Here are some tips to help you manage a team of dispersed workers.
Communicate project goals Make sure that the whole team is aware of the primary objectives and goals of the project. With everyone on board, you'll see how your team will achieve all that's expected. Articulate clearly your goals when all workers are present – during a video-conference, for instance – and invite them to ask questions and improve their understanding of the project.
Keep an open chatroom Maintain an open chatroom and allow team members to leave messages for you or others to read. Encourage your workers to exchange important notices or information – at the same time make sure it's not distracting. A quick message is sometimes easier than writing back and forth using e-mail.
Schedule regular meetings Virtual meetings are crucial – benefit from various tools to help you send a visual message. Try
Jing for screen sharing – with this smart tool you can capture screenshots, insert notes, labels and arrows to make your point.
Join.me or teamviewer.com are great for live screen sharing. Some tools might even allow you to remotely control another computer – perfect when you want to address something specific about the project.
Use collaboration tools The web is full of great tools for communication, but also for collaboration. Thanks to cloud technologies, you can easily have several team members work on the same spreadsheet or mind map. Google Drive is full of functionalities that allow you to collaborate on documents of various formats. Sharing files is even easier – upload them on Google Drive or Dropbox and you're done.
Set clear expectations, but be flexible Remote project management naturally entails flexibility. As long as you know what you want from each team member and trust them to be there when you need them, you can easily grant your team an amount of freedom. Keep the project development process stable and streamlined, but remember about the importance of individual autonomy.
Foster a positive team spirit Team spirit is crucial in project development and working with a dispersed team, you simply risk losing it. It's a great idea to assign some time each day to talk about topics not related to your work. Try to humanize your communication strategies. Include more videos – seeing peoples' faces is paramount in building strong team relationships.
Managing a virtual project isn't easy, but with a bit of technological know-how and enough enthusiasm managers can make it work and deliver great projects thanks to the expertise of great talents who happen to reside in remote locations.
Tess Pajaron is a Community Manager at Open Colleges, an online learning provider based in Sydney, Australia. She has a background in Business Administration and Management.
