Quick Tips to Help Remotely Manage a Team

Begin with Yourself by Changing Your Mindset

Have you always supported the idea of your team working 100 percent remotely?

If not, that's perfectly understandable. Many leaders prefer having their teams in the office to maintain constant communication.

For a remote team to be productive and deliver projects on time, the leader must first embrace change within themselves.

First step: adopting a remote-work-friendly mindset

Key tips for transitioning from an office environment to managing remote employees:

• Change your personal view of remote work. Recognize that having remote workers on your staff is not just a necessity in today's climate, but an effective way to deliver projects.
• Trust your team. Relinquishing some control might be challenging, but it's worthwhile. When your team members feel trusted, it enhances your reputation.
• Educate yourself about the advantages of remote work. There's a wealth of information available about the benefits of remote work, allowing you to quickly educate yourself. Tools like ClickLearn can help leaders create simple, no-code training for their teams, so everyone stays aligned, productive, and confident while working remotely.

Conduct Weekly Meetings Where Everyone Is Involved

Communication is the cornerstone of digital leadership and remote work. Holding weekly meetings for your remote team can encourage communication and maintain personal contact.

Here's a suggested meeting structure:

• Part I: personal updates. Start the meeting by inviting team members to share any interesting personal news or non-work-related activities.
• Part II: individual work updates. Ask team members to share three things they did well that week, three areas for improvement, and one aspect where they need assistance. Set expectations for upcoming assignments.
• Part III: team success overview. Share recent successes and priorities to maintain positive performance.

This structure ensures active participation, increasing team engagement and awareness.

Write a detailed memo outlining how online meetings will be conducted. Consider using an academic writing service to enhance clarity or provide writing coaching for team members to improve communication skills.

Pro Tip: Address potential remote work challenges proactively.

Weekly meetings offer an opportunity to discuss remote work challenges. Encourage team members to share any struggles they face.

Refer to the findings from The State of Remote Work 2020 to understand common issues your team may encounter.

Don't forget about one-on-one meetings. Not everyone is comfortable sharing struggles in group settings, so consider having short one-on-ones every two weeks.

Help Your Distributed Team Be More Efficient with Routine Tasks Like Email Management

Many employees transitioning to remote work may find it challenging.

Distractions such as social media or household duties can impact productivity. Additionally, managing emails can become more time-consuming due to these distractions.

If you're managing a remote team, it's your responsibility to help them work efficiently from home.

Using apps designed for efficiency and focus can be beneficial.

For instance, if your team faces productivity issues due to email overload, consider the following insights:

• Excessive email checking can waste over 20 minutes daily.
• 54 percent of workers report dealing with more emails than three years ago.
• Full email inboxes can waste about 27 minutes daily, totaling over two hours weekly.

To help your team manage emails and optimize their inboxes, consider using Mailbird. This email client allows you to:

• Consolidate emails from multiple inboxes in one place to avoid switching between browser tabs.
• Create unlimited email inbox categories for better organization, surpassing the limitations of typical email providers.
• Manage emails efficiently using the Email Speed Reader to set custom reading time limits.
• Schedule emails for later so employees can focus on other tasks.

Another important aspect of remote team management is minimizing home office distractions.

If your team expresses interest in apps to avoid distractions, recommend StayFocused and Mindful Browsing.

These Google Chrome extensions can:

• Notify users about distracting websites
• Temporarily block sites like social media
• Encourage focus on productive activities

Share these apps with your team to enhance focus and organization.

Further reading:

• 7 Tools to Turbocharge Email and Work Efficiency in 2020
• How to Cut Time on Email Management with Mailbird Email Speed Reader

Support Your Team's Working Parents

Working parents face additional stress. With children at home, achieving peak performance can be challenging. Regularly check in with your direct reports to ensure their families are well and help them maintain a work-life balance.

If you have working parents on your team, it's crucial to support them so they feel appreciated and heard.

Here's what you can do:

• Check in via regular one-on-one meetings. Ask how they're managing work and home responsibilities.
• Offer flexible work arrangements. Provide alternatives to a 9-to-5 schedule, giving parents more freedom to complete tasks.

Ensure that your team's policies are as family-friendly as possible.

Such policies can enhance team wellbeing, leading to higher job satisfaction and performance.

Conduct Regular Job Satisfaction Surveys

With remote work policies likely to continue, many companies survey employees about job satisfaction.

Some team members may not openly share their concerns, so anonymous surveys can provide valuable insights.

Create these surveys quickly using Google Forms. They help identify issues affecting your team. To make them accessible, consider using the best QR code generator for quick scanning links.

Consider including these questions in your survey:

• "How satisfied are you with the communication with your leader?"
• "How motivated are you while working from home?"
• "Do you have access to the productivity tools and resources needed for your work?"
• "Do you feel you can easily reach your colleagues?"
• "How stressed are you when working from home?"

These questions can be presented in multiple-choice or scale formats (1 = strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree).

The answers will provide valuable insights into team job satisfaction, wellbeing, and engagement.

Further reading:

• 5 Smart Ways to Keep Your Remote Team Engaged in 2020

Attend Every Meeting and Reschedule the Canceled Ones

While various factors may prevent you from attending every team meeting, strive to organize your time to be available. With remote work becoming the norm, prioritize video calls and conferences over postponements.

Always reschedule if you must cancel a meeting. This shows your team that you are committed to being involved and supportive.

This is especially important for one-on-ones. If a leader cancels a one-on-one and doesn't reschedule, the employee may feel undervalued.

In Mailbird, you can use the built-in calendar to unify all calendars from your email accounts. This helps in tracking scheduled meetings and managing time more effectively.

Bonus: Tools to Manage Remote Employees

Video meetings, instant messaging, and emails are effective for maintaining contact. Decide which methods work best and how often to use them. A group calendar can ensure no one misses important announcements. Research the best tools based on your team's needs.

Here's a list of recommended tools from our blog series The Challenges of Remote Working. Review this list and choose the ones that suit you best.

For more app recommendations, consult Product Hunt.

In Closing

These tips can help you manage a remote team effectively and meet your goals. By maintaining team morale, job satisfaction, performance, and engagement, they complement your leadership practices.

These practices also enhance your leadership by focusing on your team. Understanding and implementing them fosters a positive, engagement-oriented team culture.

Do you have any tips for managing a remote team? Share them in the comments below.