How to lead
A Remote Team
How to Effectively Lead a Remote Team
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I know better than to talk about things
that I don't know much about but I do
know that a lot is changing because of
the coronavirus companies like Google
Apple you name the big company they've
gone to some remote work policy all in
an effort to keep their employees safe
and small to medium sized businesses are
following suit as well they're taking a
similar approach getting their employees
to no longer coming to the office that
they pay so much money for and to keep
them safe
by going humm here's the problem many
leaders that are in positions of
leadership have never let a remote team
and leading a remote team can be very
challenging
now let's note I said leading a remote
team not managing a remote team because
those are very different things and when
I talk about leadership I'm going to
define it for you to make sure we're on
the same page someone whose actions
inspire empower and serve in order to
elevate others over an extended period
of time
that is what leaders do and if you're
going to go inspire someone breathe life
into them they're going to empower them
let them make their own decisions and
then you're gonna go serve them flip
that pyramid upside down remotely it
gets really hard because you don't get
the day-to-day interaction that you
normally would in an office now if
you've been leading a team for a while
remotely you know about some of these
unique challenges that come with leading
a team this way but if you've only ever
led a team in a workplace and now you're
going to lead them remotely let's get
clear on some of the typical challenges
that you're going to face right now the
first thing is there's a real
uncertainty and fear around this virus
this coronavirus it's it's a natural
thing because fear is the mental battle
that goes on but
our ears it's the emotional battle and
each of us you included and your team
experienced that battle in different
ways and with different intensity levels
because of the things going on in our
world so if you're going to go lead a
team right now remotely we have to
understand your people are probably
experiencing some real uncertainty and
some real fear both about the disease
and their job and part of your
responsibility in leading them remotely
is to make sure we're clear on the fear
that they're facing and how to overcome
it
the second big issue that comes with
leading remote teams if you've never
done it before is some kind of
technology issues if you've never led a
team via zoom or only an email or only
be a slack technology can start to cause
issues and not help so make sure you're
equipped with the technology that you're
going to use to best lead your team in a
remote environment the third challenge
that comes with leading teams and a
remote work environment like this is
there's less work companies are more
uncertain than they were a month ago so
the project's might not be the same the
workload might not be the same and so
your team has to now adapt to not only
just thinking that I'm at home and this
is a vacation but what can we do
proactively to find more opportunity for
our job or for our organization as a
whole so these are some of the
challenges that you're going to face
leading a remote team so what do you do
about it I mean we all want to know John
this is great we want to go lead our
people and not manage them and these are
some really big problems but what what
can you do to overcome them because
that's what we're all about here and
helping you become a more effective
leader so the there's some best
practices that I want to go over with
you in our observation of what the best
leaders do that lead remote teams the
first is they really embrace flexibility
there was a fantastic study done by
Deloitte and looked at over
people in the workplace and what they
found was that 94% of respondents said
what they desired was more flexibility
in their job both in working remotely
and controlling the amount of time that
they work well this is forced on you
leading a team right now we have to
embrace flexibility it's our only option
we're now leading a remote team so
instead of feeling like my team has to
be chained to their remote desk like you
might have been in the office now we
have to say one of the benefits of
leading working at home is that you have
the flexibility to pick up your kids
take them to school
go work out go for a walk eat dinner
with your family so instead of it
feeling like a nine-to-five
you as a leading of leaning a team in a
remote setting has to really embrace the
flexibility that working from home
provides your people will appreciate
that more than you know the second thing
real best practice here is to address
the struggles because if people have
never worked from home they're probably
unaware of some of the hurdles or
struggles that they're going to face
when all of a sudden working from their
living room so part of your
responsibility is to make people and
team members aware of the typical
struggles there is a great study done
and what they found was that 20% of the
struggle came from not having
collaboration or communication with a
team member the second biggest area was
loneliness people just think they create
some interactions so when you're by
yourself all day it gets a little lonely
not being able to unplug just feeling
like that phone's always on that
computers always on I no longer have
that place I go to work and now
everything's at huh and the last big
struggle is distractions I mean kids TV
you name it dogs in the back
around all the things that you might
think exists in the distraction at home
that you don't have in the workplace so
part of your responsibility is to make
your team both aware of the struggles
that they might face working from home
but also to create systems to help them
overcome it before it becomes a really
big issue
the third big best practice is to really
provide clarity specifically around the
priorities that your team is focused on
there's a system that we teach in
building the best the book is called GPI
system and what GPI stands for for
leaders is goals priorities initiatives
what it means is can we have a clear
goal about what our team is trying to
achieve then can we go identify the key
priorities the things that are more
important than others for our team so
then they can get their daily
initiatives or tribulus to be in
alignment with those priorities
oftentimes in environments like this and
when people are working from home we get
we lose sight of the priorities that the
team is working on we just start working
in our little bubble that can really
hurt a remote team leaders production
for the for the group as a whole so part
of your responsibility is to provide
some real clarity around the priorities
that currently exist one caveat
priorities can change in the current
environment can force priorities to
change quickly so if they have to change
you've got to get that information to
your team quickly so then they can work
on the right things every single day to
make your current goals become a reality
the fourth best practice of effectively
leading a remote team is to maintain
communication specifically we
to over-communicate because remember the
big biggest struggles for for working at
home is collaboration and communication
and loneliness so if anything we need to
over communicate with remote teams more
than anything else and there's a few
ways for you to do that
in the best way is to have a weekly team
scheduled meeting on everyone's calendar
that everybody is required to attend and
participate those are the very best ways
I know for how to effectively lead a
remote team and I hope this will help
you lead in this very difficult
environment
