Back in March, the COVID-19 pandemic hit American shores in full force and changed the way most businesses operated. Any business that could manage to work from home began doing so in order to continue operations and continue gaining revenue as well as keeping their employees working. This came with many adjustments, such as making sure every employee had the equipment needed to do their jobs from home, making sure employees were keeping in touch with one another and their managers and of course, managers having to lead a team remotely. Leading your team remotely comes with plenty of challenges and not everyone will be able to easily adapt to it. Read on for a few tips to make leading remotely a tad easier to handle.
Stay Connected
Of all the issues businesses have to face when working remotely, staying connected to one another is at the top of the list. It’s important that you continue to get plenty of face time with your employees during a difficult time like this, as it helps everyone feel less isolated and hopefully will lower stress levels. Thanks to technology, virtual meetings are easier than ever due to apps such as Zoom or Skype. Be sure to have consistent meetings with your team, whether it be short daily meetings where you just check in or longer weekly meetings where company and team updates are given.
It’s All About Trust
While it’s easy to be skeptical of how your employees may be spending their time when working from home, what’s most important is that you trust them to get their jobs done. Micromanaging employees can actually be detrimental to productivity and it’s important they keep their independence when working from home. Do you constantly check up on them when you’re in the office? If not, then things shouldn’t be any different when working remotely. It’s important to trust your employees to come to you when they’re falling behind. If you trust them, they’ll trust you.
Encourage Socialization
If your company is passionate about company culture, it can often feel like that is all thrown out the window when forced to work remotely. The thing is, your employees are likely feeling isolated and many will probably miss seeing their co-workers each and every day. Leaders and managers should try and encourage their teams to socialize in new ways while working remotely, as it can strengthen team bonds and lead to better outcomes from their work. Encourage company wide happy hours via video conferencing or perhaps try and get the team together to play virtual games together. While getting work done is important, it’s also important that your employees truly feel like they’re part of a team, even if they’re not physically together.