The Art of Leadership - Remote Working

Working in an office with your team sitting close by has many advantages:

• It is easy for the team to bond, meet socially after work and develop a good team spirit.

• On the job training is relatively easy to organise by sitting people together.

• Creativity is helped by people bouncing ideas off each other.

• You are very easy for them all to get hold of if they need anything.

• You naturally have a good idea who is getting on with their work and who needs help.

All the above are critical for a successful team but are much harder to achieve when everyone is working remotely.

I spent many years leading teams remotely, often spread across multiple countries and multiple time-zones.  It is possible to develop teams that work well, even when they are working remotely.  I found some of the following leadership techniques enormously helpful:

• Be very clear that you are all part of the same team.  Over-communicate this with regular written status updates, ‘town hall’ question and answer sessions, team ‘branding’ on all communications and so on.  It is critically important that everyone knows they are in your team and are proud to be part of that team.

• Have regular ‘town hall’ sessions on-line.  Use these sessions to provide status updates on how the team is doing, explain major future developments of changes, give others a chance to present on what they are doing, congratulate the team on how they are doing and highlight exceptional work by people on the team.  These sessions only need to be quarterly but make them interesting.  I used to do these ‘town hall’ sessions from different offices each time and include a Q&A with the local team.

• Schedule regular 1:1 meetings with your direct reports.  I schedule regular, remote, weekly 1:1s with all my direct reports.  I do a little preparation ahead of each 1:1, listing topics I want to make sure we discuss.  However, I always let them tell me what is on their mind first.  Having these meetings in the calendar show you have time for your reports, you value what they are doing and that you are there to help them be successful.  Open communication is even more critical when you are working remotely.

• Use any face to face opportunities to the fullest.  It is much, much easier to have a successful remote working relationship with someone if you have met them in person first.  If you are able to meet in person with members of your team then seize the opportunity.  Try and incorporate some social time alongside any work.  This is when you learn the most about what is actually going on in my experience.  It is also when you build those strong, lasting relationships.

• Have a messaging service ‘open’ with each of your reports.  In an office you can easily ask a question over the desk.  The remote equivalent is a messaging service – WhatsApp, Instant Messaging…  Use them, they are invaluable.  Again, having open communication channels is key to a team being successful.

I believe that using these and other techniques it is possible to build effective teams that work together remotely.  It does take effort but this effort will be repaid many times over.