Creating Accountability with a Distributed Workforce

When the term Micro-Manager is mentioned, it incites painful ideas of a manager that is smothering, controlling and demotivating. But the conundrum for most managers of field teams or distributed workforces is how to ensure that the job is getting done without over managing. Because a team of employees, spread across multiple locations, is not as easy to monitor with drop-in daily observations, like a centrally located team, many managers can overcompensate by trying to over control those things that they cannot see. Manager’s want their teams to reach all set goals, but without smothering them.
The key to ensuring management’s happiness with a team’s performance levels as well as the team’s happiness with their ability to spread their wings, is a combination of clearly outlining goals, creating responsibility, and generating individual accountability.

Setting the vision & creating expectations
A good vision creates inspiration and motivation for a team which creates the catalyst to drive a team’s performance. When setting a vision, keep it at top level goals, not the specific tasks it takes to reach them (this is covered next). Because a remote team is more at risk for feeling disconnected from the company , they can tend to focus more time and energy on things that they perceive to be important but that might not really be of the most importance to the team or company. So setting a vision, and keeping a remote team focused on it, is critical to the team and company’s success.

Once the vision is set and communicated, expectations need to be created to define how the remote team will reach that vision. Every employee wants to do a good job, but they need to know what that looks like to obtain it. Creating the expectations, lets each employee know what they need to do to be successful, and what the end picture will look like.

Creating Responsibility
If you give someone the responsibility, they will more likely than not live up to it. However, if you don’t trust them with the responsibility, then they will never have a chance to reach it. Take a simple scenario observed at a corporate meeting where all sales people across the country met semi-annually to discuss the new product line and strategy. At this meeting, for the first 2 days, after every 10 minute break, the regional managers would go out to find their employees and alert them that the break was over and they needed to get back into the meeting room. As a result, over 75% of the sales reps never returned on time to the meeting and waited for their manager to alert them to return. They were conditioned that the manager would let them know, so they didn’t need to take the responsibility to look at their watches to see when 10 minutes was up. This approach removed the responsibility from the sales reps and placed it on the regional managers.

On the 3rd and 4th days, the regional managers took a different approach; they didn’t alert anyone when breaks were over and just started the meeting on time – even if everyone was not in the room. Those that arrived late (after the allotted 10 minutes for the break) had to disrupt the meeting to get to their seat. Those that arrived late more than once over the 2 days, were pulled aside on the next break for a discussion with the manager on the importance of being on time. By the end of the 4th day and the last (5th day) of the meeting, not one employee returned late to the meeting after break times. With the regional managers shifting the responsibility to the sales reps, it freed up their (the managers) time and made the sales reps responsible for their own actions. The key to this was setting the expectation and holding them accountable if they didn’t reach it.

This is a good example of a micro vs non-micro management approach. Releasing yourself from these micro management tasks frees up your time to focus on more important things. Increasing team member responsibility creates less management needs.

Accountability – Micro-monitoring vs micro-managing
Setting clear goals is like a virtual manager that keeps everyone focused without having to constantly look over their shoulder. However if you set these goals but don’t implement some sort of accountability and tracking system, YOU will ultimately have to be that system. This means a very time consuming, management intensive process of nagging employees, to inquire on how they are doing toward their goals, and micro-managing to ensure goals are met. The more you can empower your employees to track their own progress (with a simple delivery method to you), the better results you will get:
They will manage themselves
They will be more self motivated to reach their goals
You will empower them to be responsible for themselves which will demonstrate your respect and trust for them
You can free up your time to work with them on more productive items such as their talent development

Shared accountability creates a feeling of partnership with each team member. It also enables people to learn from both their successes and mistakes. So rather than micro-managing a team, a manager can enable them to micro-monitor their own individual performance.

To do this successfully, managers need to implement a tool that helps employees track their own progress. This tool should also be something that they can deliver to you with minimal effort. It should not be too time consuming and should be easy to decipher for both you and your employee. An Excel spreadsheet or Word table are good vehicles, or possibly an automated intranet system if that is available to the company. These should be completed and submitted weekly and monthly to keep everyone on track. Here are some things to consider when deciding what goals you would like them to track:

1. 
   Specific – Clearly outline the details of each goal so they know what to strive for.
2. Measurable – they must be measurable. What will the successful completion of the goal look like? If it is subjective “Need to get better client service ratings”, there is room for argument on if they have succeeded on the goal. Is a .01% better rating successful? It could be argued that it is a better rating than 0. Instead set a metric such as “Need to have at least 85% excellent client ratings.
3. Attainable – on the flip side, if goals are too hard, where more than likely most people won’t reach them, then people won’t feel motivated to reach them. Ie. “Increase your business by 100% this year.”
4. Results Oriented - if a goal is something that everyone does anyway “put details of each transaction in the system every day”, then it isn’t very motivating and becomes more of a busy work task in tracking it. These are processes in how things should be done in the business, but not a performance goal. These types of things should just be noted in an overall team process handbook, or in training. Make sure goals are geared to motivate people to stretch.
5. Time Based – This can be another subjective area. It need to be clear and concise on when each metric should be obtained. “You need to have at least 85% excellent client ratings by the last day of the month.” Everyone is better motivated when they can keep a deadline date or timeframe in sight.
   
   Once the goals are set, and a self-monitoring matrix system is put in place to track goals, set time frames on when each employee should deliver their tracked goals to you electronically. Then spend a portion of your regular communication with them reviewing the overview of the goals. Don’t fall into the trap of going through each individual item with them. Look at the matrix obtainments from a balcony view, to discuss trends or patterns with them. This will allow you to look at how their performance is doing overall, and coach them on their overall progress.
   
   What can be monitored – how can we monitor it?
   What must be managed – how can we manage it?
   It is important as a manager to identify what can be monitored by the individual team members, and then create a tracking matrix that they use to deliver their progress. This will set their responsibility and create the accountability system. Start by identifying tasks and goals that they can track themselves, to enable them to micro-monitor themselves and free you up from micro-management. Secondly, it is important to identify what items must be managed because they cannot be self-monitored by an employee performance tracking system. Because enabling micro-monitoring through your employees will free up your management time, use it to focus on more of the talents that are critical to the team, but harder to track quantitatively. Look for qualitative things that are important to the business, to focus your management and coaching efforts with each employee on, such as: team work, creative ideas and innovations, strategic thinking, positive attitude, etc. . . .

Jenny Douras © All rights reserved

Telecommuting Policy for Remote Employees

Empowering employees to excel is the key to successful Telecommuting Policy. Conversely, being over-controlling will yield under-performance and resentment. Remote managers are not supervisors – you can’t watch over someone you can’t see. You can’t know that everyone arrived by 8, or is sitting at their desk, by walking down the hall to check on them.

The key to managing remote employees is to be a leader, coach and motivator for your team, which requires generating a high level of respect and trust with them. To ensure developing successful telecommuting policy, provide:

• Clear visions and measurable expectations.


• Team micro-monitoring – an accountability tracking system so that employees can work with minimal supervision.


• A higher level of communication than with a single location team.


• A team community – encourage the team to work together – and lean on each other – which will help in times of crisis or difficult periods.


• Tools to expedite team member competence.


• Proactive rather than reactive coaching.

Stay on track in managing remote employees by consistently reviewing the following checklist of what employees want from a distance manager:

• Coordination rather than control.


• People won’t take responsibility when there is too much control.


• Accessibility. – Carry a cell, return calls ASAP, reply to emails within 24 hours, and let employees know when to expect responses.


• Information without overload. - Communicate completely without “over-meeting.”.


• Feedback instead of advice.


• Fairness over favoritism – don’t play favorites.


• Decisiveness but not intrusive supervision.


• Honesty – encourage trust and build an environment of openness which will drive better results from your employees.


• Concern for development – People want to know that their manager genuinely cares about their development and success.


• Community building – Spend time to create a community among team members so they get to know each other and are part of more than just the current task.


• Respect – respect can be demonstrated by soliciting ideas from your team, entrusting them with the responsibilities to do their jobs correctly and not belittling them.

Jenny Douras © All rights reserved

Remote Employee Management: Unique Challenges

The further apart we get geographically, the closer we need to be in terms of communication and collaboration. But, these two critical conduits to successful management of remote employees will not magically appear. There are specific skills and protocols that need to be learned—because there are challenges and logistics inherent in the remote workplace model that don’t exist in the traditional centralized workplace.

There’s also a strong mindset, being fueled in large part by the exponential growth of online social networking, for groups of people to communicate regularly and collaborate naturally. Among other pursuits, this is showing up in training environments—where socially networked groups are learning together and sharing experiences. In essence, they’re creating self-directed training environments.

So, what are some of the ways remote environments differ from centralized workplaces?

1. Promoting a vision. It’s hard enough for leaders to promote their corporate vision when you have everyone in one place. Multiply the difficulty by a factor of two, three or more when you have remote worker teams. An article in the December issue of Training & Development Magazine (T+D) quotes Diane Valenti, president of Applied Performance Solutions. She points out, “It is already difficult for new leaders to drive their vision down the organization and when people are out in virtual teams, I think it is going to be even more imperative that communication happens so that everybody is working toward the same vision. I think it is going to be a lot harder to tie all of the pieces together.”
   
   Remote employee management excellence won’t happen in a vacuum. Training remote employees and managers to get on the same page, vision-wise, will require consistent dedication and diligence.


2. Tying together different age groups. When a 50-year-old and 25-year-old sit in the same room, you have a controlled environment in which to establish communication. When those two people are separated by miles, it is more challenging to find common links and bonds that can help the communication process.
   
   Notes Bonnie Hagemann, CEO of Executive Development Associates, in the T+D article, “The younger generation is really good at relating to their generation, but they may not be as good relating to other generations. What are they going to do when they have to relate across generations? That is the piece we are really going to have to teach them—the art of communication.” Once again, that won’t occur in a vacuum. Remote employee training can provide a path to bridge these natural gaps.


3. Finding a common language, literally. Hagemann points out, “There will be a greater focus on learning and development. Learning professionals are going to be so important to the future of the workplace. Executives are going to come to us and say, ‘We have a workforce spread across five countries and in three different languages, can you figure out how to teach this person [to] lead that global workforce?’”
   

Valenti adds, “The workforce is going to be much more global. I worked on a project earlier this year and on my team we had a Russian, an Italian, and a Greek. There were no individuals who were born in the U.S.—all immigrants. This is the future. We are going to be reaching out into the world for talent—especially if the economy tanks. We are going to be looking for business opportunities in other parts of the world. We are going to be working with a much more diverse workforce. Trainers are going to need to be much more aware of cultural norms in other countries. We can’t assume that everybody does business the way we do business.”

Remote employee management training teaches workforces how to be up close and personal—no matter where they’re located.

Jenny Douras © All rights reserved

When Managing Remote Employees - Use Discretion

Managers with remote workforces often puzzle over how to best manage this largely unseen group of employees. There’s the centralized “spider” approach, wherein a manager attempts to keep rigid, strict control over employee activity. Of course, we all know what happens when a spider’s head is removed from its body.

Then, there’s the decentralized “starfish” style, where managers relinquish all centralized control and trust that their people will do their jobs diligently. While a starfish can survive loss of a limb, it makes it decidedly less efficient in performing its daily routine.

Clearly, the “sweet spot” of managing employees remotely is to strike a balance between attempted authoritarian control and a total hands-off policy.

On the microsoft.com/smallbusiness website, author Joanna Krotz details some salient ways to manage without micro-managing, support without smothering remote workforces. Among her suggestions are:

1. Get everyone reading off the same script. Without guidance, employees will set their own priorities. It’s important that everyone work off the corporate “business goals” page together. So, make sure remote workers know what’s expected of them, when and why. This can be made easier by using technology tools that enable easy sharing and collaboration online.


2. Look for accomplishments, not activity. If a remote worker needs to complete a defined set of tasks within a certain timeframe, and fulfilling them doesn’t require keeping a regular workday schedule, the manager shouldn’t worry about how they get there. Some people might want to work the graveyard shift to do their jobs. And, if they can accomplish their objectives in less than the “typical timeframe,” so what? Look for satisfactory performance, not punching of a clock. It is critical in a remote environment, however, to be very clear about what’s expected, and when, and what they need to do to achieve performance benchmarks—in turn leading to advancement.


3. Work on communication skills that can replace consistent face-to-face contact. When on-site, employees can get a state-of-the-company snapshot by looking at a supervisor’s face. For remote workers, email and texting alone won’t do it. Institute a system that includes real-time phone conversations, and bring in remote workers for periodic updates and to maintain personal contact with other staff members. This can help defuse problems stemming from feeling isolated—such as remote employees getting involved in counterproductive side activities and losing focus on their primary job. Monitor corporate networks and remote workstations for signs of unauthorized activity, and establish regular checkpoints that help prevent employees from veering off course.


4. Make sure all the “wandering devices” and technology are kept up-to-date, and are appropriately integrated with one another. Finding ways to integrate personal mobile technology, such as cellphones and home WLANs, with company firewalls is essential to ensuring secure and reliable communication. Just as employees need regular and productive contact, so do tech tools that facilitate meeting of responsibilities.

Managing remote workforces is a whole new animal. While spiders and starfish are intriguing creatures, neither is an appropriate model for how best to manage off-site employees.

Jenny Douras © All rights reserved

How to Retain Remote Employees

Some remote workers consider their position a perk in and of itself. For example, not having to drive to the office on a stormy day can be a big plus. For many in the mobile workforce, though, a more independent work environment can feel like punishment—a disconnection from social interaction and work-related collaboration.

Given this dichotomy, it’s critical that managers of remote workforces learn to identify the differences and deal with them before the employee begins searching for a career elsewhere.

Yes, even in this problematic economy, retaining talent is a critical challenge. While some will be more grateful just to have a job than they would be in a booming economy, others will work that much harder to find something rewarding elsewhere—and they may try to search while on your clock.

While the landscape may have changed, the basics of retaining top talent remain the same—speak to each individual’s needs as much as possible. Following are some tips for optimizing one-on-one interaction with a remote workforce:

1. Encourage (and enforce) an open door communication policy—both when the employee assumes remote worker status and at regular intervals following. Find out upfront the worker’s concerns about the mobile workforce environment, and develop mutually agreeable ways to address them. Then, make sure the manager and employee conduct regular—at least quarterly—check-in sessions to update and address new or changing factors.


2. Offer as many mobile workforce communication and collaboration tools as possible—phone, videoconferencing, online collaboration centers, instant messaging, et al. Some people do best with email and other online tools; others crave voice and/or visual contact. While it’s important to offer a variety of choices, this doesn’t necessarily require a weighty budget. It’s now possible, for instance, to purchase a basic webcam for $35 or less, then subscribe free of charge to Skype or another Internet-enabled video service. For a small investment, a manager can turn phone conferencing into videoconferencing.


3. Be responsive, using individual preferred forms of communication wherever possible. Some employees will opt for email communication; others desire a phone call. Obviously, special circumstances and constraints may affect how you respond—but be sure to get back to an employee as quickly as possible. Perceived lack of responsiveness is a chief cause of employee dissatisfaction and reduced productivity.

By being flexible with how you interact with your mobile workforce, you will likely find that they are more flexible to meeting the needs of the organization.

Jenny Douras © All rights reserved

Remote Employee Management - Fundamentals

Increasing competition, globalization, mergers and acquisitions and other kinds of pressures are rapidly changing the corporate environment. The result is a more distributed workforce, where employees work from home, on-site or report to managers in different states or even across the world.

Though a manager can no longer simply walk down the hall to talk to team members, the employee’s need for management is no less real. In fact, good management is even more important in remote environments than in traditional cubicles, conference rooms, and break rooms.

This creates new management challenges for those who lead remote teams. A distributed workforce requires different management techniques and skills to keep motivated, productive, on track, and trained.

Although many management techniques and skills parallel those used in managing a centrally based workforce, there are 6 key additional techniques a manager needs to be successful in the remote environment.

1. Better communication with Remote Employees - Often managers assume that they will have less communication with their employees when they are remote, but in fact, the reverse is true. Managers of a distributed workforce need more communication with their employees located off site.
   
   Employees who work off-site can feel isolated, and they can have trouble adopting company standards and procedures. They can have higher turn-over, and even develop into loan wolfs that are unwilling to work in teams.
   
   Increased communication counteracts this tendency, and helps each employee cohere with the rest of the company. Whether it comes by e-mail, text message, phone, fax, or a tin can and string, communication is essential. Remote managers need to make sure they are accessible to their employees by multiple avenues.


2. Establishing respect with Remote Employees
   
   Many remote managers make the mistake of trying to establish their credibility through demands and force— a type of “because I said so” approach. The managers fear their employees aren’t on the job, and this translates into overbearing micromanaging.
   
   But when a manager has the employees’ respect and respects his/her employees in return, everyone benefits and the forcefulness of tone can be lessened.
   
   Respect is created when managers give reasons and explanations for their actions, and the perspectives of the employees are valued. This doesn’t mean a manager needs to evoke consensus, but working to make sure everyone is on board or understands the reasoning behind a change will save time in the long run.


3. Building a team culture in a virtual office - Employees in a distributed workforce might not even have a desk in the main office, so it is no surprise that they may have trouble feeling like a part of a company or a team. Ironically, this feeling of inclusion is highly important to the success of company initiatives and overall motivation and morale.
   
   Remote managers need to focus consciously on building a team community and culture for their employees. Managers can do this by fostering intra-team communication, creating partnerships amongst remote employees for projects, and by forming virtual water coolers and opportunities for small talk, re-living past successes, humor and experiences.


4. Creating accountability through self-monitoring - The hardest conundrum for most remote managers is how to ensure that the job is getting done without micro-managing. Many managers can overcompensate for the inherent disconnect of the remote environment by trying to control every aspect of their employee’s day.
   
   This is, of course, counterproductive because it trains employees to be dependent on ever present management, when a remote employee actually needs the exact opposite skill. Remote employees need to be able to work independently, and managers need to train them along this end.
   
   The key to growing an employee to work effectively in a remote environment is to help them be self motivated by providing clearly outlined goals, making them responsible for results, and generating individual accountability plans with a self-monitoring system.


5. Training Remote Employees - The speed at which a remote employee develops is more important than the speed of a traditional employee because cost of development is so much higher. Underperforming employees and miss hires can slip under the radar much more easily, and this can be very expensive.
   
   On-boarding needs to be thorough and tuned to the employee’s position. Initial training should be conducted with face-to-face mentoring either by the manager or team peers to ensure the employee can work independently as soon as possible.
   
   For all remote employees, on-going mentoring and training is critical to keep them connected to the company, goals and team. It also creates an opportunity to identify performance issues before they have escalated too far. Managers of field teams should think of each employee’s development as a continuous process, and use training as an opportunity for building relationships and evaluating performance.


6. Disciplining and conflicts - Resolving conflict between remote team members can be more difficult and take longer because there is less opportunity to build relationships and find common ground. The avoidance of good, productive conflict is also very tempting for remote teams who don’t have to interact daily.
   
   Managers need to address conflicts as soon as possible, so the problems cannot grow and cause dissention among the team. It is important to address performance issues with individual employees as soon as possible.
   
   Some remote managers try to ignore these issues until a more convenient time (out of sight, out of mind), but this can be devastating to a team’s morale.
   
   Either someone is doing the extra work, or no one is doing it. Both possibilities are unacceptable.

The remote employee management environment doesn’t need to spell painful transitions for employees and corporations. By appreciating the difference in managing remote employees and implementing these unique skills, companies can be successful despite the challenges.

Jenny Douras © All rights reserved

Building a Team of Remote Employees

Building a Team of Virtual Employees

Distributed workforce employees often struggle to feel included in the company and team. Many remote employees feel left out when they hear of their office or others having such company events as: ditch days, breakfast or lunch brought in, costume contests, birthday celebrations, happy hours, or bring your pet or child to work day.

These social engagements help build community within an office, but there are steps a remote manager can, and must—take to build that culture and community for their team, as well.

Some managers create virtual water coolers to help the team cohere. All that time-consuming small talk that happens at the “water cooler” in office environments has an important purpose that is missed in distributed teams: It builds team camaraderie and culture. A remote manager can find ways to create virtual environment to foster this “small talk.”

Plan a small amount of “open time” at the beginning or end of team conference calls for small talk. Use ice breakers, openers, and getting-to-know-you exercises and games during team gatherings, calls, interactions, et al. This also can include a virtual bulletin board to post “getting to know you” related info about team members. One company sent Starbucks gift cards for their next team call so everyone could have “breakfast together” on the call.

These are some other ideas for bringing your team together.

1. Create and encourage inter-team communication – Communication among a distributed employee base helps build camaraderie. This strengthens the team by fostering an environment of reliance on each other for help, support and ideas. This helps build trust within the team and promotes internal team partnerships to make it stronger and more productive.
   
2. Partner remote employees for projects – Find reasons to partner team employees on projects, especially those that do not always work together. This can include mentoring, developing best practices, or preparing topics to present to the rest of the team on a conference call.
   
3. Re-live the past – Find opportunities to re-live shining moments from the team’s past. This brings back positive memories of the group and will help to renew and reinforce that feeling. This can be highlighting team-wide or single-employee accomplishments or experiences—even funny things that happened when they were last together.
   

A common team-building mistake made by new managers is to pit the team against another in comments and remarks, such as “our team is better than theirs,” or “this is the best team in the company.” This alienates other co-workers and the company. Although competition can be a strong motivator, this approach within the company can have potential future negative effects. What if a member of another team now becomes a member of yours, or vice versa? It will be that much harder to assimilate. Managers should compliment their team without denigrating anyone else.

Jenny Douras © All rights reserved

Establising Trust & Respect

Many remote managers make the mistake of trying to establish their credibility through demands and force. Have you ever had a manager tell you a new policy or procedure is being implemented with the reason of “because that’s the way it is” or “that’s what I decided” or “it is what it is.” How did this make you feel? Did it bring back bad flashbacks of your parents telling you when you were a kid “because I said so?” People need reasons and explanations behind actions; this conveys that you respect their thoughts and feelings enough to include them in the rational. It doesn’t mean you need to evoke their consensus, but it will display your respect for them, which directly builds it in return. One manager told their employee they were making their decision because their “ego just couldn’t currently let them accept the other person’s idea.” As irrational a reason as this was, the fact that it was obviously truthful and that they were willing to share this reason behind their decision with the employee, earned their respect for the decision.

Respect is earned, not demanded. Those that demand respect actually destroy it. Have you ever known a manager that others display respect to when they interact with them, but immediately behind their back do the opposite? They complain about the manager’s decisions, delivery, goals, etc. . . This leads to a team that does not embrace the manager’s and company’s goals and initiatives. A successful team is one that is motivated by their manager and is behind their decisions (of their own free will – not by being forced). This allows a company to make quick changes, capture and develop innovative ideas, and stay competitive. Granted, not every employee will like every idea that their manager communicates, but if they genuinely respect their manager, they are more likely to support those decisions in conversation with others, rather than spread dissent. Because remote employees can more easily feel separated from the company, inter-team communication can spread like a brush fire and generate emotions not conducive to the team’s success.

Own your decisions.
Another common error made of managers is to do the opposite, when conveying a decision, by shirking ownership of it. Some managers convey reasons for directives to their employees as: “executive management made the rule” or “it’s a new company policy,” while at the same time communicating that they as a manager don’t necessarily agree but their “hands are tied.” This type of communication is generally motivated by a need to be liked by their employees. Even though managers should strive to earn the respect of their employees, it does not mean they necessarily need to be liked. The goal is not to be their friend, but to be their manager.

When a manger uses this type of communication they discredit themselves by not owning their decisions. Employees will read this as a sign of weakness. The result can be employees going above or outside of their management structure to get answers, approval, assistance, etc. . . or to question their manager’s decisions. Rather than saying “I personally wouldn’t mind if you took the day off, but I don’t think if would look good to executive management”, be the authority yourself. You are the face of the company for your employees. You do want to give them the “reasons why” behind the decision, when at all possible, but don’t defer to another power. Instead try something like,” We have a critical project right now and I need you to be here today to make sure we meet the deadlines.”

Credibility through commitments.
Another way to create respect and establish credibility is through commitments. This is especially critical in distributed workforce teams. A common compliant among these types of teams is that their manager does not get back to them when they try to contact them. Absent managers leave employees feeling isolated and will generate either unwanted maverick behavior (employees feeling that they can do whatever they want without following protocol), or employees that don’t reach set goals, based on excuses of “but you didn’t tell me to”, or “I didn’t know.” To keep employees motivated and feeling like they are part of the company and team, a manager needs to keep promises and commitments. Even if it is a small promise; if you say you will get them something by Tuesday, then do so. Set consistent schedules with employees and don’t change them unless there is an emergency. If you have a time scheduled to talk with a remote employee each week, don’t reschedule it. Otherwise this will send the message that you don’t think they are a high priority. This sends the message that it is OK for them to reschedule or find excuses not to attend meetings and calls as well.

Keep in mind that your communication style sets the tone for how you want your team to communicate with you, the client and each other. They will follow what you lead as far as your style. If you take the ego out of your communication style and respect them, it will encourage them to do the same.

Jenny Douras © All rights reserved

Building a Team Culture with Remote Employees

Because employees of a distributed workforce are in different locations, it is tougher for them to feel a part of the company and team, which is critical to their overall motivation and drive behind company initiatives. That is why it takes a concentrated effort by remote managers to build a team community and culture for their employees. Many remote employees feel left out when they hear of their office or others that have company events such as: ditch days, breakfast or lunch brought in, costume contests, in office birthday celebrations, happy hours, bring your pet or child to work day, etc. . . These social engagements help to build that community in an office, but there are things that a remote manager can do to build that culture and community, for their team, as well.

1. Create and encourage inter-team communication – Communication amongst a distributed employee base helps to build camaraderie. This strengthens the team by fostering an environment where the team members rely on each other for help, support and ideas. This helps build trust within the team and fosters internal team partnerships to make it stronger and more productive.
2. Partner remote employees for projects – Find reasons to partner employees on the team, especially those that do not always work together, for projects. This can include mentoring, developing best practices, or preparing topics to present to the rest of the team on a conference call.
3. Create virtual water coolers – All of that time-consuming small talk that happens at the “water cooler” in office environments has an important purpose that is missed in distributed teams – it builds the team camaraderie and culture. A remote manager can find ways to create virtual environment to foster this “small talk.”
a. Plan a small amount of “open time” at the beginning or end of team conference calls for small talk.
b. User ice breakers, openers, and getting to know you exercises and games during team gatherings, calls, interactions, etc. . . This can also include a virtual bulletin board to post “getting to know you” related info about team members.
c. Find opportunities to celebrate together virtually by sending out team congratulatory emails, or on conference calls. One company sent out Starbucks gift cards for their next team call so everyone could have “breakfast together” on the call.
4. Re-live the past – Find opportunities to re-live shining moments from the team’s past. This brings back positive memories of the group and will help to renew that feeling again. This can be highlighting accomplishments made by the entire team, or even one employee. Even funny things that happened to team members when they were last together. Think of the memories that strengthen the bond with your group of personal friends. Talking about these always bring back those happy feelings of belonging to something good.

One item to avoid that can be a common pitfall of new managers in building a team: avoid pitting the team against another in comments and remarks, such as “our team is better than theirs,” or “this is the best team in the company.” This alienates other co-workers and the company. Although competitiveness can be a strong motivator, competitiveness such as this within the company can have potential negative effects in the future. What if a member of one of those other teams now becomes a member of yours, or vice versa? It will make it that much harder to assimilate them into the new team that they are an “outsider” of. Managers should tell a team how fantastic they are, but not at the demise or lacking of another.

Jenny Douras © All rights reserved

Key Techniques for Successful Remote Management

The corporate environment is rapidly changing in today’s marketplace. There is increasing completion, globalization, mergers and acquisitions. The result is a more distributed workforce than ever, where employees are dispersed across multiple locations, or work in a virtual office, spending a majority of their time traveling to multiple destinations. This creates a new realm of challenges in managing this type of workforce. There are different team dynamics, with a distributed workforce, that require different management techniques and skills to keep them motivated, productive, on track, and trained.

Managing a remote or mobile workforce is very different from managing a team based in one central location. The days of walking down the hall to review and monitor employees is becoming less of a reality in today’s companies. True, many management techniques and skills parallel those used in managing a central based workforce, however, there are 6 key additional techniques needed, that a manager of remote employees would be remiss to ignore.

1. Increased communication – Often managers assume that they will have less communication with their employees when they are remote – because they cannot easily walk down the hall to talk with them. However, the reverse of this is true; managers of a distributed workforce need to work harder to have more communication than those whose employees are located in one office. Because of the distance, a remote manager needs to ensure that their employees do not feel isolated. The increased communication helps to make employees feel more connected with their team and company. As such, remote managers need to make sure they have multiple avenues to be accessible to their employees.

2. Establishing respect – Many remote managers make the mistake of trying to establish their credibility through demands and force; a type of “because I said so” approach. People need reasons and explanations behind actions; this conveys respect for their thoughts and feelings; enough to include them in the rational. It doesn’t mean a manager needs to evoke consensus, but it will display respect toward their team which directly builds it in return. Respect is earned, not demanded. Those that demand respect actually destroy it. A manager’s communication style sets the tone for how the team will communicate with them, the client and each other.

3. Building a team culture – Because employees of a distributed workforce are in different locations, it is tougher for them to feel a part of the company and team, which is critical to their overall motivation and drive behind company initiatives. That is why it takes a concentrated effort by remote managers to build a team community and culture for their employees. Managers can do this by fostering inter-team communication, creating partnerships amongst remote employees for projects, and by forming virtual water coolers and opportunities for small talk, re-living past successes, humor and experiences.

4. Creating accountability through self-monitoring – The conundrum for most managers of field teams or distributed workforces is how to ensure that the job is getting done without micro-managing. Because a team of employees spread across multiple locations is not as easy to monitor with drop-in daily observations, like a centrally located team, many managers can overcompensate by trying to over control those things that they cannot see. Manager’s want their team to reach all set goals, but without smothering them. The key to ensuring happiness with a team’s performance levels and their happiness with their ability to spread their wings, is a combination of clearly outlining goals, creating responsibility, and generating individual accountability with a self-monitoring system.

5. Training – In field teams, the speed at which you build competency with new employees is more important due to costs and less visual daily interaction. Therefore it is important to have any initial training be conducted with face-to-face mentoring either by the manager or team piers to ensure the employee can work independently as soon as possible. For all remote employees, on-going mentoring and training is critical to keep them connected to the company, goals and team ,as well as allowing a manager to more quickly identify performance issues before they have escalated too far. Managers of field teams should think of each employee’s development as a continuous process.

6. Disciplining and conflicts –Conflict between remote team members can create more issues than if they were in one location, because there is limited communication, making resolutions more difficult. Also, it is easier to avoid the necessary confrontation to work toward a solution when they don’t see each other daily. Because of this, manager’s need to address confrontation as soon as possible so that it doesn’t escalate or cause dissention among the team. As well, when there are performance issues with an individual employee, it is important to address it as soon as possible. There can be a tendency with remote managers to ignore employee performance issues until a more convenient time (out of sight, out of mind). However, often there is no one that can pick up the slack of a remote employee – if they are the only one in their location, they are the only one available to do the needed job there. So it is important to address and correct any performance issues, sooner rather than later, so a critical gap does not develop.

The changing business environment and ensuing structure does not need to spell painful transitions for employees and corporations. By understanding the needs and techniques, for managing this new business format of distributed and mobile workforces, companies can capitalize on success by implementing these new management techniques. As many companies struggle, to figure out the new workforce, those that have streamlined it, will excel in the marketplace, and with their clients.

Jenny Douras © All rights reserved