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4 Strategies to More Successfully Manage Remote Teams

Since the 1990s, we have seen major industries get disrupted by new technologies and innovation. The Internet and tech commoditization, increasing consumer demands, and rising competitive rivalry have all forced businesses to adapt and evolve. Managing disruption has made the overall business landscape much faster, uncertain and, at times, chaotic.

With the pandemic, we have had to adapt again to remote or hybrid work arrangements. While it has many perks, working remotely brings with it a new set of challenges that managers continually need to navigate. First, it is harder to read your team’s energy when you are not in the same office. Second, the number of meetings tends to increase in remote environments, which tends to lead to lower productivity. Third, not being in the same room sometimes reduces the speed of execution, resulting in bottlenecks and miscommunication.

Although working remotely comes with its challenges, here are four strategies that leaders can implement to better manage remote or hybrid teams and disruptive environments:

1. Build a Team for Adaptability

The most important capability to navigate a world of disruption is adaptability. Teams that are built with an emphasis on adaptability are able to pivot and change direction much faster, and are more likely to solve problems that they have not seen before. These teams are also able to navigate the nature of remote work.

Adaptable team members keep an open mind and may be more inclined to find new ways to collaborate with each other, and it may be easier for them to continuously pivot to changing regulations or rules. In other words, being adaptable allows teams to get the job done whether they are working from the office, a client site, or remotely.

2. Get Buy-In

Before starting on your journey, focus on getting your team to buy into your vision and mission. Show your team why the goals are important, and the prize that awaits everyone on the other side of the journey. Being bought-in makes your team more likely to push through uncertainty and change, especially when things get difficult. This can also reduce the need for constant oversight or micromanagement.

A team that is bought-in also feels more accountability with their work and with each other. This ensures teams are focused on getting results while supporting each other along the way. The resulting sense of investment also helps as burnout continues to be on the rise and the boundaries between work and life continue to get blurred while working from home.

3. Provide a Clear Plan and Establish Milestones

When things get chaotic, it helps to clearly define your roadmap and assign key actions to your team with ownership and accountability. When dispersed and facing uncertainty, direction is what a team needs most. Providing your team a clear action plan not only gets you marching on the same path, but may also make you more productive.

Being clear on your deliverables and establishing concrete milestones can help reduce distractions, making it easier to navigate uncertainty and change. This can also reduce virtual meetings to relevant team members working toward a certain milestone, which could boost overall team productivity and save valuable time. 

4. Celebrate the Small Wins

When you are executing and being pulled in multiple directions, it is tough to take a step back from the nitty gritty day-to-day. Most of the work we do in transformational times does not yield results right away—it takes time. Especially when dispersed across different cities or countries, it is hard to see the progress we have made if we do not make a conscious effort to see the forest, not just the trees. Over time, this can contribute to burnout and lower productivity.

Celebrating the small wins helps your team see the progress they are making every day, and puts things into perspective. It also brings the team together, which is a must when working remotely and are not getting the social interaction that we need.

The State of the American Manager Is…Weak

Risk managers, understandably, spend most of their time worrying about external threats. But occasionally we are forced to acknowledge that our own organizations can be the most fertile seedbeds of risk.

Gallup’s State of the American Manager report is one of those inputs that should compel organizations to look inward. Gallup lays out startling data on the woeful state of American managers: most are disengaged, compelling their employees to perform at much lower levels. Prevailing promotion and hiring practices are big culprits, as a small minority of people given management roles actually have the skills to succeed with leadership responsibilities. A lot needs to change to recover all of the lost productivity.

According to Gallup, about 82% of managers lack the appropriate skills for their positions. Poor hiring practices beget low engagement with the job and organization: 65% of managers say they are either not engaged, or actively disengaged.

Essentially, managers are phoning it in. Many readers won’t be surprised by this; most of us have had bad bosses at one time or another, and Gallup found that exactly half of American workers have left a job just to get away from a dreadful manager. They also found strong a strong correlation between manager quality and employee engagement:

All told, managers account for “at least 70% of the variance in employee engagement scores across business units.” And it’s powerful to see the effects of low employee engagement on productivity:

What does all of this poor managing cost? Gallup claims the current situation drains $300–$400 billion from the U.S. economy each year.

The extent of this problem, and its effects, are staggering.

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Thankfully, the solutions are easy to articulate. We have vast ranks of unsatisfied and unengaged managers because we are putting the wrong people in leadership positions. Too many organizations plot career paths based on title, not talent.

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A great front-line employee might not be a great manager, but that’s how we typically promote people:

Reason #2 is the other systemic problem: promoting based on seniority. High-performing organizations, on the other hand, promote based on performance rather than who’s next in line for a title change.

Sub-par hiring and promotion practices continue, of course, because overhauling them is a huge job with large up-front costs. Whole company cultures need to be changed in the process. Many (most?) organizations obviously prefer to stick with the status quo.

Are there any quick fixes that can help turn the tide?

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Actually, yes. Something companies can start doing right away: hire and promote more women into management roles:

Access to the full Gallup report can be found here.