How To Manage Global Teams Remotely

by Srikant Chellappa Apr 2,2020
Engagedly
PODCAST

The People Strategy Leaders Podcast

with Srikant Chellappa, CEO

Working from home has become the new norm ever since the outbreak of Covid-19. While you’re anyway working remotely and managing teams remotely, why not use a few effective tips to do this right?

Engagedly’s expert panel has been researching remote culture for a while now. The findings of this research suggest that managers usually find it challenging to manage their global teams remotely than the teams that work in the same time zone. 

So, here we are again, with new tips to make your remote working easier and to help you manage your global teams effectively while working from home. 

Global Team Experience

One of the very common mistakes that managers make when managing remote teams is that they aren’t as reachable as they used to be when working in a traditional working environment. 

Therefore, be reachable and encourage your team members to participate in frequent meetings and reach out to you whenever needed. Hold meetings to connect your virtual team, provide regular updates on progress, brainstorm and hear their ideas. 

To keep yourself available for your team, you need a platform. It is important to wisely choose the remote collaboration tool that suits the needs of your team. Many companies have started giving out their collaborative tools for free to help other organizations that are struggling with normalizing remote work and trying to keep their workforce productive. 

Also read: Managing A Team During Crisis

For example, according to Business Insider, Microsoft has started offering a free trial of the premium plan for its Teams chat app which will allow users to record meetings and take advantage of 1TB of storage, neither of which are available on the normal free version. Microsoft is making the extended premium trial available for six months.

Similarly, Engagedly is also offering a free remote work toolkit to help organizations impacted by the Covid-19 outbreak. Engagedly’s cloud platform is built to engage, motivate, develop and drive performance. Given the virtual environment, many organizations have quickly transitioned to, it is even more imperative that organizations adopt best practices and tools to engage and align their people. You can know more about this kit here.  

Daily/ Weekly Check-ins

Employee performance check-ins are one-on-one conversations between managers and employees about their goals and objectives and their performance plans. These help you gain an understanding of what your employees are working on and the issues they face from time to time and help you resolve it without having to wait for annual performance reviews.

Now that your entire workforce is remote, it is more important to conduct these check-ins. The only difference is that you need a platform that supports frequent employee check-ins and helps you monitor and track employee performance. 

The cadence of an employee performance check-in can be based on what the organization is comfortable doing. Employee check-ins work better when they adhere to a structure with a preset questionnaire based on various departments in an organization. This set of questions can be used as a framework to guide the check-in. This helps both the managers and employees understand the purpose of the whole process and makes the whole experience feel easier and more productive.

Also read: Are You Suddenly Running A Remote Office?

Focus On The Results

One of the very common mistakes that managers make during remote work is to focus more on the amount of time spent by employees on a project and not on the results. This behaviour could demotivate employees and make them feel disengaged. 

It is important to keep track of the progress of your team members but it is also important not to breathe down their neck. Although some might think this approach works well for their team, the truth is that micromanaging is demoralizing and destroys teamwork. Micromanaging damages employee trust and it is very common for managers to fall into the habit without knowing it.

It is important to understand the boundaries before you demand your teammates to spend extra time from their day to work for you. Most of the time, the team that works for the longest hours isn’t the team that’s the most productive.

If you really want to keep track of your employee progress from time to time without micromanaging them, then you should consider using a goal setting software or a performance management system that helps you assign and monitor employee goals and evaluate their performance.

 


Engagedly is offering a suite of products part of its Remote Work Toolkit free to any organization, until Sept 30th, 2020. 

The Coronavirus has affected the way we work today and for months to come. Unprecedented events require unprecedented measures. We at engagedly believe it is our responsibility as socially conscious corporate citizens to help equip organizations with additional tools and resources during this time of crisis.


Get in touch with us to know more about the free remote working tool-kit. 

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Author
Srikant Chellappa
CEO & Co-Founder of Engagedly

Srikant Chellappa is the Co-Founder and CEO at Engagedly and is a passionate entrepreneur and people leader. He is an author, producer/director of 6 feature films, a music album with his band Manchester Underground, and is the host of The People Strategy Leaders Podcast. He is currently working on his next book, Ikigai at the Workplace, which is slated for release in the fall of 2024.

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