Everyone who pivoted to remote work at the dawn of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 is wondering if we will ever return to the office like we used to.
Let me break it to you bluntly: Nope. Not happening. Ever again.
If you are a “knowledge” worker — one who can handle the vast majority of your day-to-day workplace interactions via collaboration tools, conference calls, video chats, email and text messages — virtual work is here to stay. Too many of us value the flexibility that comes with working from home or from any place that happens to be convenient.
Many leaders who value face-to-face collaboration and interaction are frustrated, and for good reason. From a leadership perspective, managing virtual teams continues to be a big adjustment, and many managers are still struggling with keeping their teams engaged and performing at a high level. But a return to the old days and the old ways is simply not in the cards.
To help, here are three lessons learned from 10 years of managing virtual teams as well as experiences from employees who worked virtually long before the pandemic made it the norm.
Focus on rituals and routines
Rituals and routines are the building blocks of team culture. As the saying goes, people don’t always pay attention to what you say, but they always pay attention to what you do.
When I think of rituals and routines, consider things like:
- The cadence and manner of communication you lead: Do you have scheduled meetings and points of communication in place? Do your team members know when they can expect to interact with you on a regular basis?
- Meetings and their agendas: We all have to schedule meetings, but be careful about making the agendas all about business. Build in social or “gathering” time for folks to share what’s going on in their lives apart from work.
- The level and accuracy of information you share (or don’t!): Call it the grapevine, the water cooler or the quick chat around the coffee station, but informal touch points went out the window. You cannot assume people have all the information they need to do their jobs. The more transparent and complete you are in your communication, the greater the opportunity for team member engagement and commitment, even when the news is not pleasant.
- How you approach routine administrative tasks: Do you do quarterly and annual reviews? Do you do them on time? Do you have systems in place to communicate important items such as schedules and vacations?
- The consistency of your engagement: Are you “on” and “engaged” yourself some weeks and disengaged in others? Make sure to “show up” for your folks on a consistent basis.
Manage to expectations, goals, objectives and results — and make them transparent to the entire team: A recent New York Times article highlighted the explosive growth of tracking software being employed by companies to monitor how much employees are focusing on their work during working hours. Tracking work with keyloggers and other surreptitious forms of monitoring represent lazy, disengaged leadership. Effective leaders of remote teams set clear expectations, involve their team members in setting and revising performance goals, and make sure all members of the team understand how each member’s contribution contributes to the success of the whole.
Engage your team individually and collectively: I am continually amazed at the number of people I encounter who tell me that they do not have regular one-on-one conversations with their direct supervisors. Let’s be clear: Generally speaking, the number one controlling factor when it comes to staff commitment and retention is the relationship each individual in the organization has with their immediate supervisor. When you are too busy to spend quality one-on-one time with each of your direct reports on a regular basis, you will constantly manage turnover on your team.
Also, the best and most cohesive teams I’ve worked with are built on interdependence; this means regular team conversations and opportunities for teammates to work together on specific projects. Creating interdependence lessens the sense of personal isolation that virtual work can lead to and creates opportunities for team members to learn from each other as well. The team leader sets the expectation and the tone in that regard — organizations tend to reward individual achievement, and good leaders are able to blend team objectives with individual ones.
Now, you might say “hey, that’s just good day-to-day management,” and you would be correct. Just remember that in our new virtual world of work, your areas of potential growth as a manager are amplified due to the level of distance and disconnection that is part and parcel of virtual work.
When we can balance work and life like never before, our level of concentration is naturally divided between work and home. That’s incredibly liberating on a personal level. Good leaders manage for results with regular team meetings, check-ins, and clear attention to goals and objectives.
Most of all, they focus on helping their team members realize the joy that comes from a job well done no matter where that job is performed.
— By Mizell Stewart III
