How to effectively lead teams working remotely?

During this year, companies and teams had to change the way they work and integrate technologies to improve communication with each other to continue their activity as best as possible.

However, the paradigm shift of leadership and the need for leaders to know how to manage changes in a faster way, making their teams more collaborative and closer for a better resolution of challenges that the organization will face are already discussed in many circles.

These changes and the pressure to be made in a fast way to respond to the constant technological evolution and needs of the teams themselves, I leave some examples of how a leader can give more support to their team and get better results for the organization.

Many companies, which have been forced to experiment with teleworking, are currently reflecting on the continuity of their employees maintaining this system.

The flexibility that it can give and even the quality of life that employees can have, is something that makes teleworking very appealing to both the employee and the organization itself.

Although, as we know, teleworking has implications in personal and family life that are not the same for everyone and require adjustments to the particular demands of each reality.

It can even be quite uneven and become an additional source of stress and disturbances in the work done or in the intimate life of each employee.

In leadership, doing it at a distance has always been an added challenge and whose preparation is not innate – requires effective work of learning and training.

Will leaders and managers be prepared to lead and motivate teams at a distance? Most probably not. And the employees, for without led?

As for any challenge, there are always solutions and with these solutions come the tools. Good team management tools are needed to ensure that the work and information between the team are always aligned and updated.

Among the many tools at our disposal to improve performance and deal with the many demands that are in our care, I would like to highlight, by way of example:

– Weekly or periodic meetings with the team;

If they were important before, now they became critical. Essential, these meetings should be previously prepared by the whole team, with a previously shared agenda of topics (ideally up to 48h), so that the topics can be discussed/discussed;

It is, as we know, one of the ways meetings become more effective and dynamic, and everyone knows and is more attentive to what is being exposed.

– Establish rules within the team;

In practice, how the team will work in other environments (especially if they were not foreseen), with what limits of what is or is not acceptable among all, and with what alignment of expectations.

It helps, of course, to make each team member responsible and to maintain good communication between everyone – especially critical in remote work.

– Well defined responsibilities and deadlines;

When you delegate a task to one of the team members, the leader needs to have clearly defined why he is delegating, to whom, and until when he needs that task to be finished.

This alignment is also essential to be clear to whom the task or responsibility has been delegated and/or assigned. The use of the job description can be a useful and practical tool if properly performed and accompanied by other project management.

Optimization and effectiveness in the work is a permanent challenge and, regardless of the way and or the environment in which the work is carried out, it is always part of our lives.