With people from various backgrounds, cultures, and even talents, joining to work together to achieve a single objective, mishaps are bound to happen. And that makes team management an essential aspect of the workspace. But in this post-pandemic time of remote working, managers are finding it especially difficult to manage their team members.
But if you can pinpoint the challenges, you are facing right now or will probably face and make some necessary tweaks to your leadership strategies, then managing your remote team won’t be much difficult at all.
In this article, I will talk about the most common challenges managers face when dealing with their remote team members. And also, how you can overcome them. So, without further ado, let’s get right on with it.
Common Challenges Of Remote Team Management
Before we talk about how to manage a remote team, let’s talk about the issues you might come across with this shift to a work-from-home model. Here are some of the most common challenges you might face as the manager of a remote team.
- Lack Of Communication
Remote work will bring some difficulties when it comes to communication. As you employees could talk to each other just by walking up to them, now they have to do it through text or call. Which is not very intuitive nor efficient.
When working on a project, communication is essential. Each employee is like a single cog in a giant machine that is your team. So, there is not a smooth flow of information between these cogs, the whole machine can fall apart.
- Poor Teamwork
The aforementioned lack of communication can eventually lead to poor teamwork. Even if your employee is actively communicating, doing it online causes a greater level of delay than it would be in real life. And that can cause a big dent in your teamwork.
But it’s not just that. Spending for durations away from each other may tarnish the bonds between your team members. And that can play an even greater role in causing a lack of teamwork.
A lack of presence of a leading figure could also hamper teamwork. In the workplace, managers can help guide and inspire their employees. But, when handling a remote team, that might not always be possible.
- Tracking Productivity
Humans are naturally opportunistic. If you allow people the chance to slack off, they will. You might think that all of your team members are dedicated and hardworking. But as they move away from your gaze at the office desk to the comfort and privacy of their home, there’ll be at least one person who abuses this opportunity.
And it’s not just about slacking off. As it is harder for your team members to monitor each other’s progression, it is harder for them to pace their workflow.
- Overworking Employees
It is much harder to empathize with team members over chat boxes than in real life. So, managers do make the mistake of accidentally overworking their employees without having the slightest idea of it.
In an office, you get to see the work your employees are doing. But, in a remote work model, you don’t. Also, managers suddenly think that because their employees are working from the comfort of their homes, they are capable of doing more work.
And this combination of not being able to monitor your employee’s hard work and some misplaced mindset can lead to putting too much pressure on your employees.
- Lack Of Trust
Lack of trust is an issue that many new startups face when working with recruits. It’s hard to put your faith in a company with no physical presence. So, new team members are often skeptical about the company’s legitimacy.
Lack of trust can also arise among seasoned team members. When working on a single project, team members are sometimes dependent on the completion of other tasks for completing their own. So, a decent amount of trust is necessary between the members of your team so that they can work with a sound mind.
But it can be difficult when each of the members is so far away and can’t really see the progress of each other’s work as they are being completed.
How to Manage Your Remote Team?
We’ve talked about all the issues you could face in a remote working model. So, what can you do about it? Well, here are some tips on overcoming the obstacles of remote team management.
- Make Use of Team Management Software
There are many team-management-software that allows easier communication between your team members. Slack is one such software that not only lets your employees communicate effortlessly and efficiently and effortlessly.
- Set Limits To The Amount Of Designated Work
Do not provide your employees any more work than you would provide them in an office work setting. Being in the comfort of their home does not mean they will magically become more productive than they are capable of. Also, be sure to consider what other deadlines and tasks they might already have before providing them with new ones.
- Use Productivity Tracking Software
There is plenty of software out there to track your employee’s productivity during office hours. There are all sorts of time tracking software like Linxio, that allow you to monitor your employee’s activities.
- Arrange Video Conferences and Meetups
Arrange frequent video conferences with your teams to discuss projects and each other in general. Also, arrange real-life meet-ups as well. This will keep the bond between your team members fresh and keep employee morale and teamwork high,
To further enhance the bond between your employees you can arrange various team-building activities.
- Gather Feedback
Last, but not least, be sure to collect feedback from your team members. Ask them about their experience with this remote working system. Are they satisfied with this new working environment? Or if they feel like they need something? Also, make sure to check up on their emotional status as well. That too can greatly impact the productivity of your company.
Conclusion
Managing a remote workforce can be challenging. But these are challenging times and managers need to learn how to adapt to these new situations. After reading this article you should have a proper understanding of what it means to manage a remote team in 2022. Thanks for reading and best of luck to you.
