Building a team remotely doesn’t have to be hard. If you’re a manager and you want to hire people around the world, there are a few things you should know to make sure that you’re not committing a common mistake of hiring the wrong people. The first thing to keep in mind is that you shouldn’t hire a person just because they’re good at communicating via a computer.
Business owners who work remotely sometimes struggle with building a just as productive team as one that works in the office. Often, the biggest challenge is that employees are expected to work more independently when they are not in the office and often lack opportunities for collaboration and cross-training. This can lead to employees who are skilled in their respective areas but who don’t work well together.
Though building a team remotely can be tough, the process can be made easier if everyone can still collaborate, design impactfully, and solve problems in a creative way. Having a meaningful virtual meeting and remote workshop is still possible with the right practices and technology. That is why remote Design Sprint workshops can prove to be an essential tool during these transitional times (you can read more about it by searching for a blog post on the Remote Sessions Guide on the Internet). It can enable teams to uncover insights, prototype an idea, and test it with users, allowing them to validate ideas and solve business problems. Companies might need these now more than ever, as teams adjust to survive and thrive in a new world- from solving big problems quickly to refining processes and launching new ideas.
Besides this, there are a few other ways to combat the issues of building a team remotely. You can follow the dos and don’ts that are mentioned below. They can help business owners build better remote teams:
Dos
- Set expectations. This will secure commitment and agreement from your team. This will make your job easier and keep them happy as well. When your expectations are clear, your team will be able to focus on the work that needs to be done rather than on things that aren’t a priority. Setting expectations helps you focus on the job at hand, which will help your team focus.
- Acknowledge them. Before your team meets in person, acknowledge the work they’re doing for the company and recognize them for their contributions. This practice doesn’t just make your team feel good, but it’s also a good way to let them know that you’re paying attention to them and the work they’re doing.
- Share your goals with the team. It’s important to have goals, set them as a team, and stay focused on them. The goals should be written down and published, so everyone can see them. The team should be encouraged to develop skills that help them achieve those goals. Regular communications between team members can help the team stay focused.
Don’ts
- Focus too much on the problem. Trace the cause and solve it to avoid further damage to the business as well as to the people. One of the biggest problems when it comes to running a remote team is that you can’t see their faces. This means that you can’t take their body language into account when you are interacting with them. It’s important to make sure you don’t let this problem derail you from running a successful remote team. However, it’s easy to use this problem as an excuse to stop being as effective as you need to be when you are running a remote team.
- Expect everyone to multitask during these difficult times. A few months ago, most remote teams did not have to deal with the multiple challenges of increased workloads, budgets, deadlines, and a constant need to go above and beyond. Unlike those with a brick-and-mortar office, many remote teams are quickly learning how to manage without the luxury of being able to multitask.
- Ignore opinions and feedback. Leading a remote team to success is not an easy task, but it’s not impossible either. To make your remote team successful, you need to be careful about the work culture, the right person, how to listen to feedback, etc. If you fail on any of these, your team would be doomed, no matter how much you’d spend for the team.
- Overwhelm your team with new technologies. You have a new, remote-friendly technology to roll out to your team – and that’s great! But remember, it’s always better to start small rather than overwhelm your members with too much information at once. Try rolling out new technologies to your team members in phases. Take into account the skills of your team members and their familiarity with the technology.
Is it possible to build a strong team without meeting in person? The answer is, it depends on your goal. If you want to build a functioning team that can handle all aspects of an operation, then face-to-face meetings are necessary. However, if you want to build a team that can work together on one project, then remote work can be effective.
While there are a number of different ways to determine the success of a remote team, one thing is certain: there is no one-size-fits-all method for building a remote team. The key is finding the right tools and techniques to build a remote team that will work for you and the employees you hire. Plan ahead and understand that working with people you’ve never met in person and in a different time zone will take some different approaches.