I was recently reminiscing about the first team that I managed, the fantastic Team 6, often renowned for being “top team” in a thriving sales and service contact centre. I was remembering some of the things that I did to make people feel valued, connected, feel important and listened to, want to engage and be an active, enthusiastic part of the team. It did take my time, my thought, my effort and my constant evaluation of the situation and my constant personal reflection and learning …..and it was worth it!
I wonder now, how the approach I took so many years ago would translate to remote working, how that team vibe, energy and motivation would be challenged without the team being together? My thought is that I, the manager, would need to put more thought and effort into this side of my role if I wanted to succeed.
Over 20 years later and I find myself still supporting and working with managers and their teams. We find ourselves in a situation where remote management is a reality, one that is for many unplanned and where we are unprepared.
Remote management will be a key skill for the future, way beyond the Covid-19 situation, and upskilling managers is part of the solution, along with a shift in perspective about manager priorities and where they bring value to the organisation.
Managers often have busy roles with so much to do that managing people is an afterthought or at times an inconvenience. Prioritising people management within a manager’s role, giving them the time, resource and skills to focus effectively on the people would make a huge difference. Successful teams are not usually an accident, they are a result of an attentive, skilled manager who understands people.
With remote working likely to be the norm in the future, organisations would benefit from ensuring that connecting, coaching, collaborating, and engaging with your team are key tasks for their managers, not afterthoughts.
What can you do if you are a manager in this brave new world of remote working?
As a starting point
- Build skills that enable you to be a great listener, able to ask the right questions, build relationships, and facilitate conversations with a purpose.
- Develop your self-awareness and emotional intelligence to be able to adapt your style to suit the situation and the person and recognise and handle emotions remotely.
- Utilise different personality characteristics, strengths, and cognitive differences effectively and remember to connect with your team members (and help them connect with each other) not just for work, but for fun and social interaction.
- Develop your delegation skills to fit a remote working environment -give your team the skills and confidence to get things done independently, check in regularly and remove blocks and brakes to getting the job done.
- Find ways to ensure knowledge and information is captured and shared in a timely accessible way.
Managing a team takes effort, making each person feel valued and important takes thought, your attention and action and doing this remotely means ramping that up.
We are helping our clients build current and future management capability, awareness, and skill around remote management. It is not something that should be left to chance, people are too important!
