There has been a huge increase in remote and distributed teams in recent years. Given this dramatic shift along with evolving worker preferences, you’ll want to know how to best manage your own team from anywhere.
Read on to understand what a fully distributed team is and how you can future-proof your management skills to lead one.
What is a Distributed Team?
A distributed team is a group of employees that work from different physical locations. It could be as simple as working from home or as complex as working from different countries. As long as the employees are not in the same space, they are considered a distributed team.
It’s important to note that if even one of your team members is located in a different physical location from the rest of your team, your entire team is now classified as a distributed team. This distinction is critical to ensure all of your staff are treated equitibly.
Tips For Managing
You can never have too many tips for being a better manager. Especially if you are new to managing certain types of employees, like a distributed team.
Create a Company Culture
When you are managing a team, you’ll need to establish your company culture. This can include what you focus on as a company and how you would like the environment to be. You can set expectations of your team and be consistent so they are aware of how the company functions.
This will allow them to understand you better and learn why your decisions make sense for the company.
Focus on Training
You should give a large focus to training to ensure everyone is on the same page. Training is very necessary when you are not able to be with your team, so you should make sure it is a priority for you as a manager.
You can train virtually and in real-time to get to know the employee and how they function and let yourself be available to them if they have questions. Even though you may not be in the same time zone, being able to contact them can be more crucial than normal.
Meeting Often
Just like being communicative with your team, you’ll want to meet often. Even if it is virtual, you can meet regularly to catch up and keep up with tasks or their objectives. This provides more contact for your team and lets you build a relationship.
Since your team isn’t together in a physical location, it can be harder to keep an eye on their activities. But you can use your meetings to keep track and communicate objectives.
Hiring Trusted Candidates
When you don’t have direct access to your team, it is more important for them to be trusted by you. You won’t be able to track everything they do in their day or ensure that every task given to them is completed when you want them.
So when you are hiring candidates you need to give them a level of trust. They are going to need some wiggle room and a little bit of your trust. When you have your candidates set, take time to think of who you can trust more on your team.
Frequent Bonding Activities
Even with a distributed team, you can do activities. There are plenty of virtual activities you can do too! There are activities for small groups or large groups, so you can find the right activity for your group and company.
Here are some quick examples of activities you could do with your team:
Trivia Nights: Who doesn’t love a good trivia night, this can work great with any group and you can get themed questions to make it better fit your team.
Arm’s reach show and tell: This can be a really quick way to learn about your team members. This would lead to them showing their personality and some favorite things they keep in their room or office.
Game tournament: If your company has some gamers, you could have a little online tournament to see your team in a more competitive light.
No matter what activity you choose for your team, your options are almost infinite. Take some time and research some fun activities that best fit your company culture.
Use Communication Software
The last tip we have is to use software to help you communicate with your team. It could be like Google Hangouts or Slack, but as long as you can easily talk things out with your team and have access to anybody if you need to check up on them or give new tasks.
When you have these open channels to speak through it makes everyone’s life so much easier. This is because they know that they can be contacted and can ask you questions if they need help.
Conclusion
When you have a distributed team, it has its own challenges. So it is best to be prepared and learn some tips to manage your team. You can set up team building activities, focus on training, prioritize communication, and know who you are hiring.
If you already have a team that is in different locations and wants to have a fun activity to get to know them better, you can plan an event with TriviaHub, book now!