Four Tips for Managing a Remote Team

Photo from ReadersDigest No copyright infringement intended. 

Working remotely is becoming increasingly popular.  Why shouldn’t it?  Remote work benefits both the company and the employee.  The employee is able to work in a much less rigid environment and not waste time commuting back and forth allowing, or aiding, in a better work/life balance (note that I’m not a fan of that saying and I don’t believe it can ever be achieved).  It benefits the employer because it is extremely less expensive than having to pay the overhead of having employees in an office which is becoming less and less economical.

However, working from home has some drawbacks.  Such as not having the face-to-face time with the higher ups which for some may mean less chance of promotions.  The thing I found the hardest was not having the daily conversations which allow me to get to know my team on a more deep level and therefore allows me to be a better manager.  Not everyone is the same and the more you know each member of your team as an individual the better you are at foreseeing “problems” before they arise.  Even though these are some very important examples, there are things we can do to minimize them. Here are four tips I use to make sure things run smoothly.

Clear Org Charts

Make sure everyone knows who management is.  Especially new employees.  Make sure they know to whom they report and to whom they should go for answers.  I’m not a believer “in the boss is not to be bothered” or even that unless you’re at a certain level you should not be talking to anyone above you.  However, but there are some people that are not as deep in the trenches of the day to day minutia and most likely will not know the answer to the smaller questions.  A clear org chart will give the new employee a connection and a roadmap of where to go as well as a better idea of where they stand and the possibilities of where they might go.

I am a strong proponent of including a little information about what the person does so as to give the employee a better idea of who will be able to answer a specific question.  For example, I would not go to a technology person to ask about legal research and probably not a project manager, although some have been paralegals or have been around the block so much that they can probably do legal research or at least be able to answer where to find the information.

Communication – Clear and Transparent

Giving clear instructions and information is always important.  Possibly in the top three of importance.  But never more important than when the team is remote.  Make sure every member of the team understands the “ask” of the project and what their particular job is within the project.  The way I manage this is to, after meeting with the team and giving them a brief background of the project (why we’re doing it and who needs it) I follow it up with an email confirming the steps we all need to take.  I invite the team to ask questions at all steps of the project.  I let everyone know that my in-office messenger is always available to them for a quick question and, because I’m only human, I let everyone know that I don’t always have the answers but most likely I know where to find the answers or at least find someone who knows the answers.

As for transparency?  Set up check-in points with the full team and perhaps individually.  This will depend on the project.  It is important to give honest feedback and if something isn’t working it is important to share that information with the team.  Who knows, they may have a solution and a fix for the problem.  Be honest and up front if a mistake is made and clearly state it.  Ask for feedback and move on.

Two Way Feedback

It is important to provide your team members with immediate feedback.  It should never be a surprise when you are sitting at the end of the year review or at a mid-year review that there was something you did when you were in charge of project A or B.  That is not the time to come up with what could have been done better.  I am a firm believer in always giving feedback.  Good or bad.  This goes both ways.  I very ofter ask my team members to provide me with feedback.  This helps me make sure we are all on the same page and if I need to make changes to the way I manage.

The Right Technology

What can I say about this?  It shouldn’t even be said but there are many occasions when a team member is not able to do their job because some part of the technology is not working.  Make sure every team members is aware of the type of access they need, they know where to go get it and if they don’t have it or need special access you immediately approve all the requests.  I usually try to set up a few minutes during our first launch meeting to make sure everyone on the team is set up appropriately and if not I ask them the make the requests at that time.  This way we are all on the same page and I am able to approve all requests at the same time.

Can you think of any other important aspects of managing a remote team?

 

 

 

Five Tips to Help You Survive Working From Home During this Time of COVID-19

These are some strange and stressful times.  Not only are we dealing with a lot of change in our personal lives but also with our work schedules.  There’s been a whole lot of adjusting being done.  Some of us find ourselves back to an old way of working…. If you recall, I used to work from home full time a few years ago…. others of us have had to quickly become teachers to our children while at the same time holding down the fort at home and in the office.  A lot has been asked of all of us and it’s no surprise that some are feeling completely out of control.

I don’t have all the answers.  Although I sometimes think I do.  But, I do have some tips for those of you who are working from home.  Nope, not about how to be a teacher.  Let’s just say your kids are lucky I did not embark on that professional path.  But I think I can help those of you working from home for the first time to find a little sanity in all the chaos.

As paralegals we all know that project management and time management are two of the most important things we bring to the office.  Working from home is a combination of both.  You have got to me meticulous about your project management skills and you have to be a mamma bear over your schedule while also understanding that certain things are going to require you to be flexible.  Here are Five tips I’ve come up with during this time.

Meetings are going to increase

Your calendar is going to “explode” with meetings.  It’s probably slowed down a bit since you started working from home but you are still going to be on the phone or on video calls a bit more than you used to be when you were in the office.  Realize that while in the office there were those impromptu check-ins as you passed your attorney or one of your team members or managers in the hallway coming back from getting a cup of coffee.  Well, since that is no longer happening people feel that they have to touch base or check in more often on the phone.  This should have died down a bit since it’s been a few weeks now and most of us are getting used to the new reality.  Don’t get frustrated, make sure you are prepared for the calls and make your attorney or colleague feel comfortable that you are on top of the work.  One way to decrease the amount of check-ins is to be proactive and send updates as often as you can.  Once they are comfortable that you are on top of the work the calls should slow down.

Be Proactive About your Calendar

Related to the increase in meetings.  You are going to be more on top of your calendar.  People tend to schedule meetings according to what works for them and, if it works for them they don’t think twice about squeezing a call on your calendar when you were planning on going to grab your first cup of coffee.  They have no idea that you have been working since the early hours in the morning and you were so looking forward to that caffein jolt.  Anyway, the solution to this is to make sure you take a look at your calendar the night before and schedule blocks of time for focused work and don’t forget to schedule a few shorter times for a cup of coffee or, I even block time for lunch.  This is super important.  Especially for those of us who have team members in other time zones.  Most of the time we are not thinking about difference in time and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone without lunch when someone in a different time zone schedules a meeting on my calendar.  So, take the time to block “me” time on your calendar and protect that time as if it was a meeting with someone else.

Set Boundaries

This one is just as much for the office as it is for the people you share your home with.   At home, make sure everyone understands that you need to focus when you are at work and that unless the house is on fire or there is some other emergency you are not to be interrupted.  It is cute, sometimes, when a child walks into the view of a Zoom call but if it keeps happening it quickly becomes old and it makes the other people lose track of what they are saying causing the meeting to run longer and longer.  On the work front, make sure everyone knows that you have work-hours.  Just because you are not at the office does not mean that you are available all day and all night.  Of course, there are going to be those occasions when you will need to work a bit longer than normal but that should be the exception to the rule.  Working from home should not be any different than working from the office.

Stop Feeling Guilty

This one is almost the same as the “setting boundaries” above but I think it needs to be said.  We often feel guilty about being home and feel as if we are home already so there is really not reason why we can’t do that one other thing.  When those feelings come up check yourself and ask “Have I really given my 100% today?”  Maybe there’s something there.  Maybe you really didn’t.  If that’s the case perhaps that day you can work a little longer.  But most of the time we are probably feeling that others may be wondering if we actually did what we were supposed to be doing all day and our way of making sure they know we are working hard is to work all day and all night.  This is a sure way to burnout.  So….. I think a good way of dealing with those guilty feelings is to send a memo to your manager or to your attorney once a week with a report on what you have done.  Or take the opportunity to schedule a 1:1 with our attorney or manager and let them know what you are working on and manage expectation (both yours and theirs)

Be Flexible and Compassionate

We are all going through our own stresses and you don’t know what someone is going through unless you are walking in their shoes.  And since we are not walking in anyone else’s shoes we need to take a deep breath and realize that emergencies are going to come up.  This one is addressed more at managers but it can be applicable to anyone.  Sometimes an employee or a team member is not going to be able to focus for one reason or another.  Make sure you are there to help and understand.  As a manger, my job is to make sure we are all rowing the boat in the same direction and we are all healthy and able to keep the boat stable and moving in the right direction.  I have learned that there are times when one member is not able to row as fast as others so it’s my job to align the work accordingly even if that means I will take on a bit more of the load (that’s why they pay me the big bucks right?)…. Right.

I hope this was helpful.  Let me know if you have questions and please feel free to give me some of your tips that you’re using while working from home.

I hope you are all staying healthy and safe.  See you all very soon.