Leadership Strategies In Managing Remote Teams

Avis Sampson

Welcome leaders! Before we begin I have a question I’d like you to think about before we get
started.

Are you managing your remote teams effectively? How do you know for sure?

Shift to Remote Work due to COVID

COVID-19 has drastically shifted the way that we go to school and work. We made a change
from working 9-5 in business districts to working from our living room, home office and
sometimes even as we travel or in new places we’re exploring. This adds a new flexibility to
working, and inadvertently maybe even more distractions. Remote work is not just an interim fix
to the pandemic, but will forever change the way we will do business now and in the future.

Zoom Fatigue in Remote Teams

As a leader,you should seek to find innovative ways to engage your employees and keep them
on track. We’ve heard of catchall phrases such as, “Zoom fatigue.” Jeremy Bailenson, founding
director from Stanford University’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab noted that video calls are
unnatural and far from fun. They make attendees shift from in-person meetings where they
could take notes or read and disrupt that rhythm, forcing them to stare at each other through
“hyper gaze,” a phenomenon that forces workers to remain on high alert to ensure they are
exaggerating engagement and staring at each other in an irregular way.

Zoom Fatigue inevitably can create burnout and decrease productivity, as employees are
prompted to be highly engaged and attentive to the meeting in ways they may not have been in
a conference room.

Stray away from requiring too many zoom meetings. Your employees will have to deal with their
home life on top of remote work and having too many meetings can take away from employee
productivity as they will have less time to work.

Take Advantage Of Technology And Improve Employee Morale

What can be done to mitigate constant meetings, but not compromise productivity? We have
suggested the following in how to Take Advantage of Technology and improve employee
morale.
- Hangouts, Slack are great ways to send instant messages, and keep us from
having unnecessary meetings and touch points - where the matter could easily
be more time consuming. It also allows the employee to get back in a timely
manner as it is an urgent matter, low priority items can be emailed as usual.
- Focus on employee outcomes
- Set Weekly meetings and have your employees set goals for that week.
- Ensure they are on track with progress from last week and deliverables
expected of them.
 - This helps create autonomy for your workers, as they will pay closer
attention to how on a weekly basis they can reach project goals
- You also get an idea of how long certain tasks may take, to help manage
your expectations for similar tasks now and in the future
- Show flexibility
- Establish Rules of Engagement
- If your company works 40 hours weekly. Make sure your
employees are cognizant of this and have them share the
best hours to contact. Have managers do the dame
- Allow employees to work on their own schedule, but make
mandatory meetings
- This allows them to get miscellaneous things, such as child
care, doctors appointments and other items done - and
- Empathy!
- The pandemic has put a mental strain on all of us in various ways. Have
an understanding of your employees daily lives outside of work. Allow for
them to take mental health days in tandem with sick days - also
encourage taking time off before the end of the year to take time for
themselves.

Thank you for watching this segment on leadership strategies in managing remote teams. What
prompts will you be adding to your leadership rolodex? Share a comment below.