The Coronavirus and the lockdown bring a lot of companies to working in remote. Most managers have to adapt their management to this particular context. In order to stay efficient and keep a healthy mood, new rules should be established without making the team panic. Discover 4 useful tips for managers we have implemented in So sample.
1. For your collaborators, stay available.
As a manager it is important to be present with your team. If they have any concerns, you are the first person to contact, so you need to be reachable and responsive. Without a response from you, your team will not know how to move forward. Having an available manager is comforting and tends to make work more efficient.
However, it is important for the manager that this availability doesn't turn into stress. Indeed, you have to organize well your daily tasks, keeping time for each one, including you. You can for instance use Enseihower matrix, grouping projects to prioritize:
1) Important and urgent
2) Urgent, but not necessarily important
3) Important, without urgency
4) Non-urgent, and not important
And if you feel that one member of your team is isolate him or herself, you have to speak with him or her as soon as possible.
2. Set up daily meetings
It's important to set up daily meetings. Talking verbally is more effective for the team, so you can clear up all new missions and results achieved. It is good to organize shorter or longer daily meetings at fixed times. The morning is the best time to talk and see each other, so you will be aware of the tasks for the day.
Also, you have to be prepared to each meeting, to be as efficient as possible. For instance, keep the same tool each time and try to send the link at least 24 hours before. We will give you in an other article couple of advices in order to organize the perfect meeting.
Finally, webcam have to be switch on during meeting (even for 2 min meeting) and each one has to be dressed as usual when they come to the office. Work in remote is not synonym of holidays and details can affect a lot of people.
3. Organize workspaces
It is important for a manager, and for all your collaborators to know how to distinguish the daily space and the workspace. He needs his own dedicated space, so working remotely will be more efficient.
In addition, it is good to know that the absence of limits between the professional and private spheres can have a big impact on the way of work.
Don't hesitate to spend time teaching your team about organization. A lot of websites give you tips to have the perfect desk, as CNN.
4. Trust your team
Everyday, work requires confidence in each other and even more when you are not in the same room. And employees feel that managers don't trust them : More than a third of employees indicated that their management was against it for fear of loss of control.
While trust does not rule out control, there is no question of over-imposing it at the risk of creating mistrust. Managers have to trust their employees who are no longer physically in the company, for example establishing new KPI's and teaching how to discipline himself.
In conclusion….
Nowadays, working in remote has become a new phenomenon that we will have to get used to. A manager has to show organization, flexibility, reactivity and availability.
Knowing how to manage a team by teleworking is a mission to add in addition to all the others, and you have to teach how to do it. It's not as easy as some people could think.