Leading from a distance: 5 tips for remote managers

Remote leadership is a skill that managers and team leaders need more than ever. According to Statista 38% of all German employees find remote work practical, and 51% of them would be willing to work from home at least once a week in 2021. Another survey found that 41% of Austrian employees prefer remote work to any other form of work. In nearby Switzerland, the University of St. Gallen conducted a survey which found that although only 25.8% of employees work remotely, almost 50% of all jobs in the Swiss economy could be done outside the office.

Below, we answer the question "What is remote leadership?" and show you how to lead teams spread across the country and even the world.

What is remote leadership?

‍Simply put, remote leadership means managing teams in different locations. Unlike a traditional office, where team members can hold short meetings at any time of day, remote leadership uses online tools, software, and platforms to delegate tasks, track performance, and achieve goals.

Remote leadership with Flexopus - the Workplace Management Platform

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When managing remote employees from a distance, you must manage a balancing act between the needs of the remote teams, the hybrid work environment and the team members who remain present in the office. In such complex scenarios, desk sharing software like Flexopus can be an invaluable help.

With Flexopus you can manage workplace resources easily and efficiently, whether it is desks, meeting rooms or parking spaces. Through intuitive and streamlined processes, Flexopus enables seamless coordination and utilization of available resources, making remote management much easier.

Below we take a look at some of the most common challenges when leading virtual teams.

Challenges of Leading from a Distance

How can remote teams be managed with maximum efficiency? This can be quite tricky, because managing teams remotely involves overcoming challenges such as:

• Lack of trust due to the lack of face-to-face communication.
  
• Lack of goals, standards and expectations.
  
• Inefficient time management.
  
• Frequent micromanagement.
  
• Lack of commitment of team members.

How can you lead virtual teams remotely?

Now that we've got that out of the way, let's look at some of the most popular examples currently being implemented. To help you, our team has put together some ideas, taking into account the best practices for leading virtual teams:

1. When you lead remotely, communicate further

The Swiss Federal Statistical Office has published data showing that only 39.6% of all Swiss employees who do their work remotely practice teleworking. In other words, the majority of teleworkers do not use chat, conference calls, or other channels to communicate with the rest of the team.

It is the responsibility of managers to prioritize communication over completing daily tasks. Even a short online briefing in the morning can work wonders, increasing transparency and providing team members with important information they would otherwise forget.

The consulting firm Fierce, Inc. found that 86% of employees blame a lack of communication and collaboration for workplace failures, while 92% of them believe that the company's tendency to overrun or miss deadlines hurts overall results.

2. Remote leadership requires clear rules and goals

Without personal contact, it can be difficult to lead a team. Leading from a distance requires the following from managers:

• To recognize the different personalities in the team and the working methods they use.
  
• Break larger goals into smaller stepsthat can be achieved without micromanagement and constant calls. When the team has to participate in long and pointless online meetings, there is a high risk that they will get distracted.
  
• Work-life balance. Nobody wants to make a Zoom call at 6 p.m., even if the leader thinks it's very convenient.
  
• Focus on the result, not the method.
  
• When setting goals, you should use the SMART technique. Goals must be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound .

3. Leading at a distance and performance standards

One of the biggest challenges in remote leadership is making decisions about the performance of certain people. After all, how can you know if an employee is really working if you can't see them? Here, too, it should be about goals rather than methods, and with the increase in remote work, it has become clear that the location of the employee has no impact on their productivity.

A report from Owl Labs shows:

• 70% of employees say that online meetings are less stressful.
  
• 64% of employees prefer a hybrid workplace.
  
• 83% say their productivity has increased.
  
• 55% admit to working more hours.
  
• 75% say that working from home makes them happier.

Given this, managers who work from home have little to worry about. However, it is the responsibility of managers to clearly articulate their expectations, set boundaries, and enforce all the standards they would have in traditional offices. Remember that 46% of employees don't know what management expects of them, and it's not the employees' fault!

4. Leading remote teams is about coaching, not micromanagement

Now let’s talk about how to manage remote workers. No matter how tempting it may be: micromanagement is not a solution. Instead of controlling every step of the process, remote team leaders need to take a leap of faith and let their team do what they do best.

With the rise of teleworking, coaching has become a popular approach for managers and team leaders of all kinds. In contrast to a micro-manager, a coach is:

It helps employees to increase their performance instead of feeling judged.

It increases the commitment, the creativity and the innovation of employees.

Keeps things under controlwithout getting upset about little things.

Increases productivity instead of repeatedly doing the same thing.

Improves communication in both directions.

5. Results vs. "Staying Online": Finding Balance in Leading Remote Teams

Working with remote teams requires a high level of trust. Managers who are used to seeing their team members for eight hours at a time may find it difficult to tolerate them going offline or working from their beachfront home instead of in the gray suburbs.

So it is clearly time to say goodbye to the old idea that relied more on presence than on results. The MIT Sloan claims that a workforce that feels trusted is 260% more motivated, less likely to be absent, and less likely to look for another job. Given that mobile phones allow everyone to be online all the time, it is time to find other metrics to properly evaluate the results.