Communication Techniques For Leading Remote Teams

One of the most prominent predicaments business owners and managers face in today’s dynamic day and age of remote working is communication loopholes. Even the most seasoned leader who has led the charge for decades in an office space can fall short on ways to bring teams together when working remotely.

At last, however productive and cost-effective remote working might be, if not leveraged in the right way, it can spell doom for teams and companies.

If you are a team leader, manager or business owner, here are a few techniques you should watch out for the next time you communicate with your team:

1. Hop On Video Calls: Be it your in-house team that is working remotely or an outsourced team that is functioning in a completely different time zone, everyone needs a face-to-face connect once every day to build deep, long-lasting relationships based on shared value, trust and interdependency. This practice of switching to video calls will not only help you prioritise your goals and motivations as a team but also help you gauge each and everyone’s morale and vigour throughout the tenure of remote working which can sometimes plummet drastically.
2. Ditch Micromanaging: Micromanaging someone’s day to day chores can be the best marker of an unhealthy and toxic work environment void of trust and faith. When you have got on a scrum call at the start of the day and have assigned your remote teams tasks they are supposed to execute, you must have confidence in yourself and your team to finish with them by the fixed deadline. Micromanaging them and constantly pestering your subordinates with emails and phone calls will only widen the already prevalent communication gaps if any.
3. Make Your Communication Tool Pick: There are a myriad of communication tools out there to facilitate smooth inter-team communication. Now it is your job as a leader to get everyone on the same page regarding which tool will be used as a common touchpoint. Using a tool that helps initiate group video calls, and one-on-one chats along with offering other more hybrid and useful features could be something worth betting your money on.
4. Set Up Virtual Water Coolers: Why limit your fun water-cooler break within the four walls of your office space? With remote working, you can take it virtual and make it a hotspot for employees to discuss everything under the sun as they usually did whilst they quenched their thirst. This will help facilitate more easy and effective communication during team tasks and meetings and bridge the remote gap between employees.

Conclusion:

When devising ways to enable communication in remote working environments, it’s good practice to learn from the best in the business who have been acing remote working for years. Communication on its own can be tricky and challenging and in remote work models even more so if not leveraged tactfully.