Pro-Tips for Managing Remote Teams with Jeff Sutherland & Stephen Hau
Do you find yourself suddenly managing a remote team? We invite you to check out the highlights from our recent ‘Pro-Tips for Managing Remote Teams’ webinar.
Enhancing Your Culture
Uncertain times require uncertain solutions, which can sometimes lead to decreased motivation and drive.
Junior and new team members can be unfamiliar with remote work and some of its challenges. Sales roles often thrive on in-person meetings, and those team members might be puzzled by how to approach the new remote working situation. Some team members might appear unresponsive or slow to respond during remote work. Try to take a step back to find the underlying issues and understand that your team will need trusted guidance from company leadership that will enhance their workflow and improve performance.
Morale can be enhanced through the leadership’s commitment to improvement. Honesty and transparent discussions go a long way and can be extremely helpful during uncertain times.
Offer clear ground rules and don’t assume your team member sare automatically aware of what’s generally accepted. Be clear about work hours, recommended workspace, and etiquette (especially if video conference becomes more commonplace).
Finally, it’s crucial to have regular video calls to help the team feel connected. Pro-tip from a long-time manager of remote teams: Lower the pressure by being less formal and polished yourself on team video calls. Willingness to be vulnerable can be extremely disarming and encouraging for the rest of the team
Developing a Holistic Strategy
Sales and other operational roles who prefer in-person meetings might be puzzled with the new remote working situation. To handle it smartly, you should master video calls as an alternative. Some team members are unresponsive or slow to respond during remote work, but this problem is always a top of the mental iceberg. Try to find the underlying issue.
We often hear about SCRUM methodology inside software development teams and assume it’s associated with only tech stuff. Yet, teams like marketing, sales, and finance can efficiently adopt the concepts of backlog, (work) estimation and daily stand-ups, and highly benefit from it.
Meanwhile, the fastest way to train a team on Scrum is to qualify them as Certified Scrum Masters and start bringing agile methodology into your organization.
Ready to introduce SCRUM to your remote working strategy? Consider using the best tools for collaboration: Google Meet, Zoom, GMT, and track your performance with Jira.
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