Notes

Remote work: challenges and lessons

Before the pandemic remote work wasn’t really a thing globally. Most of the time employers have a lack of trust toward their employees and their efficient time management. In some cases it’s reasonable and has strong grounds, in other cases it’s useless. And I’m not there to judge if it’s good or bad.
Hello, my name is Boris and I’m here to share my experience managing my team in remote conditions.

3 Lessons I’ve learned:
#1. Trust is crucial
Of course, trust shouldn’t be unconditional, but it should be there to keep the team going. The vibe between the manager and the worker should be based on strong grounds of trust and positivity. You may have worries that some part of the working hours is not spent on work at all. You may have issues when trying to estimate your employee’s pace of work and productivity. That’s all right. But my advice is:
Try not to judge, but learn first.
Don’t just doubt and assume. Ask and trust.

#2 Trying and testing different reporting methods
My team has tried a number of things from weekly, biweekly and monthly written reports, time tracking platforms to stand-up calls.
Each of these has been efficient in certain ways. What is vital for a team though is that the reporting method shouldn’t become a physical and emotional burden in any case.
It’s okay if things don’t work as planned. It’s okay if they forget to clock some tasks or miss one of the daily meetings, and yes, it’s okay not to turn on the video during a call if they don’t feel like doing it at some point.
But as soon as you see the team is not comfortable with the strategy, it’s time to test something else.
Keep experimenting.

#3 Being open and transparent
You, as a manager, have to be the example of openness and transparency. Most productive teams are most of the time very open and transparent with each other. Openness can solve lots of issues and answer many questions. I’m not talking about a very strictly personalized approach, but we’ve all been in a situation when things fail or get worse because of certain personal reasons. And being open about them can really help smoothen many processes. Especially in small teams.
Let’s admit. Business is personal. Management is personal. Whatever we do at work is somehow affected by what we do out of it. It’s an undeniable part of our lives. Starting from the mood to concentration. So being open and transparent helps cheer up the team members. Remote work makes it worse as there is less personal and social connection between team members, so this matter becomes more important.