Working from home has become the new normal in this post-pandemic world. For many companies, this was a new way of doing business but for those who were already outsourcing their business activities, it was not a radical change. Regardless, the importance and benefits of working with virtual teams have been significantly recognized. With many companies adopting work from home permanently, this only shows that WFH is going to be the future for many companies, existing and new.
Managing a high-performing virtual team can be more challenging than it might seem. Especially, if managers don’t have prior experience with it. This article points out some tips for managers to help them through virtual team management. Let’s dive into them below.
Tips for managing a high-performing virtual team
1. Provide employees with the right equipment
Remote employees need good quality equipment to maintain a smooth and uninterrupted workflow. As a manager of the virtual team, it is the manager’s duty to provide such equipment. You cannot expect employees to manage work equipment on their own. For one, they might not have the best idea about the right type of equipment. Second, purchasing equipment for only one individual will be more costly than purchasing it in bulk.
2. Delegate leadership among team members
Since you cannot keep an eye on everyone and their activities in a virtual team, managing the team alone can be very challenging. Delegation of leadership is the solution to this. You can hand over leadership roles and responsibilities partially to the top performers and have them manage sub-teams. This will enable you to focus on more critical and strategic tasks while also creating space for employees to grow by learning new skills as a leader.
3. Use different mediums of communication
Different mediums of communication serve different purposes and they must be used accordingly. All types of meetings don’t need video conferencing, and all official information does not need to go through email. If a quick group chat or private message serves the purpose, you should use those mediums instead. It will save everyone a ton of time and prevent fatigue. As long as the information reaches the concerned parties timely, you should not stiffen the communication channels. To enable this, you must use a centralized platform to manage teams and communication such as Slack, Trello, Microsoft teams, etc.
4. Conduct regular online meetings
This might sound counterintuitive to the previous point, but wait – the context is different. As there is very minimal personal interaction among virtual team members, meetings can be a good medium to establish connections between one another. However, meetings should not be limited to daily updates, new work, performance reviews, etc. You can also conduct meetings to talk to your team members about their personal lives, discuss your common interests and network on that, celebrate achievements, etc. Unofficial meetings like these break the mundane environment of working alone. And this need not be told, always keep meetings short.
5. Measuring success through results
This step is not very different from traditional in-office practice. Even in a virtual workplace, the best way to measure success is by setting key performance indicators (KPIs). Setting KPIs allows you to define everyone’s goals clearly so that their tasks, performance metrics, and results can be measured easily. It is a great way of keeping an eye on the productivity levels of employees and the organization as a whole.
6. Allow everyone to maintain work-life balance
In a WFH environment, there is greater importance on maintaining work-life balance. Since the space, you live in is where you work, it gets difficult to draw a line between the two parts of your life. There is also subconscious pressure to be available all the time. So, to avoid burnout from this kind of expectation, you must make sure that your virtual team gets enough time off work. That means not expecting your team members to take a call or attend a meeting or even reply to your texts and emails after their work hours. You must respect the importance of this distinction so that your virtual team feels respected.
Bottom Line
With the recognition of the importance of having and working with virtual teams, it is also imperative that managers learn how to manage such teams or adapt to a virtual work environment. The traditional ways of team management might not be suitable or offer the best result. No matter if you are a manager of a large company or a small one, you can use the tips provided in this article to manage your virtual team effectively.