Running a remote business means you benefit from some key cost-saving features, like the ability to work without renting an expensive office. You’ll be surprised how much money this saves – yet there’s one big downside to working remotely: you must attempt to manage your teams without being in the same location as them.
Sometimes, you’re not even in the same timezone, so team management becomes your biggest chore. What can you do to ease the burden and manage multiple teams without losing your mind? It can be done – and here’s what you should consider:
Delegate
This is your home-based business, but you can still delegate some of the responsibilities to other people. Rather than communicating with dozens of people at once, assign team or project managers who’ll do most of the work for you. They’re responsible for the day-to-day management of teams and will report back to you. Instead of dealing with multiple voices, you can condense things into simple meetings with one or two people.
Rely On Good Software
Great software makes managing remote teams easier than ever before. It begins with some genuinely good project management accounting software – this is the best way to keep everyone in line with project goals and financial concerns. Your teams can do most of their work through the platform, negating the need for constant messages or calls.
At the same time, leverage tools like Slack or Google Chat so you can communicate with people easily. More importantly, this also lets your remote teams communicate with one another every day. It should solve problems like people not responding to emails or not picking up their phones. Good software helps everyone do their jobs and manage everything from one place.
Lay Down The Ground Rule
This maybe should’ve come in as the first point, but laying down your ground rules helps you set clear boundaries and expectations. Explain to your teams what you expect them to do, this will include:
- Their general working hours, or when they need to be available
- How they should communicate with others
- Quality standards, etc.
More critically, you should explain what happens when they don’t follow the rules and meet your expectations. Let them know the consequences of their actions and you should avoid cases when remote teams take your flexibility for granted.
Focus On Results
Where most remote managers go wrong is that they focus too much on how long their teams are working. You shouldn’t worry yourself with people’s hours – instead, prioritise their results. This is something you need to drill home when laying down the ground rules, so people know they’re judged based on outcomes.
It prevents instances when someone just clocks in every day and sits at their desk for multiple hours, basically doing nothing. It’s really easy to slack off when you work from home, so this stops your teams from doing just that.
When you delegate responsibilities to senior employees, empower teams with great software, set the ground rules, and focus on results, a remote team is much easier for you to manage. You should see less stress from the situation while keeping everything nicely under control.