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Being an awesome boss in an office setting doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll make a great virtual manager. Leadership in the virtual space is a completely different ball game.
The expectations are different, and so are the people you deal with. For instance, Mr. A, the company’s project operator, may be efficient in an office setting, but he’s always dodging assignments online.
Knowing how to manage your team while operating remotely is crucial to your company’s success.
That said, you might think virtual leadership skill isn’t really important anymore since COVID is slowing down and companies are returning to the old office setting. But you’ll be wrong to assume that.
Knowing how to deal with a virtual team is important in today’s world, especially considering how workers are vehemently pushing for a work-from-home policy.
12 mistakes to take care of when managing a team virtually
When managing a virtual team, there are do’s and don’ts. In this section, we want to look at the don’ts. In other words, those things you shouldn’t do when managing a team that works remotely.
- Not having a good rapport with your remote staff
Even in a remote setting, some fundamental workplace etiquettes must still be observed. E.g., creating a solid rapport with your staff.
People need to feel connected to one another. They need to know they belong to a team and are part of something. Not talking to your staff for long periods can cause more harm than good. People might feel alienated. Heck, they might even make mistakes because of this.
As a virtual team leader, you have to stay in touch with every member of your team. Ask them how their day is going, whether they need any form of assistance, or if they’re having trouble with anything. Heck, you could even get playful and jovial over the phone or videoconferencing.
- Not trusting your team members
I know some bosses like to come down from their office to check in on workers to see what they’re doing and whether they’re doing it right.
When you manage a virtual team, you won’t be able to do that. You won’t have the luxury of a chance to hover constantly over your workers’ shoulders. Which means you just have to trust them.
You have to trust that they’re capable and, in fact, are doing a great job.
Not trusting your employees will only fill you with so much anxiety, paranoia, and fear. And all of that might create an uneasy environment, which might impact employees’ productivity.
It can be hard to trust someone you may have never met before. But that’s one of the risks involved in running a remote system. Instead of worrying too much and distrusting your workers baselessly, have an honest conversation with them regarding their skills before hiring them.
- Skipping 1-1s
1-1s are extremely important when managing a remote team. It is how you get to know everything about your workers on an individual level. It’s also how workers get to express their minds, share their views on working conditions, and make important suggestions.
At least once every week, make sure you meet your remote team in a one-on-one setting. This is absolutely crucial to rapport and trust-building.
When 1-1s is skipped, it will be hard to achieve progress, hold people accountable, or build trust.
A hypothetical scenario highlighting the importance of 1-1s
While working remotely, a worker makes a mistake that causes some glitches in operation. Luckily, another worker was available to pick up their slack and make corrections. Finally, normalcy was restored, and everybody continued with their work.
The team leader requested a 1-1 zoom call with the guy who made the mistake by the week’s end. During the course of that conversation, the worker revealed that he was being distracted by marriage pressure at home. So, the boss suggested that he come to his house every day to work and then return home in the evening – in a fashion similar to a regular office setting.
- Pressuring workers into working the normal office hours
One big mistake many virtual managers make is the habit of asking workers to complete the same number of working hours.
You should not be concerned about how many hours someone spends working but rather about their delivery output.
If you ask any worker why they’re choosing to work remotely, they will tell you it’s because of the time, convenience and flexibility. Asking workers to be on the ground from 9 to 5 might feel like a throwback to the normal office setting, and you bet a lot of them won’t like that.
Rather than asking them to work the regular hours – 9 to 5 (eight hours) – focus on the work output instead. Set a reasonable daily target they need to meet. Then sit back and watch. Whether they take 3 hours to reach the target or spend twelve, it should really not concern you.
However, you can make an exception when time is really of the essence – like when there’s a deadline to meet. In that case, your employees will understand why.
- Scheduling too many meetings
Back then, when people worked in an office setting, meetings were a key part of daily operations. In fact, they happen almost every day.
Many managers try to transfer this habit into the virtual space. And guess what? They get burned in the process.
Don’t ever try to overcompensate for no-face meetings by scheduling too many meetings on your virtual team’s calendar. It just won’t work.
Even back when workers worked in an office, they never liked meetings. Now that they’re within the confines of their homes, they would do anything to avoid meetings if they could.
A report from Researchgate on how workers’ attention sways during Zoom meetings also supports this claim that workers don’t like meetings. In the report, it was revealed that employees only give 2% of their attention to actual meeting content. In contrast, up to 13% of their attention goes to checking how beautiful or not-so-fine they look.
Besides employees’ dislike for meetings, recent research also suggests that meetings may be bad for remote workers. The research, which a group conducted at the University of California, Irvine, found that it can take 23 minutes and 15 seconds to refocus after one is distracted from an activity.
- Overlooking workers welfare
Maybe when you guys worked together in an office setting, you never really cared to ask how their families were. Well, now that they’re working remotely, you have to show you care about employees’ welfare.
Saying “hey good morning, how’s the family doing this morning” before you start dishing out the day’s work can go a long way in showing you care. Such gestures are important in making your workers feel wanted and loved. And ultimately staying loyal to you.
- Not communicating properly
One of the challenges of virtual communication is the possibility of one’s message is open to interpretation.
When having an in-person communication with someone, you can tell from their aura, gestures, or face what they really mean when they say certain things. However, in a Slack group chat, when someone says something, it may be taken out of context quickly. This is why team leaders need to learn how to communicate excellently over chat.
They need to know how to communicate their thoughts in an exact manner they mean them. This is crucial to avoid sending the wrong message to employees or providing insufficient/confusing information.
- Not setting a good standard
Look, the worst place to be a bad example is in a virtual environment. Employees would refrain from doing certain things in an office setting because they know they’re being watched. However, in a virtual environment, they know they have free access.
In that case, the last thing you want to do is to be the one that gives them a free pass to exhibit uncultured behavior.
You must obey every working policy and laid-down standard operating procedure to the letter starting with you. In short, you must walk the talk and lead by example.
If one of the working policies is that no one should leave messages directed at them unattended, don’t be the one to air messages. If the rule says only five minutes allowance is given for lateness, don’t be the one coming late for meetings.
Breaking rules will only encourage your team members to think they can do so.
- Not being explicit with set goals
In a normal office setting, you overhear conversations, get pulled into impromptu meetings, or get updates because you’re in the right place at the right time.
All these are missing in a virtual setting. Employees only have access to information shared with them. They don’t have the liberty of getting updates from colleagues.
That is why it’s important to spell things out explicitly at all times. Be clear with the plans and goals for the day. Don’t assume that workers should know what to do next because it’s what they do every day. Come to your regular meeting point every day – could be Skype, Zoom, Slack, Whatsapp, etc. – and spell out the day’s to-do list.
Mind you; you must understand that not everyone will be online at the same time. Therefore, you should pin messages to the top of chat boards to prevent other messages from overriding them. Doing this will ensure everyone’s on board with the day’s targets.
- Not using the right tools
A remote work setup is only as good as the tools used in running it.
If you want to operate at a top-level, you need to be using the best tools across all phases of operations. From communications to project execution, time management to task management, you need to ensure you’re using the very best tools.
Using simple basic tools will limit you in a lot of ways. Heck, it might even slow you down and affect employee productivity.
For example, if you communicate with Whatsapp rather than Slack you will miss certain communication features. E.g., Slack can draw tables, Whatsapp cannot; Slack has a message schedule option. Whatsapp doesn’t.
As you can see, it pays to use the optimal tools for your business operations.
- Not aligning the team
There’s a reason the word ‘TEAM’ has no ‘I’ in it. No pun intended. It means people working together.
As a virtual leader, the onus is on you to make your team collaborate well regardless of their locations.
You need to bring everyone on board to achieve the ultimate goals. Everybody should have access to the same quality of information, work data, and remote working tools. If worker A needs to collaborate with workers B and C, all parties should be made aware of what needs to be done.
- Not creating a culture of trust
Employees need to trust one another, and it starts with you. As the team leader, you need to create a culture where workers feel safe working with one another – a system where workers trust the judgment of their colleagues.
Without this culture of trust, tasks will move slowly, decisions will take too long to be made, and ultimately the end goals will be affected.
A hypothetical scenario highlighting the importance of promoting a culture of trust
Three workers were tasked with working on a project together. Workers A, B, and C. However, based on worker C’s portfolio and experience level, worker A trusts him more than she does B.
Anytime B recommends a way forward on a subject, A will stylishly suggest that they wait for C to come online. In her mind, she trusts C better, so she wants to hear what he has to say on the matter before they proceed. Unfortunately, C didn’t come online until several hours later.
This resulted in a delay, and the task could not be completed on that day.
If only a culture of trust was prevalent amongst all the workers, the task wouldn’t have been delayed.