Due to the global pandemic, we all moved to work at home. Of course, what did we need? A laptop and a teacup! Some of us adapted quickly, others still have problems working from home. As a good manager or a team leader, you want to build a strong team despite the fact you no longer see each other in the office every day. The process of communication has changed itself. There are some tips on how to make communication more effective which might help to build a strong team. 1. Well-documented up-to-date procedures are in place Hope there are defined processes in your organization. All employees have to be aware of them (e.g. onboarding, working process, vacation policy, etc.). The easiest way is to have them written on a shared resource where all employees have access. All team members should know the process you are working with. Either it is a scrum or kanban or any other type of development process. It also has to be described and well-documented. It will help to avoid misunderstanding and manage expectations between team members. 2. Regular 1-on-1s are scheduled As a leader, you have to listen to people in your team and know their problems. The easiest way is to set up regular meetings with each team member where you can get feedback, discuss problems and actual performance, make plans for development. This is extremely important because it increases motivation and makes people think that you really care about them. 3. Regular group meetings are scheduled Normally people want to know what’s going on in the organization, plans, and changes. So it is important to perform such a kind of meetings as town halls where you can share organizational updates with the team. It might depend on how fast your organization or project is developing. Also, you can have regular sync meetings where you get the status and plan future work for a day or a week or a sprint, etc. 4. Everyone in the team has the tools they need to work effectively Let’s consider that you are a general and your teammates are troopers. That is why you have to be sure that your team has enough armor, ammunition, and weapons. It is a bit of an overstatement of course. However working from home your team members need to be sure that they have all the required tools to do their job (e.g. hardware, software, accesses, etc.). 5. Clean goals and priorities are set for every member and the team in general Be sure that you discuss with all team members the general project goal and the goal of each team member in particular. Set clear priorities for each task and discuss it daily. It will help to avoid misunderstanding and set clear expectations for each team member. 6. Everyone in a distributed team knows about cross-cultural diversity If your team works in different time zones be sure that all team members are aware of the schedule in each time zone. Sometimes it is a real problem when you have to wait the next day to ask a question or to discuss something with a person from a different time zone. If your team is multicultural, be sure that everyone understands communication specifics according to the culture of your team members. It will help to avoid stupid misunderstandings and even conflicts. 7. People are given an opportunity to develop, take the initiative and lead in their field of expertise Be sure that people get challenging tasks or even ones required from specialists of the next level, they are encouraged to propose ideas for solving specific issues, they have the ability to take ownership for specific areas, etc. 8. Any changes to the team structure, goals, or priorities are communicated to the team in a timely manner. Communicate such things with the team in daily meetings or as soon as possible. Again it will help to avoid misunderstanding and set correct expectations. 9. Negative feedback is shared privately Please be polite and if somebody did something wrong do not blame him or her when other team members are present. It will be very demotivating for a team member to be criticized in front of the whole team. Make a private call to discuss what went wrong. Just remember everybody does mistakes. 10. Positive feedback or recognition is conducted publicly On the other hand, if somebody did something really good recognize him or her in front of the whole team. People love recognition and positive feedback. So you can really motivate them with this. 11. Offline meetings are scheduled It is not an easy task when everybody works from home. However, you can schedule a group call on Friday evening to just talk with the team and have some fun together. If there are no restrictions you can go to the nearest pub to have a drink together with your team members occasionally. Another good idea is to have a barbecue outside if the weather is warm. Any kind of activity which makes your team members communicate will help to build a strong team. 12. People are asked to share cameras during the online meetings as much as possible I know that people don’t really like to share cameras at the meetings, especially in the morning. However, it makes people be closer to each other. So you can ask to share cameras from time to time. If you do it first you can give a great example. The more often people do it, the more engaged they are in the process. Summary Hope you found useful tips on how to build a strong team in condition when all work from home. Of course, not all of them are applicable to each team but might help you to build a strong team.
