The next few months will be the most uncertain period business owners have faced. The coronavirus will change the economy and how we work. But I’ve been preparing for this time for more than a decade. Twelve years ago, I started my company with an entirely remote workforce. With team members scattered around the globe, it made sense for our small business to keep them there rather than relocate everyone to a single location. Today, we have people in 14 countries and five continents and have grown to serve thousands of customers around the world. I’ve seen what works and what doesn’t for remote teams, workers and managers. Here are eight tips that will let you avoid the pitfalls that I encountered along the way and set your newly remote team up for success. As tempting as it may be to “check in” on people’s work, resist that temptation. Remote work thrives in an atmosphere of trust. That goes for everyone at every level. Hire the right people, then trust them to do their jobs. Stop micromanaging. When we all worked in the same space, you didn’t have to “prove” that you were at work. By merely being present, you signaled that you were in work mode. But now that we can’t see each other all the time, we rush to respond to every message quickly to show that we’re working. But that reactive mindset can make you less productive. It takes away from the dedicated blocks of time needed to accomplish tasks. Bonus tip: Avoid scattering meetings across the whole day. Group them in one batch and leave more time for focused work. Being reactive makes you unproductive. It may be counterintuitive now that nearly everyone is texting or chatting with their co-workers, but it’s essential to shift your thinking to a more asynchronous mindset. Adjust your expectations on response time—it should be timely, but not necessarily immediate. Now, if you do need a response on an urgent matter, pick up the phone or find the best way to get in touch with someone quickly. But you’ll find the majority of business each day can be done asynchronously. Don’t assume real-time responses. Open-ended projects filled with uncertainty are the most difficult to accomplish with a remote team. Success comes from breaking down the work into a series of clear tasks that advance everyone toward a common goal. Avoid ambiguity. One of the most important gifts you can give to your remote workforce is to let them know what’s most important. This shared list of priorities can (and will) change, but it’s a key aspect of keeping the team working together. Everything is not top-priority. Follow up meetings and discussions with a brief written summary that people can agree on. When you’re face-to-face, you can always check with someone to get a quick clarification or reminder, but that’s not always possible when you’re separated by time zones. You need to move to a culture of writing. Information and details won’t last long unless they’re captured somewhere. Don’t rely on your memory. Remote work represents a new era for a lot of people. Start with some basic training to set expectations, especially around communications. Your traditional channels of email or Slack will get overloaded unless you’re intentional about how (and how often) the team is expected to communicate. Without some basic guidelines, people will be inclined to figure it out on their own, and then you’re dealing with a hodgepodge of communication styles and frequencies. Let go of the old way of doing things. Make time to have fun. Video conferences and conference calls can be dreary and full of technical issues. Take extra steps to build camaraderie within the team and get to know each other better. It’s not all business. Remote work has been a way of life for my company and me from the beginning. With companies rushing to convert their teams to remote work, the importance of clear communications and collaboration has never been higher.
