Are you starting to get more comfortable with managing your team remotely?
If not, don’t fret. Below are some tips provided by Gallup. A link to the full article is at the end of this Daily News post.
Individualization is key.
The best managers have always individualized their coaching to the worker, but doing so at a distance requires greater intentionality. Managers need to ask each team member to describe the conditions under which they perform best, their concerns about their workflow and their emotional response to the situation.
Set expectations early and clearly.
About half of all U.S. employees — remote or not — don’t know what’s expected of them at work. That’s a bad beginning, and it’ll get worse for employees sent home without good guidance. So managers must make expectations crystal clear: X is the work you should do, Y is the quality standard, Z is the deadline.
Communicate.
Employees who are accustomed to working in-house may feel cut off from the resources, information or relationships they need to do their jobs well, so plan for more conference calls.
It’s OK to pad socializing into the timeframe; indeed, it may be vital for people who need lots of interaction to keep their energy up.
Managers will have to be diligent about communicating productively — coaching high performance requires frequent conversations, and there won’t be chance conversations in the hall.
Support your managers.
A sudden change in the practice of management can be hard on managers. They may worry about disruptions to the workflow they’re accountable for.
Some may feel they have to be physically present to be good coaches, unsure that they can engage workers from a distance. Rather more negatively, there are still some managers who don’t trust workers they can’t see. All of them will have to manage workers in a new way, and fast.
Excerpts taken from: https://www.gallup.com/workplace/288956/covid-teams-working-remotely-guide-leaders.aspx
For more information about supervisory resources, please contact your Campus HR Team at HSC.HR@untsystem.edu.
For additional virtual professional development opportunities, please visit the Organizational Development & Engagement page at: https://hr.untsystem.edu/organizational-development-engagement-ode.