Leading over the borders

In today’s business environment, it’s increasingly common to find teams that are dispersed across the seven seas. No matter where the HQ, the manager and her team will need to find time to get together – one-to-one, as well as with a team.

What are the concerns for a manager who has to manage colleagues who are located in various countries? And how can this be done right?

Let’s take a look at some of the nuances of managing a team that’s spread around the world:

• Not everyone begins work at the same time, so when it’s your 9am in the UK, your San Francisco colleague is most likely in dreamland, while the Kiwi is done for the day and probably sipping on something a little stronger than a cup of tea.
• Team meetings aren’t easy to organise – for the simple reason that not everyone is in work mode at the same time
• Sacrifices will have to be made, and people are going to have to join online meetings after office hours, or worse, at unearthly hours (between 10pm and 5am).
• Requests and deliverables will have to be planned carefully. For example, if the creative expert in a team is at least 8 or 9 hours apart from the manager and a task needs completion immediately, the manager will need to do it herself, or turn to another team member (and that’s going to be a problem if none of the others have the same set of creative skills).
• There may be an unintended bias towards colleagues who are in the same location as the manager, or within the same time zone, as those are the ones the manager interacts with more often.
• Colleagues based far away may feel left out and as if they’re not part of the team. This could have unexpected and unwanted consequences from the remote colleague, like being ignorant about what’s happening within the team.
• The manager has to understand a variety of local HR and employment practices, including policies related to hiring, firing, promotions, salaries, HR portals, and so on.
• Internal communications, describes Connecteam, is the binding glue for teams that does not exist.

There are many more concerns and volumes could be written about the perils of remote teams. However, with proper management practices, remote or spread-out teams can be managed well and effectively. Here are some ways:

• Schedule regular team meetings: it is critical that the team, no matter how remote, comes together regularly. In pre-Covid-19 times, it may have been possible for teams to meet at a common venue several times a year (budget dependent of course). With travel restrictions now in place, online team meetings must happen regularly to nurture the feeling of cohesion and collaboration

• Regular one-on-ones or two-on-ones: Managers must schedule meetings with subordinates to understand their subordinates better. While one-on-ones are commonplace at work, two-on-ones are not as common. These are meeting-types that aren’t about ganging up, but instead, can evolve to become mini-brainstorm sessions, and there is less pressure on each of the employees.

• Being flexible with time, and encouraging the team to be flexible with theirs too: Managing or being part of a remote team is not easy. Sacrifices will have to be made by some. Managers should lead by example by taking on some of the sacrifices themselves and agreeing to meet early in the day or late in the evening – unless they’re sitting squarely in the middle of the time zones.

• Get access to the right software for administrative matters – in a multinational corporation (MNC), it’s not always that admin tools are deployed and used globally. In many organisations, local HR teams prefer using local HR solutions for payroll and leave applications. For a more seamless experience, remote managers must get access to the local software so that administrative matters can be processed easily.

Practice makes perfect. Managing a remote team may seem daunting in the beginning, especially for a new manager. But once processes are put in place and become habitual, you’ll find that it is no different to managing a team that’s in the same city as you.