Changing technology has heralded innovations in working culture too. These positive changes come with new challengers for organizational leaders to manage personnel in radical ways to ensure that the right work gets done at the right time.
It may seem like in-house staff are easier to manage than remote teams. Regardless of the location of your team, job satisfaction and productivity are directly tied to the presence of an effective, emotionally intelligent leader. Here are a few ways in which leaders can lead remote teams with emotional intelligence.
Communication is key
Communication is important everywhere but when it comes to managing remote teams, your communication skills play a major role. Remote teams require a few special tweaks to your communication:
- Preface communication with your context in order to prevent any miscommunication.
- Set the communication rhythm at the outset to ensure maximum accountability.
- Decide on a viable mode of communication so you do not have to go back and forth to respond to teams on multiple platforms.
Cultivate Empathy
Being the leader of a team, you are also responsible for the internal culture of the teams that you manage. Whenever possible, use direct means of communication as texts and chats can easily be lost or misinterpreted. Empathy is rarely discussed in the corporate world but it can work wonders for the productivity of remote teams.
Build Trust
Working with remote teams can be easy if you trust your offshore employees. Rather than focusing on what your team is doing at every moment, just allot them the work, sit back and evaluate their deliverables. Trust them enough to be self-motivated in completing assigned goals.
Transparent policies
A lot of productivity issues come from vague, nuanced and biased communication. Transparent company culture is vital, particularly in a ‘virtual’ environment. A company that shares its company culture freely can help keep remote workers engaged, creative and loyal to the organization.
Treating remote teams with emotional intelligence is critical to the success of your offshore venture. When you practice and embrace ideas of communication, empathy, trust and transparency; you will be more successful in driving greater engagement productivity from your remote team.