Team Management: When Your Team Is Everywhere

I heard once in a job interview that you recognize a person who has worked for a real global organization when you see his/her ability to work remotely and interact with people in other locations. Do you agree?

Nowadays, the possibility to work when traveling or from a different office than the HQ is easier than ever before in terms of the technology available to do the work and to communicate. We have emails, CRM systems, document management systems and videoconferencing to mention some examples. Those are affordable and globally available, however, there are many other relevant aspects which need to be considered when dealing with employees and managers sitting in different locations. 

Communication plays an essential role when building and managing geographic dispersed teams. 

Let’s see the both sides of the story. On one hand, if you are the employee who is working from other location, you might feel abandoned, misinformed and why not, ignored if you are not communicating often with your team. The same feeling if you are all the time on the road. On the other hand, if you are the manager, you might feel uncomfortable because you cannot see exactly what this person is doing; perhaps you are afraid that the person is not getting the job done or  you are not even sure if he/she is aware of what is happening in the company. It is a difficult situation for both parts.

Managing a team that is spread out in many locations or with people who are traveling continuously is a huge challenge, even for the most experienced bosses. The videoconferencing, intranets, and emails are very useful tools but, by themselves are not enough to create employees commitment or engagement. An efficient information flow and communication are essential to get powerful results, but those only work when are strategically managed.

  

You as a manager need to ensure that your voice is heard. You are responsible for getting your employees "happy" or at least you need to make sure that your employees are not feeling isolated at any point and that they feel confident to contact you to ask for more information or for anything they need. 

Finding the right people to work in different locations

To successfully work in teams located in different parts of the world you need to be careful already at the recruitment process. Selecting the right people is a key point to make your team work:

- These people need to be self-motivated to keep on track and inspired even if they are far away from their bosses and other team members.

- Communication skills are also crucial and at this point I am not just talking about speaking various languages, but more about being able to interact with other people, understand others and make him/herself understood.

- Opening and trust are also essential for making this relations work. This will help you to avoid misunderstandings.

Team creation and motivation

It does not matter where your team members are sitting, make sure you develop a strong team spirit. Things will only works when your team members feel integrated and part of an “all”. They also need to know what their purpose is, in order to actually go for it.

Don’t forget to give continuous feedback and reward their performance. Be positive and keep the interaction with an inspiring tonality. As you cannot see exactly how they feel about a particular situation, make sure to be open and try to get (and to give) as much as you can for each interaction. Instead of dropping two lines emails all the time, invest some minutes in a phone call or in a video call. Be consistent and fair with all the members of the team. Stay in regular contact to follow-up goals and challenges but, especially to guarantee that they never feel forgotten. Get involved.