Communication is key to success as a leader. Whether you\u2019re hosting a meeting, going through sales reports, sending emails, calling clients, or reporting the status of a project to your boss, communication is at the forefront of everything that you\u2019ll do. The Corona virus forced many employees to work from home which presents its own communication challenges. Even with the presence of advanced communication technology, such as instant messaging services and video conferencing platforms, it\u2019s vital that you master the art of communicating with your team so that your organization can succeed.<\/p>\n
Here are 7 tips for leaders to maintain open communication while working remotely.<\/strong><\/p>\n 1. Meet face-to-face:<\/strong> Face-to-face communication is still better than virtual when it comes to building relationships and fostering trust, an essential foundation for effective teamwork. If possible, prior to going virtual, have an in-person meeting with each member of your team, and then collectively to create agreements and expectations.<\/p>\n 2. Clarify processes:<\/strong> The downfall of communication with most virtual teams is assumption. Don\u2019t assume an employee who works well with you in person can do the same when they\u2019re virtual. How they access information and people offsite is entirely different than in-office. Make sure they know what resources they\u2019ll have access to while offsite. Explain what company systems will be available to them, and how to access them. Create and\/or review the company policy for working remotely.<\/p>\n 3. Agree on the best communication technologies for your team.<\/strong> Developments in collaborative technologies \u2014 ranging from shared workspaces to multi-point video conferencing \u2014 unquestionably makes virtual teaming easier. However, selecting the \u201cbest\u201d technology does not necessarily mean going with the newest or the one with the most bells and whistles. Make sure you are not sacrificing reliability for the \u201clatest and greatest.\u201d Simple is always best. All you need is a platform with a short learning curve that allows your team to easily communicate. If someone has to struggle to get connected it wastes time and is inefficient.<\/p>\n 4. Be available.<\/strong> Managing your remote team requires you to be available to field questions, clarify expectations and offer support. Figure out what method works best for your workday, whether that\u2019s setting \u201coffice hours\u201d when you\u2019re available by phone, or making yourself openly available through something like instant messenger.<\/p>\n 5. Don\u2019t default to email for communication.<\/strong> Email has become an inefficient and ineffective way to communicate \u2013 especially with a team. Besides buried responses and overlap, tone can be misinterpreted and can easily lead to misunderstandings. We\u2019ve become used to the space an email or text provides in communication \u2013 we may even prefer it that way. But, in the case of virtual teams, it\u2019s quicker and more efficient to pick up the phone or initiate a video call. Be quick, to the point, and say what you need at the top of the call.<\/p>\n 6. Start off the day with a huddle.<\/strong> Huddles are a quick and efficient way to communicate to virtual teams. Pick a start time in the morning when your team can connect for a five minute conference call. (Yes, if done properly your team will only need five minutes.) When you are on this call implement something we call The Dragnet effect: Just the facts ma\u2019am. Each team member takes 30 seconds to update everyone on their tasks for the day. Think of it as verbal bullet points. There is no side talk, it\u2019s purely a way to report their daily objectives. Once everyone has had their turn the call is over. If a task is presented that needs more than 30 seconds, schedule another call with only the team members involved.<\/p>\n 7. Create agreements on how your team will work together.<\/strong> Set up your individual team members for success by giving them clear guidelines and explicit direction. Explain the expectations around scheduling meetings, team member roles and responsibilities. What tasks do you expect to be accomplished within a specific time? How often do you expect them to check in? Give them space to work in a way that\u2019s collaborative but also allows them to work at their best. When everyone is on the same page it creates less friction and the team stays intact.<\/p>\n Working virtually can be very productive and rewarding when done properly. Keep things as simple as possible. Get creative and take extra steps to be sure your communication is frequent, detailed and crystal clear. And you never know, you may find you actually like working virtually.<\/p>\n What are you doing to keep channels of communication open while working from home? Share your techniques, comments and thoughts in the section below.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Communication is key to success as a leader. Whether you\u2019re hosting a meeting, going through sales reports, sending emails, calling clients, or reporting the status of a project to your boss, communication is at the forefront of everything that you\u2019ll do. The Corona virus forced many employees to work from home which presents its own […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3677,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[82,80,33,83,78,81,85,76],"class_list":["post-1383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-leadership-development","tag-corona-virus","tag-covid19","tag-leadership-development","tag-pandemic","tag-personal-development","tag-quarantine","tag-stress-management","tag-transforming"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kellymeerbott.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kellymeerbott.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kellymeerbott.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kellymeerbott.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kellymeerbott.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1383"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kellymeerbott.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1383\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3713,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kellymeerbott.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1383\/revisions\/3713"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kellymeerbott.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kellymeerbott.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kellymeerbott.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kellymeerbott.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}