When I bought my restaurant, the first problem I had to solve was how to manage workers that worked opposite hours from me. By the time my night staff left the bar at 3:30-4:00 a.m. my janitorial staff was usually arriving to get the place clean for the next day. This meant that I had someone in my building for whom I was responsible almost 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
So, how do you manage people that you never see? This question is coming at nearly all of us these days, and many people have not faced this issue before.
Here are some tips:
- Start your day with a 15-minute virtual team huddle. Have everyone give you their top 2 priorities for the day and something that they are grateful for. Ask them what they need from you that day, and then provide it. Have a longer meeting once a week to follow up and provide guidance.
- Ask questions. For example, if someone approaches you with a problem, ask them this: What do you think we need to do about that? Or how would YOU solve that problem? Remember: they know more about their job than you do, so solicit their input.
- Focus on WHY not HOW. Give your team the reason why you are working on a particular project instead of directions on how to get it done. Let them take the ball and run with it!
- Give parameters. I used to say to my managers this: “If you can justify your decision based on our core values, then I will back you up 100%.” This gives your team room to expand and innovate. They need to know that you have their back.
- And finally, don’t make excuses for people who aren’t performing. Everyone these days is frazzled and discombobulated and juggling more than usual, but your top performers are still getting the work done. If you have someone who isn’t, make the hard call for the rest of the team.
The biggest break-through that I had about managing a remote team of top performers is that I needed to trust them to do their work and do it well. Maybe they didn’t do it the way that I would have, but if the outcome is the same or better, what difference does it make?
I recently had a Zoom call with several of the people that worked for me back then, and they are all in high-powered jobs and leaders in their organizations. I am convinced that their success beyond working for me lies in the fact that I literally could not micro-manage them. I had to trust and have faith that the job would get done. And you know what? It did.
Happy Leading Remote Teams!