If You Want to Manage a High-Functioning Remote Team, First Prove You’re Sane

Nobody wants to work for Darth Vader

A remote team has to rely on your written communication to asses who you are. Photo by RawPixel.com on pexels.com

Mark Twain once said “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” This is true of anyone who begins managing remote workers, regardless of their experience. If anything, experienced people managers may have a stiffer learning curve. New managers know they’re learning as they go. Experienced on-site people managers already have a set of tools that work for them.

At first glance it’s reasonable to assume that those tools will work just as well online as they do in person. After all, the objectives are the same. You need to motivate your people to perform quality work on time and under budget. People are people no matter where they sit.

This is a reasonable opinion. It’s also wrong. There are significant differences between office-based employees and remote employees. In this article we will discuss some of these differences, and how to manage through them.

You Can’t See Your Team Working

Humans are visual creatures. We pay attention to visual cues and our brains are set up to process visual information very efficiently. According to Professor Mriganka Sur, Sherman Fairchild…