Managing Teams while working remotely:

• Demand commitment from your team.
• Ensure you set clear expectations from your reportee(s) working remotely.
• Plan well. Ensure individuals are clear about their goals
• Define ownership, timelines, and document completion of work.
• Encourage your team to take scheduled breaks
• Set a working ritual for the team. Below are some of the recommended rituals
  • Daily Stand-up with the team (to set expectations, updates on previous day’s achievements. Use a simple update format like:
    • What was planned?
    • What got completed?
    • What got delayed?
    • What was carried forward?
  • Office hours - All members of the same team commit to being online and fully responsive for the same period of time every day
    • May not be the entire 8 hour work day, to allow team members flexibility in their working schedules
    • g. Team A commits to being online from 11:00 - 17:00 every day
    • Team members must be on Slack, Workplace Chat and respond to any queries or pings in these tools at this time
  • Weekly 1:1 with the team members (not just a work review!)
  • Weekly Team Reviews and updates
• Ensure maximum documentation for work/meetings so that it is easier to set the context without relying on verbal communication.

Managing meetings while working remotely:

• Send and encourage pre-reads for every meeting. Align the members on the agenda
• Encourage employees to join on video calls. It results in improved attention
• Ensure meetings are inclusive (Listen to everyone. Don’t let silent voices go unheard)
• Pause at times. Engage to understand if everyone is on the call or if anyone has dropped-off/is facing a technical issue
• MoMs should be captured for every meeting. Assign responsibilities in advance

Keeping team engagement levels high:

• Schedule a call every morning to gather updates from the team
• Ensure team rituals are diligently followed