Remote Control: Managing Teams Working From Home - Ten Steps To Success

Step 1. Kickstart your day with a virtual agora 

The ancient Agora in Athens was the all-important public space where artistic, business and political life was conducted. You can call your daily meeting whatever you like - what's important is that this is your core meeting at the start of the working day, where you set the tone, and EVERYONE takes part. 

It's simple, but it's a game-changer. People often arrange meetings for the end of the day, which tends to make the meetings retrospective, and too much time will be spent discussing what has already been done. Switching to a morning meeting changes the direction of travel: you’ll automatically focus more on planning the work. 

Why is this so crucial? Clarity. In a remote setting, physical cues are absent, chance water cooler conversations don't happen, and nobody walks past anyone’s desk for a quick catch-up. It would be best to have an online substitute for real-life contingencies and interactions. 

Everyone needs to be brought into the right mindset at the start of each day—and some days more than others. Every morning, your entire production team gathers virtually for your daily alignment ritual before diving into the day's tasks. 

If running meetings is not high on your skill set, do it anyway: learn how to encourage others to lean in and speak up. Or find someone on your team who can chair meetings with you. 

Once you've set the tone and established the day's overall objectives, everyone has the floor to outline their tasks and any potential problems. The gathering should last 15 to 45 minutes—never longer. Anything requiring more time should be delegated to a smaller or one-to-one meeting.

You might even want to make your virtual meeting space available before and after the meeting to allow your team to talk without your presence. 

Step 2. 'Why didn't you tell me?’ One-to-one check-ins 

In addition to the group meeting, you'll need to decide who needs one-to-one attention. You don't have to be the caller - it could be another senior team member - but you aim to ensure that no team member feels too confused or nervous to do what’s planned. It's easy for people to slide out of sight online, especially if they’re feeling demoralised. 

Check-ins - confidential, careful online one-to-one communication - remind the recipient they are part of a team. Your capacity to create a culture of support and empathy, alongside a clear set of goals for each team member, has the potential to avoid problems that can be hard to resolve if they're stored up for too long. 

Learning goes both ways. 

The checker's insights may also flag issues that need editorial decision-making. So, for example, if important interviewees are starting to back out of a project, a more experienced team member can help assess the situation quickly and change tack if necessary. 

The aim is to develop trust and grow a confident, communicative team. Esprit de corps flourishes when nobody feels left alone with a difficult decision. Team bonds strengthen when people pull together to make brutal editorial or practical decisions at the right time. 

Step 3. Stay in control of yourself 

Online meetings should be productive and motivating. However, when things seem to be going wrong, participants can become grumpy and vengeful. 

It's worth remembering that the tone of a meeting will probably resonate more intensely with remote workers than in real-life group meetings. It is up to you to be mindful of how meetings conclude and in what spirit. 

I would like to prepare for remote meetings, and I don't think you should jump straight in after a frustrating phone call. 

Could you schedule a few minutes before every meeting for yourself? Please put it in your diary. Identify your negative feelings so they don’t get in the way. You don't want these to leak out unintentionally in ways you may later regret. Yes, reader, I learned this the hard way. Decide what you want the outcome of the meeting to be and work backwards. 

Step 4: Remember to celebrate wins 

Could you take a beat? In remote working, emojis alone are a poor substitute for a slap on the back, a round of applause, and a drink after work.

Remember when someone thanked you for something you did? I hope so. Set the tone, encourage graciousness and joy to balance the tough love, and let it inform team practice. 

Raising the profile on wins, large and small, sustains momentum and morale. It also gives the occasional disappointment a favourable backdrop. 

Step 5. Manage expectations and set work practices 

This is the hot topic in every hybrid office! Guidelines around virtual working vary hugely between organisations. I'd like to know that expectations need to be set and shared by everyone in the team, so please cover all the basics BEFORE any contracts are signed. This includes expectations about attending in-person and office meetings. This is so much easier than playing Death by HR at a later date. Just ensure you know that anything not agreed upon at the contract stage may be refused later. 

These days, you may need to specify up front whether pets or other family members can be present at work meetings, where the quiet space for remote working is situated—at home or in a new-style remote workspace, the quality of the remote connection and functioning webcam, expected hours of work and any individual deviation from them, and whether school pick-ups and yoga classes can be integrated. Everyone has their favourite story about the naked family member appearing in the background or someone taking a meeting during a school recorder concert. 

It's also best to ensure that all team members have the same conditions of service in virtual matters, although more senior team members might be expected to be more flexible—nothing should be assumed. 

Step 6: Contact hours 

Teams can now communicate in real-time wherever they are in the world - but it doesn't mean they want to. You could have a team decision on when people are expected to send, read and reply to messages. Or you may wish to assert your own rules - make sure that everyone adheres to the standard - yourself included. 

You can encourage your team to avoid work screens after hours—you and they need to know they have stopped. Working when tired or resentful rarely improves the product. 

And practice what you preach! Shut down your laptop at the end of a working day. Your sanity will thank you. 

Step 7  Let Tech Tools Revolutionise Your Workflow 

Artificial Intelligence is now offering ever-improving features designed to streamline workflow. 

Predictive AI works with historical data and provides forecasting and data tools. Generative AI creates new text, images, audio and video. These are increasingly clever tools - rarely substitutes for human creativity - and carry risks and limitations. 

You may have favourite tech tools: do they do the job? Have you looked at any new tools that are receiving plaudits from other producers? Why not? You should be on it if it saves you time and money. 

These days, you need to review your business tech at least once a year. Many mundane production tasks can now be sped up and automated. Tech tools can also foster collaboration. Project management tools for task assignments, deadlines, and progress tracking can help everyone see how their work informs the whole. They can prevent duplication and false assumptions about deadlines. When used properly. 

I don’t pretend to be an expert but explore what's coming onto the market. I ask around. I take up the offer of free trials and get a team or family member who loves tech to try it out for a given production task. 

Don't assume everyone will share your enthusiasm. If you need buy-in from reluctant team members, provide opportunities to buddy up with the converts and take the online learning courses together. 

Step 8. Skill Up

Take a look at your project. What skills are needed for the task at hand? Now, do a quick production team skills audit. What kind of training will help deliver? 

Investing in your team's development is a smart move that pays dividends, even in the short term. If people move on when your production ends, you are contributing to levelling industry standards - and you're entitled to shout about that in all the right conferences and trade journals. 

You can also rest assured that your team will praise your professionalism and attention to detail elsewhere. 

Check you are using high-quality online and in-person training—and that’s not just about spending. Some training can be as simple as asking a willing team member to share their expertise face-to-face while you supply the lunch. 

Build the required online and in-person training into your production schedule upfront. Watch how it improves morale, teamwork, and productivity. 

Step 9. Encourage feedback. Yes, really. 

Please know what the team thinks if you want to bring out the best in them. You also need to know what’s going well and what could be better. You generally won’t know if you don’t ask. 

Every feedback item is an opportunity for improvement—it might even improve your performance if you're listening. 

In the right hands, feedback loops empower a team and lead to innovation. You know all this—you've been to enough training days that tell you this—so what's stopping you? 

Is it the fear of a torrent of negativity from The Moaner, the team member who likes to look on the dark side? Given half a chance, they can take everyone down with them. Or do you think it’s a time waster? Or are you worried about what you might hear? 

Criticism can be hard to hear when you think it’s excessive or one-sided. And you don’t want a slanging match. For this reason, it’s often a good idea to solicit anonymous feedback, with time built in, to think about how best to respond. You may want to involve someone you trust in looking through those comments and suggestions. And stay away from your emails and Whatsapp Groups till you feel calmer. 

You'll need to think - and then you'll need to. You might find some great suggestions in the critiques. You may be surprised by what people found annoying that you’ve never noticed. Many, many things can be tweaked to make everyone a bit happier. Some can’t. It would be best to be clear about what you can and can’t change and do the easy stuff immediately. Maybe you must explain what you can’t change - your honesty will help. 

Everyone can learn from how you handle yourself, so make it impressive. Train yourself to swallow back any defensive comments and defer responses to comments in a meeting by requesting time to think about anything you weren’t expecting. 

Sometimes, critique needs to be contextualised to let people see the upside. Yes, of course, training a new team member will eat into production time, but look at the work that can then be delegated to the trainee as a result. 

Could you try turning a complaint into a search for a solution? Someone could suggest how something could be done faster, cheaper, and more accurately—hear them out—they might be onto something. 

Step 10. Please do it now!

You can’t change everything all at once, so start with an easy win: choose one of the steps that will give you the most significant positive effect for the least organisational effort. Start there. There’s no point in agreeing with any of this and not putting at least some of it into practice.

You will also need to decide whether to measure the effect of any changes you make. We’ll look at how to measure later. In the meantime, please tell me what you think: if you put any of these steps into practice for the first time, let me know how it goes!

 

Dr. Yasmin Fitzpatrick is a qualified business coach and mentor specialising in the media industry.