6 Need-to-Know Steps to Effectively Communicate with a Remote Team
Communication is the key to success, no matter what aspect of life you’re talking about. However, the emphasis that needs to be placed on the levels of communication within a business is paramount.
More so, if your business is working with a remote team or remote employees, the need for crystal-clear communication has never been more important. With good communication strategies in place, the team can fit and work together, regardless of where they are in the world. If this sounds like the operating level you want for your business, here are six essential tips you need to know about communicating with your remote team effectively.
Defining Your Communication Channels
The chances are that you and your teams have multiple forms of communication available to you. From instant messaging services such as Slack or WhatsApp, phone calls and even collaborative tools like Trello and Asana, technology has made remote working easier than ever before.
However, one of the best tips to remember is to dedicate each channel of communication to a specific purpose. For example, using emails to keep everyone up to date, phone calls for emergency conversations, instant messages for everyday operations and video conferencing packages for meetings, everything is organized and easy to understand.
Positive Celebrations When Due
If something was to go wrong on your team, it’s easy to let it get to you, taking out your frustrations with the rest of the team or over the phone. However, when there’s bad, there must be good. Otherwise, your team is going to fall apart.
“Once you and your team reach a milestone in your project, such as completing a deadline, finishing a tough year or securing a new client, be sure to celebrate these successes. This helps your remote employees to stay motivated and appreciated which can do wonders for productivity and team dynamics.”
Get Organized
There are simply dozens of online and collaborative tools and resources at there at your disposal and not using them simply means you’re putting your team at an operational disadvantage. Even a simple tool like an online calendar can do wonders for your team when it comes to keeping everybody on the same page.
Additionally, you can use referring tools, such as EveryTimeZone and State of Writing, so you’re aware of what time zones people are working in and when the best time to communicate is.
Watch Your Tone of Voice
Of course, reading text that is written on a phone or computer screen may seem kind of neutral to you, but others can interrupt it differently. For example, saying;
“I need to speak with you.” Is far different to saying;
“I need to speak with you tomorrow. Let me know what time 😊.”
As you can see, the use of an emoji and slightly more detail completely changes the context of a message, something it’s vital to learn if you want to communicate effectively with your team.
Try using tools to help you learn how to do this. Free online apps like Easy Word Count and Cite It In can give you ample space to practice the way you communicate digitally.
Remain Social
Just because you’re working in a remote team, potentially on other sides of the planet, that doesn’t mean that your teams shouldn’t have a social aspect.
Whether you’re using a dedicated Facebook group or a chat room, setting up what is known as a ‘virtual water-cooler’ to talk about things non-work related, and just generally chat, is a great way to keep the team together and communicating effectively.
Of course, managing a remote team takes time, and it’s safe to say there simply aren’t enough hours in the day to get everything done, especially with social content to create. If this is relatable, try using business writing tools like Essay Roo or Boom Essays that can lighten your workload.
Track and Analysis Progress
When you’re working with a team in a physical office, it’s easy to go and check up on employees to make sure their work is up to scratch and delivered on time, understandably more difficult when that employee is at home.
However, when communicating with your team, it’s important to invest time into tracking each employee’s progress by setting detailed milestones and deadlines for work. This helps you to keep on top of everything and minimizes the risk of their being problems in the future.
Again, this can take time, time you might not have. If this is the case, try to lighten your workload or speeding up certain processes in your day, such as editing or writing emails, by using online tools like Academadvisor and UK Writings respectively.
Conclusion
Nobody said working and managing a remote team would be easy, but it certainly doesn’t need to be hard. In addition to all these key points listed above, always remember to listen to your team. Master these points, and you and your team will skyrocket to the realms of business success.
This is a guest post written by Gloria Kopp. Gloria is a business coach and a recruiting team lead at Dissertation writing service. She is a column writer at Huffington Post and Big Assignments. Gloria is also the founder of Studydemic educational blog for students.