There is no doubt that remote work has brought the utmost convenience and flexibility to workers around the world. However, your role might not be easy if you are in a managerial position on such a team. Despite the advantages of remote working, here are some 5 uncomfortable realities remote managers must accept to succeed.
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You won’t always get the remote dream team
Though team managers have a significant role in hiring global remote team members, you might not get that role always. In that case, you need to accept that you will not get the team you have planned. Though it’s a massive challenge, the best team managers should know how to generate the maximum output with whatever team they have. Also, not getting the team you have planned doesn’t mean it’s the end of the world. Even in that situation, you can develop and nurture the remote team to become more than what they are.
Not everything is under your control
As the team manager, you must manage every aspect of your remote team. From my personal experience, one thing new remote team managers crave most is maximum control. However, you need to accept that not everything will always be under your control. Sometimes, your team will miss the deadline, or you might not like the outcome. In those scenarios, you have to keep your cool and look more into bringing control into uncertain and complex matters of the team to improve your remote team.
Connecting with your team member is much harder remotely
If you just become a manager in a remote team, you’ll notice that communicating and connecting with your members is much more complicated. This might come as an unpleasant surprise, but it’s one of the disadvantages of a remote team. Communication and connecting the members I one of the most complex challenges you will go through as a remote team manager. Without an in-person interaction, you are forced to contact the members online, and that meeting will not always go as planned.
Boosting confidence and team spirit can be tough
Have you ever worked at a physical office? If you are, you should know how easy it is to talk to someone or host a meeting with the team that can lift their spirit. But it becomes complicated when the same thing comes to the remote workspace.
It’s much harder for managers to put confidence in an employee to boost the team spirit without any in-person meeting. Ultimately, this lack of confidence results in poor productivity and collaboration.
Accountability
Whether remote or physical workspace, accountability is super impotent if you want the best out of your team. Because of accountability, your remote team members will spend less time on distracting activities and more effort.
However, the problem with remote accountability is that it’s much harder to hold someone accountable online. As a manager, you don’t know what your team is doing when they are supposed to work. With team members spread across the world, acceptability is one of the harsh realities for remote team managers.
