Any experienced manager can tell you how challenging it can be to walk the fine line between being an involved manager and micromanaging. That is true enough when you’re in the same location as your employees, but it can be even more of a mystery when trying to manage a remote team. Fortunately, being an effective manager for remote staff isn’t nearly as daunting as it may seem at first. What follows are our tips on how to manage a remote team without micromanaging.

• Clearly identify goals. It’s hard enough to keep all members of a team working together as a cohesive, productive unit in a traditional office environment. But when your team members are working in different locations, it’s virtually impossible to keep the team together unless each member understands exactly what goals the team is expected to accomplish and what role each team member will play in achieving those goals.
• Recognize accomplishments of both the team and individual members. Arguably, one of the most important tasks of a manager is to recognize the accomplishments of employees. This is true no matter what type of business environment your team is working in, but it’s particularly important for remote teams. Working from home can be an isolating experience for some employees, so recognizing each person’s contribution to the team – as well as the team’s accomplishments overall – not only provides workers with the positive reinforcement needed to motivate them to be as productive as possible, it also removes that sense of isolation and makes all employees feel as though they are an integral part of the team.
• Communicate with your staff each and every day. All employees needs to know that they are up-to-date with the status of projects, as well as the goings-on of the company overall. Set up a time to meet virtually with each worker on a daily basis, and establish weekly virtual meetings (or more often, if necessary) for the entire team.
• Maintain a certain number of standard working hours for each workday. While it’s true that one of the advantages of working from home for employees is having the flexibility to maintain one’s own schedule, it’s also necessary to know that the entire team will be working and available for a certain amount of time throughout the course of each workday. That will not only allow you, as their manager, to know when each team member is available for meetings or individual communication – it will also allow ad hoc team meetings to take place during those standard hours whenever necessary.
• Measure productivity levels of the team and each member of the team in a totally transparent manner. MySammy is the best way to accomplish this. Our cloud-based software is specifically designed for managers of remote teams, allowing supervisors to measure productivity levels without invading employee privacy with “spyware” and/or blocking certain websites on company computers. Employees will appreciate knowing that their productivity levels are being measured, and managers will be gaining valuable insight into the relative value of each team member’s efforts and understanding which members may need additional training to perform at their highest potential.

Following these simple tips will make it possible for you to effectively manage your remote team without micromanaging. In fact, you can start the process of becoming a better remote team manager right now by signing up for your FREE trial of MySammy today!