Remote work is on the rise and for good reason. It offers a lot of benefits to both employers and employees. But it also comes with its own set of challenges, like how to build successful remote teams?
In this post, we will discuss five things that successful remote teams do differently in order to achieve greater success.
By following these principles, you can make sure your team stays connected and productive!
They have a clear set of goals
Successful remote teams are successful because they have a clear set of goals that everyone on the team is working towards. It’s important to be very specific about what these goals should look like, who will work together to meet them and when you plan for your team members to check in with each other.
For example, if one goal involves launching an app by Friday, then it would make sense for all stakeholders involved (the developers tasked with designing and building the product) to come together regularly throughout the week so that they can compare notes and progress updates before giving their input or feedback at a predetermined time during the day.
This way, every person knows exactly how far along they are in achieving this project’s milestones.
They have a shared understanding of the company’s values
A lot of companies use values to guide their culture and mission.
It’s important that everyone on the team is aware of these so that they can be applied at every level – from senior management down to employees.
This will also help new hires assimilate into a company seamlessly.
Successful remote teams need to have a shared understanding of the company’s values.
A good way to start is by asking your employees what would make them proud if they could say about this company?
What are those things you need in order for your workplace experience to feel fulfilling?
These questions should provide some interesting results which you then turn into tangible values or statements with clear guidelines around how each value may manifest itself within the organization’s decision-making process (e.g., “we take care of one another”).
By clearly enforcing your rules for conduct every member knows exactly where they stand-no one has any excuses if something slips through the cracks later down the line!
They use video chat as one of their primary tools for collaboration
Within your Waahi’s Virtual Office, there are a few ways to allow your team to use video-based offices to collaborate effectively
- Private Offices: Where each team member, or at least the key team members, get a private video room so that other members of the team, can jump in and out when invited or when they need some help. This could be great for the leadership team, the founder/s, or other team members that require more of a 1on1 approach throughout their day.
- Department Based Offices: Splitting your team into smaller teams can highly enhance collaboration. Grouping them into shared environments can allow different team members to “tap the shoulder” of their colleagues when needed.
Some examples of this can be your Development team, Billing team, Marketing team, and Support team. - Workflow Based Offices: Group your team members based on the tasks, projects, and flows within your business.
For example, product teams often are grouped based on a project and include 1 or 2 members from different functions, like developer, designer, and project manager. - Meeting Rooms: It’s always good to also have a couple of designated meeting rooms so that if any of the team members require some privacy or have some deep work to do, that doesn’t involve the rest of the team, they jump in there and get things done.
A cool idea is to name these rooms based on something that is related to the culture you’re trying to build. Maybe after some famous Jazz musicians or athletes, or famous cities. Get creative and come up with memorable names to encourage usage.
The team has an established process for making decisions, including how to handle conflict when it arises
I’m sure you’ve heard the saying “knowledge is power.” When it comes to remote teams, that statement couldn’t be more true. I have found that when my team knows how everything works from top to bottom, they are able to work faster and better.
That includes building your SOPs (standard operating procedures) and documenting the vision and the different roles within the company.
Within Waahi’s Knowledgebase and Resources room, you can make sure that your companies knowledge is not only documented but actually gets used.
Good internal company documentation helps cut down on the amount of time you spend repeating yourself and enforcing policies, and it also ensures that no two people are working on the same project, role, or task.
As well as reducing variations in execution. So that the team and company operate as a single entity.
They are committed to the success of the team as a whole rather than their individual success
Working from home can feel isolated. Being aware of it can help build the systems for collaboration and accountability within a team.
The first thing successful remote teams do differently is to acknowledge the difficulty of working without that physical proximity. They are committed to the success of the team as a whole rather than their individual success.
This type of commitment can be seen in any number of ways:
From holding regular meetings or conference calls with colleagues across time zones, scheduling video chats for more casual conversations, and even getting everyone’s input before making decisions about changes within your company.
Now it’s time for you to implement
Check out the Components section with your Virtual Office to enable the rooms that will help you implement each of these 5 key points.
Let me know in the comments below if you find this helpful, or if there is something I should add.