Remote leadership is a skill managers and team leaders need more than ever. According to Statista, 38% of all German workers find remote work convenient, and 51% of them were ready to work from home at least once a week in 2021. Another survey showed that 41% of Austrian workers prefer remote work over any other arrangement. In nearby Switzerland, the University of St. Gallen did a survey reporting that while only 25.8% of workers do their job remotely, close to 50% of all jobs in the current Swiss economy could be done outside the office.

Below, we will answer the question “What is remote leadership?” and show you how to manage teams scattered all over the country and even the entire world.

What is Remote Leadership?

To put it simply, remote leadership is leading teams in different locations. Unlike in the traditional office, where members of the team can have quick briefs any time of day, remote leadership uses online tools, software, and platforms to delegate tasks, track performance, and achieve goals.

Supervising remote employees requires juggling between remote workers, the hybrid workplace, and members of the team that still come to the physical workplace. In such complex situations, desk-sharing software such as Flexopus can greatly help, as it promotes intuitive and streamlined administration.

Now we will take a look at some of the most frequent challenges of remote leadership.

Typical Challenges of Managing Remote Teams

How to manage remote teams with maximum efficiency? It can get quite tricky as remote leadership is all about facing challenges such as:

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• Lack of trust due to the lack of face-to-face communication.
• Lacking goals, standards, and expectations.
• Inefficient time management.
• Frequent micromanaging.
• Lack of commitment and engagement among team members.

How to Manage Remote Teams

With that out of the way, we will look into some of the most popular examples being implemented right now. To help, our team has put together some ideas while accounting for managing remote teams’ best practices:

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1. When Leading from a Distance, Keep Communicating

The Swiss Statistical Office released data saying that only 39.6% of all Swiss workers who do their jobs remotely practice teleworking. In other words, the majority of remote workers don’t use chats, phone conferences, or other channels to communicate with the rest of the team.

The onus is on remote leaders to prioritise communication over completing daily tasks. Even a short online brief in the morning can work wonders, increase transparency and providing necessary information team members would otherwise forget to share.

Leadership consultancy Fierce, Inc. found that 86% of employees blame lack of communication and collaboration for workplace failures, while 92% of them agree the company’s tendency to hit or miss deadlines will affect overall results.

2. Remote Leadership Requires Clear Rules and Goals

Without face-to-face interaction, it can be difficult to manage a team. Remote leadership requires managers to:

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• Acknowledge different personalities in the team and the working methods they use.
• Break down bigger goals into smaller steps that can be achieved without micromanaging and constant calls. If the team has to attend long and pointless online meetings, they are more likely to zone out.
• Work and life balance. No one wants to have a Zoom call at 6 PM, even if the leader finds it very convenient.
• Focus on the outcome rather than the method.
• When setting goals, use the SMART technique. Goals must be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.

3. Leading at a Distance and Performance Standards

One of the main challenges of remote leadership is deciding on the performance of certain individuals. After all, how can one know if an employee really works if they can’t see them? Once again, it should be about goals and not methods, and with the rise of remote working, it has become obvious that the location of the employee does not impact their productivity.

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A report by Owl Labs indicates:

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• 70% of workers say online meetings are less stressful.
• 64% of employees prefer a hybrid workplace.
• 83% claim their productivity has increased.
• 55% admit working more hours.
• 75% say that working from home makes them happier.

With that in mind, remote leaders have little to worry about. Still, it is the responsibility of the leaders to make their expectations clear, set boundaries, and impose all the standards they would have in traditional offices. Remember, 46% of workers are unsure of what the management expects of them, and the employees are not to blame!

4. Remote Leadership is About Coaching, Not Micromanaging

Let’s address how to manage remote employees. Well, no matter how tempting, micromanagement is not an answer. Instead of scrutinising every step of the process, remote leaders have to take a leap of faith and let their team do what they know best.

With the rise of remote working, coaching has become a highly popular approach among managers and team leaders of all sorts. Unlike a micro-manager, a coach:

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1. Helps employee increase their performance instead of feeling judged.

2. Increases employees’ engagement, creativity, and innovation.

3. Keeps things under control without sweating over the small stuff.

4. Increases productivity instead of going over the same thing again and again.

5. Improves communication in both directions.

5. Results vs Staying Online: Finding a Balance in Remote Worker Management

Working with remote teams demands a high level of trust. Leaders who are used to seeing their team members for 8 hours straight might find it difficult to tolerate them going offline or working from their house on the beach instead of in the grey suburbs.

So, it is clearly time to ditch the old idea that relied more on presence than results. MIT Sloan claims that a worker who feels trusted will be 260% more motivated to work, is rarely absent, and is also less likely to look for another job. Considering mobile phones allow everyone to stay online all the time, it is time to find other metrics to properly assess results.