Managers who have teams dispersed across different environments, cultures and time-zones have a greater duty in ensuring that being connected means more than logging into email. As the saying goes, ‘No man is an island’ and it takes a strong and intentional manager to ensure employees thrive, wherever and however they are working. 

Technology has spurred huge advances and impressive benefits for the many people who work across a global workplace.  The challenge for managers is ensuring that their employees still feel a sense of connectedness not just with them as their manager, but also with the wider culture and values of the organisation.

 IT systems and devices can create the infrastructure to allow us to work seamlessly across time-zones and departments, but keeping people engaged requires deliberate, intentional focus on how we choose to manage them.  It’s not just about engagement to make them feel good but about ensuring you are getting the best from each person, and thus the return on investment.

 Here are some tips to help managers keep engagement and performance high, even when they can’t be near to their teams.  If you manage people, see what tips you can gain to both strengthen your style but also role model to other managers across your organisation.

 If you don’t manage people directly, think about how you can coach managers to adopt some of these practices and find role models that engage remote teams well to hold up and celebrate.

 1.  Don’t get straight down to business when you call

The best relationships won’t thrive on the purely transactional; ‘Hi, have you got that report?’ stuff. At the start of every conversation, make a point of using an open question about something other than work to help bond the relationship. A great way to glean what people are interested in and what’s important to them is to ask them what they did at the weekend, not how it went. Make it your weekly ritual and you’ll soon start to build a fuller picture of your team.

 

2.  Do clear your head of distractions

Nothing kills trust quicker than an obviously distracted or uninterested manager. They may not be in the room but they need your full attention! Turn away from your screen, put down your ipad and listen…

 3.  Don’t let them go native

Employees based at client sites and offices for long periods of time can end up feeling more bonded with the customer than with their own employer. Creating opportunities for teams to bond together will help keep them connect with the bigger picture. A great way to do this is to host a virtual meeting that allows break out time for teams to discuss ideas and issues as a group.  This means the teams have chance to network and come together in a way that reminds them they are all part of the bigger picture and not separate micro-climates.

 4.  Do keep investing in your teams

Check in with yourself about how interested and passionate you really are about the work your teams are doing. More importantly, how do you let them know? Ask questions, offer input, discuss what’s bothering them or inspiring them. Be clear about what you expect and what you are hoping to see. This isn’t about micro-managing people but rather demonstrating a genuine interest in them and giving them the energy and input they need to keep their engagement levels high.

 5.  Do see the whites in their eyes

There’s something about eye contact that takes relationships to a much deeper level that any email or phone-call can possibly achieve.  Take advantage of visual technologies like Skype to literally bring each other into focus and communicate.  It may not be practical to use Skype every time, but consider using it whenever it’s practical to do so.

 6.  Do meet them for coffee

If you’re based 200 miles from each other, you’re obviously not going to bump into colleagues at the coffee machine so make it your mission to re-create the those social moments that build the fabric of all relationships.  Making time for a chat is just as important as being prepped for an important meeting.  

 7.  Do schedule enough time face to face when you are together

If a manager has people based across multiple locations, visits are often jam-packed full of back-to-back meetings when they come out to that site.  Make enough time to spend with your direct reports so that you’re really putting energy and focus into them.  You’ve made the effort to travel, at a personal cost to you, so make sure you get the return on investment out of the trip.  Don’t just allocate a 60 minute one-to-one, have lunch, dinner or breakfast together so that it’s a relationship conversation, not simply a transactional one.

 

Sounds obvious?

 If you’re reading this thinking, ‘I know all this’, you’re most certainly not alone.  After all, what I’m talking about is not new or difficult.  However, my research has shown that managers are weakest when it comes to intentionally engaging others.  They might know what they should do, but they don’t invest the time and focus to make it happen.  Take inspiration from one of the busiest leaders I know who seizes every opportunity to be as intentional as he can about engaging his teams. For example, he often uses travelling time to mentor and coach people informally. It is his way of being resourceful about the time and opportunities he has and putting them to good use.  Small steps, big changes…