Managers and their teams who have been trained on how to work and coach remotely are experiencing breakthrough results, and in the current workplace, have made it their competitive edge. Here’s what you can do to leverage the power of remote coaching and make it your new normal.
Original Article from 2008
The Old, New Normal
With the massive and sudden shift around how companies, teams and customers operate, sell, communicate and collaborate, especially when it comes to managing your team remotely, many managers question how proficient they can be at managing, motivating, coaching and holding their team accountable at a distance, especially if the manager has never managed a virtual team.
To compound this, unless already woven into your company’s current culture, most employees who are suddenly being pushed into becoming a virtual employee have never worked remotely before in their career!
Herein lies a massive opportunity to fill this change management gap, or you will find people feeling that their remote office is now their remote prison, disconnected from the “outside world.”
Isolation breeds negativity and costly assumptions about what’s going on “out there” or in the office. Uncertainly and the unknown breeds fear.
According to Buffer’s annual report – The biggest struggle working remotely is unplugging after work, loneliness, communication, distractions, time zone differences, staying motivated, and taking vacation time.
While working remotely has many benefits, like anything else in life, there are drawbacks. Inc. found in a recent study that 29% of remote workers struggled with work-life balance.
If managers aren’t coaching and consistently communicating effectively with their team, they’ll lose touch of where their people are, who they are and what their needs are to work effectively from home or wherever they choose to work remotely. And not only from a performance perspective, but where they are, mentally, in terms of their attitude, focus, career fulfillment, fears, concerns, and motivation.
If employee disengagement in the workforce is currently at 72%, imagine the exponential impact of not changing the way managers engage with their team in their new virtual office space.
The fact is, the remote workplace will only going to continue to grow. A special analysis done by FlexJobs and Global Workplace Analytics found that over the last five years, remote work grew 44% and over the previous 10 years, it grew 91%.
While the frequency of having face to face conversations will continue to diminish, you can still schedule regular meetings, and coaching sessions over the telephone or, more effectively, via videoconferencing. You’ll soon find that managing and coaching a virtual team can be just – if not more effective than face to face!
Here’s why, and the statistics to prove it, which shatter the top myths of managing a remote team that we’ll be exploring.
MYTH #1 – Employee Productivity Will Drop
“But I Can’t See Them! It’s more difficult to manage, hold my team accountable, and run my business this way.”
I’m certainly not disputing the value of managing and coaching a team face to face, and the additional physical cues that can be observed when doing so.
However, with the growing number of companies making the permanent shift to a virtual workplace, managers will no longer have the luxury of calling a face-to-face meeting and instead, find themselves supporting, coaching, and managing their people, and meetings, remotely.
So, if you’re worried about your employees being productive, Business News Daily reported that working from home actually increases productivity.
Remote workers take longer breaks on average but they remain productive for an additional 10 minutes per day. Remote employees work 1.4 more days per month than their office-based counterparts, resulting in more than three additional weeks of work per year.
In addition, remote workers say they work more than 40 hours per week, which is 43% more than on-site workers do. However, on-site workers are also working longer weeks because it’s required of them, while more remote workers are doing so because they enjoy what they do. (Owl Labs)
MYTH #2 There Will Be a Drop in Employee Engagement
If you’re concerned about attrition or rising disengagement, 76% of respondents said they’d be more loyal to their employers if they had flexible work option. (HBR)
Remote work isn’t just convenient for both employers and employees, but studies have shown that it’s also more effective.
According to Gallup’s report, employees across various industries who spent 60 to 80 percent of their time working remotely had the highest rates of engagement.
Finally, based on a two-year study by Stanford professor, Nicholas Bloom, incredibly, employee attrition decreased by 50% percent among the telecommuters. They took shorter breaks, had fewer sick days, and took less time off.
MYTH #3 – You Can’t Maintain the Same Team Dynamic
Some managers think they are at a disadvantage coaching and managing remotely, and as a result, don’t put forth the effort to coach at a distance, often leaving it up to their remote team to do their job. In a situation like this, managers are thinking,
- How do I follow up with each person? When? How often?
- How do I maintain our relationship, now that I don’t see them every day?
- How do I hold them accountable?
- How do I know if their working, what they’re doing and how they’re doing it?
- How do I build or rebuild trust at a distance?
- How am I supposed to have difficult conversations that I typically have in person?
- How can I ensure we still maintain the team dynamic and social, human connection?
- What happens when there’s something that requires immediate attention?
- How can I observe them doing their job or when in the field selling?
These are just a few questions that every manager and team need to answer, together.
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The Benefits of Remote Coaching
Since 1989, and after coaching tens of thousands of managers and salespeople in 75 countries on 6 continents, at least 98% of all the on to one and team coaching I have done has been over the telephone, before video conferencing was even an option.
Not only has remote coaching on the telephone been proven to be incredibly effective but it is also highly efficient.
If delivered effectively and consistently, both individual and team coaching at a distance can save you a considerable amount of time and money, as it relates to scheduling limitations, travel restrictions and uncertainty around how managers and teams will be working together tomorrow in this rapidly shifting and ever-evolving virtual workplace.
Managers also have the opportunity to do more impromptu coaching and have check-in calls or contacts with their team, whether it’s to build accountability, reinforce a message, handle a timely challenge or even to celebrate a win. This ‘just in time’ coaching can be delivered when your people need it most.
Not to mention the reduced carbon emissions from fewer autos clogging up the morning commute. Every year, U.S. remote workers prevent 3.6 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions from entering the atmosphere by not commuting. (Global Workplace Analytics)
MYTH #4 – Working From Home Will Make You Isolated and Want to Get Back in the Office
Not when we’re all looking to improve the #1 thing we all want – our quality of life.
Getting your children ready for school. Walking the dogs instead of commuting, having the flexibility to get that mid-morning gym workout in, the freedom to catch up with friends and not having to schedule time off for appointments.
In fact, more than one-third of workers say they work remotely to care for their children. (SHRM)
These are just some of the ways remote workers can enjoy a flexible schedule. Forty percent of respondents rate this is the biggest benefit of remote work.
The reasons workers want to do their jobs remotely aren’t surprising: better work-life balance (91%), increased productivity/better focus (79%), less stress (78%), and to avoid a commute (78%).
According to FlexJobs’ Annual Survey, 77% of people said having a flexible job would allow them to be healthier (eat better, exercise more, etc.) and 86% said they’d be less stressed.
People prefer working remotely so much over commuting, that l Labs found that
MYTH #5 – But I Can’t Observe My Team Work and Don’t Know What They’re Doing
Remote Observation Is Powerful and Efficient
Another myth to shatter is around remote observation. Most managers feel they are unable to ‘observe’ their team in the field if they are not physically present with them.
However, there are just as many managers who feel remote observation works better for a variety of reasons. After all, when listening in on a conversation, the primary focus needs to be on the message and the delivery.
In addition, when observing, you don’t have any other visual distractions that can take away from pro-active, intentional listening.
Sell Virtually – Coach Virtually
Since email, videoconferencing and social media are the main communication vehicles for your salespeople; whether they’re presenting, following up, running an internal meeting, handling a customer issue or prospecting, it only makes sense to observe, listen to what they sound like, and coach them using the same communication platform.
Even though you’re not physically present, you can observe other behaviors that go beyond what you’re hearing.
For example, whether you’ve scheduled a time for a coaching session, team meeting or a time to observe them over the telephone, are they prepared for their meeting? Are they efficient and organized? Do they have their notes, call list, objectives and expectations clearly mapped out? Are they focused or distracted? Are they engaged and contributing?
Moreover, you actually do have the opportunity to observe your team ‘in the field.’ Granted, your direct report may not be next to you when they’re delivering a presentation or having a conversation but you can schedule a conference/video conference call with your employees and listen in while that person is in a meeting, making follow up calls to prospects or customers or when they’re cold calling on the phone, if cold calling is part of that person’s responsibility.
Are you being mindful of their tone, pacing, resonance and the confidence they exude?
Are they patient? Do they lead with questions or are they reactive, jumping in too soon on the defensive or to solve a problem?
What else can you observe? Here’s an often missed coaching opportunity. That is, reviewing and coaching their written communications, emails, proposals and the messages they’re sending in written form.
By knowing what to look and listen for during a remote conversation, you will uncover many valuable coaching opportunities, without having to be physically present with your team.
Expand your virtual peripheral vision so you’re more mindful and intentional around the opportunities you now have to observe, coach and deliver feedback that causes a positive behavioral change.
Coach The Language of Selling, Their Communication and Personal Brand
Just like coaching is the language of leadership, selling is a language. Top performers communicate more powerfully than lower performers.
They listen at a deeper level and certainly ask the ‘tougher,’ more precision based questions that get to the core of the prospect’s known and unknown needs, concerns, buying process and priorities.
Rather than assume what your team is saying, and how they’re communicating to your customers and coworkers, you now have the opportunity to proactively listen and observe what they are doing, what they are saying and how they come across, so you can coach them to become exceptional communicators, while helping them build a stronger (virtual) personal brand.
STATISTIC?
MYTH #6 – I Don’t Speak Their Language So I Can’t Observe Them
Do you manage a geographically dispersed team across the world? As such, there’s always the consideration of language barriers. If you don’t speak the same language of your salespeople and want to listen in when they’re on a call or presenting, the solution is simple.
Ask one of your peers who speaks that language to listen in on the call with your direct report so that at the end of the call, they can share what they have heard.
If it’s more convenient due to scheduling conflicts and availability, in some cases, you can record the call and share that recording with a peer who could listen to the conversation around their schedule and then provide feedback to you.
MYTH #7 People Are More Distracted at Home
When Managing Remotely – Be Present or Erode Trust
It’s hard enough to live in the present moment with all of the distractions and competing priorities pulling at us. Compound that working remotely. A whole new set of distractions emerge, on top of the ones we typically experience on a daily basis.
- The doorbell
- The children, family
- The gardener
- The neighbors
- The refrigerator / kitchen
- The television / news
- Social Media
- Your physical workspace
- Home chores
- The refrigerator / kitchen ;-)
That’s why it’s essential that you, as the manager, are more mindful than ever about living in the moment and being fully present and engaged in every conversation, without any distractions, as it’s so easy to be distracted when working from home.
Now, you can coach your team around being present to ensure your people are experiencing the the value of doing so.
There’s a bright side. A study by Inc. found that working remotely has its perks: fewer distractions from no more commutes, inter-office interruptions helping further save money and time.
Be mindful of the distraction trap. You cannot multi-task when coaching or during a virtual meeting. It’s like playing hockey, soccer and basketball at the same time. You’re not playing on sport to the best of your abilities.
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MYTH #8 – My Employees Understand the Need for this Change
Time To Schedule Coaching Sessions With Your Team
At this point, you’re either making a costly and toxic assumption that your people, while many may not like it, understand and are accepting this dramatic change. Conversely, your top of mind question may be, “How do I set the new expectations around how we’ll be working, supporting each other and communicating together?”
Which is why this is the very next conversation you’ll be having with your team. Otherwise, you’ll be spending your time cleaning up all of the collateral damage from failing to set proper expectations because:
If Intentions Aren’t Clear, People Default To Fear
For a Successful Workplace Transformation, Set New Expectations Together
Making this a collaborative process will continue to strengthen the relationships with your employees, and your customers.
Developing and strengthening your remote management, coaching and communication skills will become the linchpin that maintains the health, trust, continuity, connection, accountability, relationships, productivity and collaboration among your team, and most important, ensure they don’t feel isolated or left alone to figure this all out on their own.
To create this cohesive, accountable and productive virtual team, it all begins with a team conversation around all of these changes and setting new and positive expectations around how everyone will collaborate, communicate and still enjoy their job.
Schedule a virtual meeting, where you can begin walking through all of the changes that will be taking place, while setting the positive intentions and what’s in it for them.
After you have clearly set the positive intent of the meeting, and your team is aligned and understands your intent, it’s time for a collaborative, manager facilitated, conversation, where everyone’s voice can be heard and can contribute to the redesign and to the new rules of engagement around what a top performing virtual team looks like, while ensuring a healthy, happy, and productive remote workplace is created and sustained.
Ready to Create New Possibilities?
I hope many of the costly myths around how to successfully manage and develop a remote team of top performers have been shattered. In fact, given the measurable impact of a virtual workforce, you may find yourself inspired by the possibilities that you can now create for your team, your company and you that you’ve never done before!
Remember, the most important part of being a great leader, especially when leading a remote team is, CONSISTENCY. All this uncertainty and lack of control in the world today only exasperates fear, isolation, self-preservation, worry and stress.
However you’re always at choice around how consistent and effective you’ll be around communicating with your team. That’s the good news. It’s all in your power.
While we can’t control the marketplace or certain tragic events, we can always control how we respond to them.
Regardless of the environment in which you are working, whether you are managing face to face or remotely, the same tools, management and employee development strategy, and coaching framework still apply, are applicable, and are just as effective, if not more, when building a world-class team.
Regardless of where you are physically, one truth will always remain constant. That is, to continue to honor the A.B.C.’s of Leadership – Always Be Coaching!