Remote Leadership: the problem of oversite
Is anybody out there? Are they doing any work? The people on your staff may be out of sight, but they can’t be out of mind. Whether they are down the hall, across town, at home or on the other side of the globe, they still need to be managed, coached and motivated. You still need to measure and review their performances. And they still need to work together as an effective team.
Here are a few thoughts (and we can explore this further, depending on interest):
For presence, many chat applications indicate availability. I like the ones that allow you to show a level of attention. Not just here or not here, but here (in a meeting), here (do not disturb), etc. Effective presence, even in a face-to-face environment, must allow for a measure of interruption management. Walk down the hall, and not every door is open all the time. And you can see some folks are on the phone. So don't leave that out in your virtual environment. Also, managing expectations of availability (especially across timezones) is essential.
Keeping track work is trickier. There are lots of tools available for routine work, such as that done by call centers. And well-motivated professionals in a good environment usually are doing MORE than they are asked. It is the many jobs in between that are tougher to keep an eye on. Here a mix of jointly determined measures and motivation, with lots of communications makes sense. Why? Because the two biggest problems are clarity and trust. Much has been written on clarity, and I won't go into detail here. The problem of clarity grows across timezones, time, cultures and complexity of operations. When people need to work together or authority is delegated, it gets even harder. This means that you need to plan for clarity, measure clarity and never assume you have the problem solved.
Trust is the great simplifier. With deep enough trust and commitment, in fact, most of the problems of leadership and teaming shrink to a manageable size. There are obvious things that must be done, such as keeping all commitments, working on the others behalf and building social capital. At the root, trust is based on two things: I believe you are competent, and I believe you are working for my best interests. Now that might not be enough for a marriage, but it is good enough for business in most cases. Do you agree? Do you have your own methods of developing trust?
