THE KEYS TO REMOTE MANAGEMENT OF YOUR TEAMS/ BY OLIVIER CLAUX

Olivier Claux, Chief Executive Officer of MG Consultants and DRH for 12 years, gives us the keys to succeed in your remote management. So, whether you are new to remote management or have already practiced it, these 9 points will help you on a daily basis, follow the guide.

Apart from the health context that we know, and which sometimes requires to put all employees in home office, when you can:

1- Carefully choose the people to telework. Indeed, not all employees are adapted to this mode of work, for many reasons.

To know if your employee will be fulfilled, it will be necessary to combine both his professional competence, the management of his position, but also his motivation. If these elements are put together, and you think you can trust, feel free to let employees who want to work from home.

In the event of a telework obligation, you will still have to trust all employees, but also, and above all, help them.

Then, in order to relieve your schedule, your level of stress, and the good agreement with the people you need to manage, the essential point is never repeated enough:

2-Set clear objectives, indicators that will allow factual exchange at each point (for example weekly, we avoid the daily check!), which you will carry out with your collaborator. Yes, in this way, no unnecessary stress, everyone knows in which direction he must go. This will allow you to adjust the goals, and the points to be explained afterwards and in a fair way, which will not destabilize your employee.

3- During the time between setting goals and where you’re going, especially, don’t overcontrol!! Trust is required. Control for the manager is the question that often poses the most problems, and that generates the most stress of both parties, not to mention the waste of time for the manager, which will end up exhausted.

4- Keep your teams motivated. So how do you do it? Don’t hesitate to find tips for everyone that suit your activity. Morning coffee? What about a virtual afterwork one night a week? Moments of conviviality, which restore human form and promote informal exchanges.

5- Manage the drop in morale: in the event of a big drop in morale of one of your employees, do not hesitate to visit him, to phone him, to take regular news, even personal.

You can also review its objectives, maybe they are too high or conversely not motivating enough; Communication will be the key to keep away the little blues strokes.

6- To avoid creating a gap between people working from home, think about Creating cohesion within the group. Take on the challenges together, plan slices of exchanges to help each other, well yes, we have to make up for the lack of exchanges around the coffee machine, where good numbers of information and tips are exchanged!! Increase the frequency of communication between colleagues!!;

7- Giving employees objectives is good, but they still need to have the means to achieve them, do not neglect to make available the tools they need online. Access to tools adapted to telework are essential. Do not hesitate to invest in laptops, web cams, microphones. With powerful tools, your employees will feel comfortable and more effective. Having poorly adapted tools could lead to unnecessary frustration or stress. Nor should we neglect tools that allow document sharing, messaging or remote video meeting tools…

8-If possible, set up live meetings, or videoconference meetings. When you work remotely, simple email exchanges become frustrating, and misunderstandings can arise from not being told, implied or not speaking to each other. To see each other, to work together, to share friendly moments, to renew the ties and to allow better communication and to leave each one at home, serene, and on good bases, because even the most united teams, weaken when they do not see each other.

9-Finally, train your managers in remote management, be it MOOCs, distance training, training organizations, etc.

Olivier Claux/Angélique Sansen 

MG Consultants