The state-of-the-art technology and overall globalization have made it possible for people all over the world to join in virtual offices and build a geographically dispersed team. It comes as no surprise anymore that office workers may not appear in the office at all, and some American company outsources Russian software developers.
But does remoteness of employees make them easier to manage? Apparently, not. At least that’s what people I know are saying about it.

To manage a dispersed team, you need to:

1. Hire the right people.

Not everyone is ready to work on their own: people should be motivated, disciplined, and flexible with their time, which allows them to connect with clients or co-workers in different time zones. Other must-haves are: an ability to write clearly and willingness to collaborate.

2. Establish a clear communication routine.

Depending on the urgency of a message, its complexity, and who you’re talking to, you can choose between numerous ways of keeping in touch with people: instant messaging, email, tele-, video- and web conference, wikis, collaboration technology, simple phone and broadband Internet, to crown it all. You can read more on the upsides and downsides of them all in an article by Kelly Pate Dwyer.

To prevent gaps in communication, there need to be regular update emails/phone calls and meeting agendas; this will keep you in the loop of what is happening all the time, and not only in case of trouble.

Another big question is the working schedule: with each “outsourced” employee, you need to specify when and how much they work, times when they should be available and performance objectives.

3. Work harder on building trust (and corporate culture).

Trust is built and reinforced when the contact people are available for each other and are there when something comes up for discussion, solving or sharing, have friendly attitudes towards each other, communicate often and openly, and regard each other not as mere virtual colleagues but as personalities with their own life and interests.

Besides trust, you should work on employees’ motivation, collaboration and productivity. All these values are significant in a “real” (not virtual) office, too, but with a remote team they are harder to build and foster.

People are known to be more motivated and loyal when they have a friend among the colleagues. Making friends with someone from a dispersed team is next to unlikely, but what can make people really closer is personal meetings – maybe once or twice a year (or often if there is a possibility). People can get together to discuss business, or just have a social evening in an informal atmosphere, perhaps to celebrate some success or achievement.

4. Have certain traits that are indispensable for a remote team’s manager.

These are: Passion, availability, patience and reliability.

The energy to keep a remote team working not less efficiently than an office team should start with you, so it’s up to you to spark enthusiasm and inspire others with your passion about the common cause.

Speaking of availability, it is essential to establish reasonable guidelines about it. A remote manager should definitely be available more often and at odd hours compared to a manager working in one place with his/her employees.

Communicating with someone from the other side of the globe can be more time-absorbing, so is reaching understanding and agreeing on things. Despite this you should remain patient.

Reliability, i.e., doing what you are to do or what you promised to do is yet another trust-building factor.

In conclusion, I’d like to emphasize once again just how important communication in remote management is: use it right to show interest in the process/progress and follow up on tasks, ask detailed questions about what challenges people are encountering on a task/project, and don’t put off sending feedback if someone asks for it – talking to someone at a distance (with no other way to reach him/her) and not hearing back is a very sensitive issue.

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