Managing remote staff comes down to getting everyone on the same page with the needs of your business. How it should be done, and what happens when it is done well. As a business owner, you need to ensure your staff take responsibility for their routine task instructions. You can certainly motivate and inspire, stepping in to support them when needed. In the end though, it’s up to them to actually do the work.
Managing remote staff has its own challenges. So you want to ensure this vital structural part of the work is getting done properly, and your processes are kept up to date. When done well, it means you stop being the bottleneck in your business. You can delegate and get your whole team activated to do that work with you and for you.
“Feedback is the breakfast of champions.” Ken Blanchard
To help with this, here are three specific strategies you can employ to keep your team managing their routine processes.
Routine Reviews
You should jump in to see exactly how well your staff have managed their tasks. If they’ve done well, you give them a reward. Make sure they know their work is valued and appreciated. Let them know they make a difference in the business. Make it a regular thing, with how often depending on how much is changing in your business. It could be three months, six months, or even twelve.
Spot Checks
Regular comprehensive reviews are important, but managing remote staff requires more than that. Put some time aside to do simple spot checks. This simply means jumping in every now and then to have a look at their routines. Check to see if task instructions are up to date. If you’re using Monday, or ClickUp, check a few tasks to see if the instructions are clear enough for someone else to do the work.
Task Swaps
And then finally, swapping tasks, which can be super valuable. Allow your team to give their tasks to another team member, so you may see if those instructions can support someone else in doing the work. You can use their experience to fill in the blanks. What this means is that you’re going to have robust, clear instructions across the board. They will allow anyone to do those tasks in your business.
Managing remote staff does have challenges, but it also has the benefit of flexibility. Ken Blanchard says that feedback is the breakfast of champions. While your team is going about managing their own routine processes, keeping all of their task instructions up to date, you can be the one giving them feedback and supporting them.
