Mentoring remote teams can be challenging, but also rewarding. You can help your team members grow, learn, and achieve their goals, while also fostering a culture of accountability and responsibility. In this article, you will discover some tips and strategies to mentor remote teams effectively and create a positive and productive work environment.
One of the first steps to mentor remote teams is to clarify what you expect from them and what they can expect from you. You should communicate the vision, mission, values, and objectives of your organization and your team, and how each team member contributes to them. You should also set specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals for each team member, and track their progress and performance regularly. By defining expectations and goals, you can help your team members align their work with the big picture and understand their roles and responsibilities.
Defining the expected outcomes gives a clear picture to the team on what they should work on. The vision gives a roadmap of what the team will do to make progress and meet performance goals. The communication should be intentional and consistent considering the fact that remote teams hardly have in-person engagements.
Another key aspect of mentoring remote teams is to provide constructive and timely feedback and recognition. You should praise your team members for their achievements, efforts, and improvements, and celebrate their successes. You should also offer them honest and respectful feedback on their areas of improvement, and suggest ways to overcome their challenges. You should use various channels and formats to deliver feedback and recognition, such as video calls, emails, chats, or online platforms. By providing feedback and recognition, you can help your team members feel valued, motivated, and confident.
The packaging of communication affects how the intended message will be interpreted. Find out which is the best platform to use for delivering feedback to the team members. The feedback should be objective and have clarity that gives areas of improvement incase mistakes have been identified. Human beings value recognition and that's where appreciation is significant.
As a mentor, you should also support the learning and development of your remote team members. You should identify their strengths, weaknesses, interests, and aspirations, and help them create personalized learning plans. You should also provide them with resources, tools, and opportunities to learn new skills, acquire new knowledge, and enhance their competencies. You should encourage them to take on new challenges, experiment with new ideas, and learn from their mistakes. You should also facilitate peer learning and collaboration among your team members, and share your own expertise and experience. By supporting learning and development, you can help your team members grow professionally and personally.
Learning and development adds value to personal and skill development for the team members. Organizations should offer platforms and tools which are accessible by the team with the important skills. A needs assessment is important to identify the skill gaps and desired target knowledge that individuals want to acquire. With the diverse generations in the modern workplace, reverse mentorship where younger generations can mentor the older generations is a great contribution to team development.
Mentoring remote teams also requires building trust and rapport with your team members. You should establish regular and consistent communication with them, and use various modes and methods, such as phone calls, video calls, emails, chats, or online platforms. You should listen actively to their concerns, questions, and feedback, and respond promptly and empathetically. You should also share some personal information and stories with them, and show interest in their lives outside work. You should also encourage them to share their opinions, ideas, and feedback with you and with each other. By building trust and rapport, you can create a strong and supportive relationship with your team members.
This for me is the most important step in creating a sense of ownership and belonging. Being part of the team is more than an org chart. Each team member needs to feel a connection to the people around them and to anyone they are expected to deliver to. One important thing to remember, whatever your expectations are for availability and response time from your team must be matched from you. Lead by example, set the tone of openness and clear communication and the team will follow.
Rapport building reinforces an environment of trust for remote teams. Remote teams never have that opportunity to have water cooler banters in the office unlike the in-person workplace teams. Banter builds stronger team awareness aside from the work tasks. Sharing personal stories with your remote team helps break the ice and tension while encouraging more open communication. Ensuring consistency of communication keeps the remote team effectively engaged.
Finally, mentoring remote teams involves empowering and delegating tasks and responsibilities to your team members. You should give them autonomy and flexibility to manage their own work schedules, priorities, and methods, as long as they meet the expectations and goals. You should also assign them challenging and meaningful tasks and projects that match their skills, interests, and potential. You should also involve them in decision making and problem solving, and ask for their input and suggestions. By empowering and delegating, you can help your team members develop their leadership, creativity, and initiative.
Delegating gives team members the opportunity to learn on the job and be part of decision making. It is of great importance to gather input from your remote team on projects, problem solving and policy development. Delegation is a great way of eliminating the habit/culture of micro management in teams. Organizations should dedicate time towards assessing the different capabilities of remote team members to get more insight on which specific tasks match the respective capabilities.