The No.1 trick that has made managing remote teams easy?

When we are forced into a different situation which is more or less inescapable. The only thing we have to do is to accept it. After acceptance comes the ability to survive and even thrive in that situation as acceptance allows space for creativity and rationality to work.

The coronavirus pandemic has forced everyone to work remotely. It has been difficult for businesses that were not used to work from home culture. Even the ones who were accustomed to this routine are finding it a little difficult since they are forced for an indefinite period to work from home, like everyone else. 

It's been more than 4 months now since the world was forced into a new now. We at TransForm Solutions had a little difficulty during the first two weeks, but now my teams are comfortably settled remotely. A reason for that is the change in our daily routine and culture that we introduced, which has made this work from home drill very easy. One of these cultural changes, perhaps the most effective one, is greeting every team member with a Good Morning message daily. Here are the reasons why I recommend every business leader to consider this benign but effective practice: 

1.  Starting the day with a dose of positivity 

It is impractical to think that your team is having a bright and good morning every day! Especially during such times, that's far from the truth. 

Moreover, people are stuck in their homes, with minimal human interaction, that has made the social animal in us start to twitch. 

Since, you're a leader, what you do matters. Your team is always eager for your validation and comments. It matters what you think of them. 

Therefore, just dropping in a happy message - "Good Morning, hope you have a good day!" would do wonders. 

This will not only make your team member feel connected to you and the organization but also will feel acknowledged. This is the little positive dose everyone deserves. 

2.  Telling that you're available for communication

More often than not, it happens that remote teams feel marooned. This is understandable since there is no HR office to go to, there are no colleagues to talk out the concerns with and no frequent meetings with the team leaders and managers, nor any way of getting any non-verbal cues. 

This makes employees feel like they're working in the dark. It is imperative for leaders to ensure that this doesn't happen. As when an employee feels so there is no one to speak to, the productivity, enthusiasm, and creativity of that individual drastically decrease. 

When you pop in the message every morning you are giving your team the assurance that you are there to listen. This overall creates a sense of an active and alive work environment. 

3.  Keeping people from wandering off 

So, you don't just drop a good morning message and then vanish into thin air. It is always good to start your day with a checklist, or a plan. 

Now you don't have to sit and plan out the daily activities with each and every team member. 

Only when necessary, you can brief and communicate with the core team members what their goal for today is and what they are going to assign to their subordinates. 

If there's something you need to specifically brief to someone, doing so after the morning message is a good idea. This little morning drill helps everyone to see where they're going and supposed to go. 

4.  Setting up an interruption-less day 

According to Gloria Mark, who studies digital distraction at the University of California, Irvine it takes 25 minutes or 23 minutes and 15 seconds to refocus on a task after being distracted. 

Therefore, little disruptions here and there is the reason why there are some days when the clock runs too fast and we're able to produce really less. 

These disruptions could be work-related or otherwise, nonetheless, they should not be welcome. Therefore, I keep and promote the practice of communicating as much as possible during the day. 

 I urge my team to use video calls, chats, emails, etc. whatever suits you but have a daily morning communication that will allow them to have long stretches of uninterrupted time during the day. 

5.  Setting up a biological clock 

While I'm not stringent about the work timings and focus more on the output rather than the process, a schedule doesn't harm anyone. 

A biology professor, Christoph Randler at the University of Education in Heidelberg, Germany, reported in a paper published in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology that morning people are more proactive than evening types. 

And, we all know that by experience. A good morning message every morning at the same time sets up a culture of responsibility. 

Even though we have an axiomatically decided time slot for official working hours. We promote the practice of starting the work at the same time in the morning. The morning message helps here. Additionally, this message would make people psychologically obligated and even motivated to start work during the morning hours.

So, here's how I've been thriving managing remote teams during these uncertain times of 2020, tell me about your experience managing or being a part of the remote team in the comments.