Tips for Effective Remote Working

Due to the coronavirus situation, a no. of us will be working remotely for the first time. Here are a few tips that I have gleaned from years of working with multi-cultural remote teams.

1.     Maintain your usual working schedule: Be available for meetings, discussions during the same time that you are usually available at your office desk. This will not only maintain a predictive schedule for yourself & your team, but even for your family members in case they are also at home. They will know that you will not be available for house work during the office hours.

2.     Schedule meetings keeping the time-zone differences in mind – meetings should be scheduled within working hours of each time zone, as far as possible. For difficult-to- reconcile time-zones like Japan and EST or South Africa & Australia, you may have to look at having two schedules alternatively, so that only one side is not always expected to attend an early morning or late night call. This becomes particularly important if it is only 1 person that needs to be accommodated at a time which is inconvenient to the majority of the team mates. This is where your influencing skills come into play.

3.     Human contact is the single most important component in any interpersonal interaction. With remote working, there are no non-verbal cues of communication (remember in any communication, almost two-thirds are conveyed non-verbally). In such a situation, the following may be helpful:

o  Instead of gestures, use your voice. Picking up the phone with a smile in your face will immediately transmit it to your voice.  

o  Designate the first couple of minutes in any meeting to check on the individual members of the team – their health & well-being. Remember to involve everyone, particularly those that are not forthcoming without some prodding.

o  Listen actively and ask questions, if required.

o  Verbalize, instead of nodding your head.

4.     It is important to talk to your team members at least once a day. This comes easily when you are collocated, but needs to be scheduled when you are away from each other. Use any means, a telephone call, chat, video call or even an email. A personal touch tends to convey the fact that we are all in it together. (Side note: Moaning about weather conditions is a universally favorite topic. Talking about sports is also a great way to bond).

5.     Finally, considering the extenuating circumstances at present, go easy on the task follow-ups 😉. Build in enough buffer – financial, resource-related, delivery related so that a project is realistically achievable, instead of only on paper.

Please feel free to share your comments & experiences. Hopefully we will all learn from each other.