Sometimes, organizations change their working style and let people work from home. This means in such a situation, the project managers have to change the way of dealing with team members. Working from home is different from working in a company, so project managers need to learn new skills on how to stay connected with team members and move the project forward. Managers have abilities to handle these changes well and use helpful tips to make projects successful. Project management means, handling the project, making clear plans, and leading the team well to complete the project on time and within budget. This article discusses the effective tips that assist project managers to do their job well while working remotely. Adopting these strategies helps managers to complete the project efficiently and successfully.
What is remote project management?
Remote project management means, handling project tasks as usual but managers and team members are not working on a single platform. The team members might work from home or may be spread out in different cities.
In this scenario, the primary responsibility of the project manager is to bring everyone together ensure task completion is occurring within time, and close out the project successfully. This is a challenge because with no opportunity for face-to-face meetings with team members. However, they use different apps and tools to keep everyone talking and working together.
Despite the fact that the team is a part, the managers play a key role in keeping all of them connected, remain focused, and updated. Project management in remote teams needs good communication skills, and planning to make sure that the project is running smoothly.
Project Management Training Courses with an emphasis on remote team success are available at Oxford Training Centre. Clear communication, realistic goal-setting, efficient delegation, frequent progress monitoring, and the use of collaborative tools are important pointers. Our courses equip managers to run remote projects effectively and with confidence by covering topics like scheduling, risk management, budgeting, and teamwork.
7 effective tips for project management in remote teams
Here are 7 effective tips that keep everything well organized and focused. Applying these strategies enables you to successfully finish the project.
1. Create a team environment
Before starting the project, it is essential to get team members ready and excited. One way to do this is to introduce every single member again along with their roles, no matter that everyone already knows one another. Creating a team environment with a remote team may be challenging but adopting the above-mentioned actions can greatly improve team involvement.
When managing remote projects, always make the effort to share a detailed agenda before the kickoff meeting. The agenda includes everyone’s names, roles, time zones, and some fun facts about each member. Sometimes it is good to add someone’s nickname or some obscure piece of trivia. It takes a bit of extra work and probably feels cheesy to some, but it helps to build connections with team members who are still not in physically face-to-face contact with each other and promotes collaboration.
2. Keep your team engaged
When having a status meeting in an office, it is not difficult to see who is listening and who isn’t. But when having such a meeting remotely, keeping all involved is a greater task. Improving teamwork between remote members is critical to address.
In in-person meetings, individuals generally do not display when they are distracted, except when they are on their phones. It is also easy to pick up when a person desires to contribute or when the team is getting drowsy and the meeting needs to close.
Remote managers do not enjoy these benefits, even with video conferencing. Video software such as Zoom enables one to notice whether one is distracted or not, but body language is more difficult to decipher, and multitasking is prevalent. Hence, other methods must be employed to engage the team.
One approach is to have team members report updates and something pleasant, such as a favorite childhood TV show. Another option is to have one individual report another’s update in a couple of words, which can be hilarious or revealing.
Find out what gets the team excited and incorporate it into meetings so everyone stays focused and enhances collaboration.
3. Good to use project collaboration tools
With the development of technology, there are many tools and apps to support effective project management from home. Team members can do virtual meetings through video conferencing platforms, which makes communication easy. Many cloud-based applications enable users to share files because they provide options to send messages and work together on documents from any place. In addition, many tools track the project’s progress and ensure deadlines are met.
One of the examples is Project Portfolio Management software. It assists in organizing tasks and monitoring status. So, advanced technology makes project management more efficient and convenient without needing to be done face-to-face regular meetings. It helps the team stay connected and complete projects on time.
4. Be human
As people adjust to a different way of working, it is helpful to gather ideas from coworkers and team members about how to make work processes and communication better. Receiving feedback can lead to improvements in current habits and increase the team’s overall efficiency. It also allows team members to share any problems they have with methods that are not effective. This creates a chance to fix those problems early, preventing bigger issues later on. Encouraging open communication and listening to suggestions supports a smoother and more productive work environment for everyone involved.
If your team operates throughout various countries, consider learning a simple greeting or thank you in their language to show respect, and to strengthen the bond. Small gestures matter, and even something as simple as using local slang or spelling can empower colleagues. Additionally, using proper greetings based on time zone; i.e. good morning or good afternoon, shows awareness and consideration. Keeping some of these small items in mind, can expand interest in your relationship with colleagues, and make remote working more fun and meaningful.
5. Collect feedback
As everyone works in a new environment, it is helpful to gather ideas from team members about how to make work more efficient and communication better. Gathering different opinions can result in improvements in current habits and improve the overall efficiency of work. It also permits members to share any problems they face during remote work. In this way, managers can solve problems at an early stage, preventing bigger issues later on. Collecting feedback and encouraging open communication can lead to a smoother and more productive work environment for all team members.
6. Check in without micromanaging
Office employees have the luxury of seeing other worker’s presence, at their stations, and work being completed. A project manager must know work is being performed on time and be able to deal with surprises that are possible close to the deadline.
In the same way that when an employee is working remotely, supervising their work might appear too engaged in either his/her process or on decisions being made. One deliverable method to track progress for a time domain task is to take a step back and evaluate how much of the larger tasks are being completed and then officially request progress from your team members; prior to informing others of their status. Holding regular meetings at some intervals and allowing everyone to report their progress, instills reporting responsibility in colleagues. Requesting reports of in-progress work does give a sense of how much has been accomplished, and how much is left. These requests aren’t anything wrong or offensive.
7. Trust your team
When working with a remote team, it is essential to build trust in the team and their skills. This is certainly the case for leaders facing remote teams who typically provide a high level of detail and guidance. A project manager relies on their workers to be dependable, organized, and willing to work hard at their jobs, without being supervised.
Team members should perform their own tasks without micromanagement, but information and direct communication must occur consistently and clearly to provide the necessary instructions and support. This ensures a team structure that operates well and reaches its objectives while working remotely.