How to Communicate Effectively with Your Team (when you’re Rarely in the Same Physical Space)
Katie goes into detail in this interview with Authority Magazine about how to tackle the challenges of communicating with your remote team and gave tips on how to effectively solve these challenges.
The pandemic has changed so many things about the way we behave. One of them of course, is how we work and how we communicate in our work. Many teams have started working remotely. Working remotely can be very different than working with a team that is in front of you. This provides great opportunity but it can also create unique challenges. To begin, can you articulate for our readers a few of the main benefits of having a team physically together?
Well the way I think about having a team physically together is first about the space we meet in. The physical office space is an expression of the goals and values of a company. This space tells you if it is a high-energy environment that encourages collaboration and productivity. When each member of the team is not in the same physical space, it’s easy to lose focus and keep track of what needs to be done. Being physically together makes sharing of ideas more seamless between each member making collaboration easier. Communication is also usually better because we see a person throughout the course of a day and can better sense the person’s energy, focus, and intention through body language and other nonverbal cues.
On the flip side, can you articulate for our readers a few of the main challenges that arise when a team is not in the same space?
Coordinating virtually with a team can be challenging because of communication barriers. A lot gets lost in communication when we’re not interacting face to face due to lack of tonality, facial context, visual cues, etc. Another common challenge that teams face when they’re not in the same physical space is their tendency to suffer from burnout and exhaustion. Back to back virtual team meetings can take a toll on each member. Not getting up to move around, or even not taking care of basic needs like drinking enough water or taking bathroom breaks. We can feel like we’re chained to our desks or devices. With this kind of burnout, we lose focus and become disengaged with our work. It’s easy to misinterpret what someone says quickly over an instant message. “What’s the status of that project you’ve been working on?” can sound like an accusation to one person when the person asking meant it as “I’m just checking in and curious to hear how you are doing.”
Fantastic. Here is the main question of our interview. Based on your experience, what can one do to address or redress each of those challenges? What are your “5 Things You Need To Know To Communicate With Your Team Effectively Even If You Are Rarely In The Same Physical Space ? (Please share a story or example for each.)
First, acknowledge that you need a whole new skill set for communicating in a remote world. No longer can you drop by an employee’s desk or call an emergency meeting. Because you can’t be physically in the same space as your entire team, calling an “emergency meeting” now messes up their schedules with clients or encroaches on their family time. This requires a bit of creativity to develop a regular and frequent cadence of communication with your team. I have found that setting up a standing “office hours” video call on my team’s calendar allows people to drop in and know that I will be available to help them out.
Second: In order to communicate better with your team, get to know their attitudes, values, and beliefs. As a manager, it’s easy to focus on meeting business objectives, analyzing data, and looking good to your bosses and the C-suite. It is too easy to forget that we’re dealing with humans who have emotions, feelings, and needs. Each employee is different, so getting to know them on an individual level will be key to finding out what will get them to help you achieve the business goals you’re looking for. Your people are everything.
Third: Repetition is your friend. Our brains are hardwired to look for patterns and associate things together. Leverage this for good. If you want to be a leader who your team feels they can go to with problems or issues, you have to continue to repeat to them how to reach you, how you can help, and how you view asking for help. We have all worked for too many managers who demonstrated toxic, contradictory behaviors. So we need to work harder at creating a new pattern for our teams of being available, genuine, and supportive.
Another thing to keep in mind when communicating with our team remotely is that praise must be frequent and intentional. Your team cannot see the smile you have when reading their email or report on how something went. So now, you must communicate that praise frequently, and often. Celebrate all of the wins.
Finally, learn to become an observer of yourself and your reactions to people in the workplace. So much of the conflict that I see comes from misinterpreted events and people being triggered by something at work. This happens on both sides of the conversation. Our instinctual, habitual response to something or someone is typically highly emotional, and we act without thinking. Creating awareness and a moment’s pause before responding to someone allows us to choose how we respond, the tone, the words we use, and more.
