Business owners and coaches have one thing in common—both manage a team.
So, what makes a business owner or a coach successful?
Gary Vaynerchuck, serial entrepreneur and internet personality, has this to say: “I don’t think anyone can win in business without having the proper teammates and empowering them to play their role.”
Your outsourcing provider can provide you the ideal virtual assistant or remote team, who are skilled and have the necessary work experience you require.
However, your team takes its cue from you—their head, coach and sometimes, their cheerleader.
So, it starts from the top, because your remote team depends on you.
To build a high performing remote team, you will need to arm yourself with the right knowledge and skills.
Here are 15 tips to help that focus on 3 key areas—Management, Communication and Systems.
Management
- Assemble 3 important elements—Team, Tools and Process
- Assume the role as the Connector. Ensure team harmony by linking the various members of your remote team to work together to reach common goals. Adjustments are normal until all are working together, seamlessly.
- Stay on top of your remote team. Even if you have good ideas or plans, you still have to constantly motivate you virtual assistants to action to reach goals faster.
- Remember that the virtual assistants are human beings. Do not forget that your remote team are composed of real human beings, who have feelings. If you make them feel important, they become motivated and productive, especially if you give them more responsibility and let them help you make decisions.
- Get to know your remote team. Be friendly. Open yourself to them, so they get to know you as well. Having a personal relationship with your virtual assistants bridges the gap, literally and figuratively. This encourages them to work harder for you, because the working relationship has evolved positively.
- Trust your remote team. Mutual trust is a basic ingredient in any relationship. Apart from ensuring that you selected trustworthy virtual assistants, looking for each other’s best interests builds positive interaction and motivation.
Communications
- Communicate pro-actively. Not being able to communicate face-to- face with your remote team is always a challenge. Miscommunication, losing sight of priorities and not meeting expectations can sometimes occur. Invest in communicating regularly with your remote team through scheduled video-conferences to align tasks, goals and even for some light banter.
- Make it a point to “meet” every Friday. One way of finding out if your remote team is progressing with their work is to schedule status meetings on Fridays. Fridays are when they report on their weekly accomplishments including plans and objectives for the succeeding week. You may also want to augment this with time tracking software to monitor employee work activities.
- Communicate. Communicate. Communicate. Over communicating with your remote team isn’t always a bad idea. Communicate details, sample work, resources, materials, and any relevant information to help accomplish tasks. They need to understand what you want done, including how and why.
- Chat with your virtual assistants one-on-one. Regular one-on-one video chats helps enhance the working relationship. It’s the closest you can get to a face to face meeting.
Systems
- Establish the system first. Set up and document the system first—office rules, procedures, work flow process, reporting schedules, resources, defining expectations, specific online tools and standards required to accomplish tasks. Do this before outsourcing anyone. This system is your guide when hiring the virtual assistant with the right skills and attitude. Adjust the system, as the business grows.
- Inspire your remote team to adhere to the procedure. Provide your team a documented systematized process and proper orientation. Stress the importance of adhering to the process to make the business run smoothly and efficiently. If they understand the rules and process, they can proceed with work and produce the required output. A systematized organization can assure business effectiveness and certain growth.
- Set SMART (Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Relevant, Time-bound) goals. Remember this – not all virtual assistants are managers. They still need a framework, hence, a work flow based on defined goals and objectives and tracking mechanism must be in place. This is the “road map and timer” of your remote team.
- Acknowledge and reward team accomplishments. When employees are recognized and rewarded for following rules, accomplishing tasks efficiently, especially if it results to business growth—these increase motivation, loyalty and productivity.
An empowered remote team becomes resourceful and ready to take new challenges that you throw their way.
They do not start this way. It starts with you, as their leader, to transform them to the remote team you’ve always dreamed of.
Start building your empowered and high performing remote team through outsourcing.
Great Work Online, where outsourcing is made simple.
A team you can trust. https://greatworkonline.com/
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