Might it be easier to manage people across distance than those in the office? Eddie Caine thinks so.
Eddie is Manager of Professional Services at T-Manage (http://www.tmanage.com). He not only helps clients develop teams across distance, but his own team is scattered across North America. He finds that the more telework he does with others, the easier they are to manage. How could that be?
Success Strategies
If you have the right people, working under the right management, and clear, negotiated expectations of what constitutes desirable productivity, then managing an on-going team of people who work from home, from a remote office, from the road is distinctly easier.
Pick Your People
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It starts with how you hire, and who you encourage to work away from the central office. Just as you don't hire people who lack skills, motivation or lack manners, you don't invite your worst performers to telework.
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| Make
telework a reward and help people learn how to earn it. | |
"Teleworkers are trustworthy," Eddie says. "And, telework is a privilege that's earned." So, Eddie is careful about who gets hired in the first place: They must have the likelihood of becoming trustworthy. Then, as that trust becomes evident, that person can be offered the opportunity to work out from under the daily gaze of an immediate manager.
Managers tend to pick the higher performers and more trusted people for opportunities to work from home, or from another location. It's a natural instinct, and one that encourages others to work toward the respect that encourages the freedom to work from anywhere.
Pick Your Manager
"It takes a good manager to guide good employees," is Eddie's second mantra.
A good manager is paying attention to all the teamwork and each team member's individual contribution.
"Many good teleworkers fail because they don't have capable management," Eddie insists.
If the manager isn't willing to let go of micro-control (what Regina Levison called hovering "helicopter management" in our July, 2002 issue of  ), individual employees will find it hard to meet the manager's expectations.
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sure managers can demonstrate the ability to manage at a distance | |
"Managing," Eddie says, "has everything to do with trust and empowerment." An effective manager might have equal numbers of people working in the office and out of the office. With the right attitude, a manager will get the same productivity out of both groups.
Eddie warns, "Managers need to make sure they don't let communications go into a hole." Even if it's just a simple eMail or a short voice mail message, the manager needs to respond. Everyone appreciates a little gratitude. A simple "Thank you for that..." from a manager encourages more communication in the future. It's the glue that holds a dispersed team together.
And taking aside the person who's got a problem, and giving them special attention, is a good way to avoid future problems. If a junior person names everybody up to the Division President for a cc: on eMail, a private dialog can help them see how that behavior is counter-productive. Yes, it's "Management 101," but it's more delicate if you can't get face-to-face.
The manager who's so busy (or wants to appear too busy) there's no time for those small, graceful gestures will undermine trust in the team. Dialogue, even if half is just "thanks," is better than monologue. As Eddie observes, "People who think their messages are going into a hole will stop sending messages."
Negotiate Work Standards
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"How will I know you've been productive?" is Eddie's favorite opening question to a new candidate for
teleworking. He believes that managers and candidate teleworkers need to shape the work they do through mutual negotiation.
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| Measuring
real productivity, not apparent activity, is the key to successful
management of good people.
Leave them alone
to do what they were hired to do, but make sure what they do is what the
organization needs.
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Each situation is different: What's productivity for you may be irrelevant in another company. The first negotiating stages probably need to be accomplished face-to-face, but those standards can be refined over time...and over distance.
Joe Roitz, AT&T's Manager of Teleworking agrees, "The first time we do this with a manager, it's always tough: It may be the first time they've actually had to quantify a team's productivity. But, once we get them through the process, it's easier to keep it updated and aligned with higher organizational goals and objectives."
The key is to focus on measures of productivity that actually produce business results. It doesn't matter how many hours an employee puts in, but the number of projects accomplished. It doesn't matter how many calls the sales person makes, but the sales closed. It doesn't matter which design tools the engineer uses, but the robustness of the final design and its suitability for passing on to manufacturing.
Part of the negotiation needs to include what the employer needs to provide to the employee to make sure they can be productive outside the office. Does that traveling sales person need a good laptop computer? Does the home worker need a broadband Internet connection? Should the business offer some help through a consultant to help set up a useful and productive working space in the teleworkers home?
Practical Tip
You might be a part-time telecommuter: Some days you work in an office, and other days you're away. Your teammates might forget that you're an important member of the team while you're away. You might not hear about important events. They might forget to keep you informed.
Eddie has a neat trick to let people know, "I work here...but I'm away." He suggests you have someone take a photo of you working at your off-site location—in your car, your home office, wherever. Then, get a simple photo frame (the bigger the better) and put your photo in it. At the bottom, put your phone number in big, bold numbers, where you can be reached.
When you leave your office, put your photo on your desk, front-and-center. So, when anybody comes by looking for you, they're reminded you're working (just not away), and how to reach you.
You might even want to have someone carry that photo into the conference room to put on the center of the table, or in front of an empty chair, when you're participating via speakerphone. It's a visual reminder that you're still there, even though you may be participating from a remote location. It keeps people aware of your participation, even though you may be silent at the moment.
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This article was originally published in the
newsletter, September, 2002
and is available to our subscribers on our website, http://www.net-working.com.
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