10 TIPS ON HOW TO LEAD AND COLLABORATE EFFECTIVELY AT A DISTANCE WHILE KEEPING ENGAGEMENT AND PRODUCTIVITY HIGH

This "checklist" is less about home office set up of the workplace and more about processes, leadership and productivity. The topic of "leadership and collaboration" is very broad, and the list is not exhaustive either. Nor should that be the goal. I have deliberately focused on the essentials for "suddenly remote" and also want to give tips that are critical but few leaders are aware of.

1) Clarify expectations

Don't just send employees to the home office. Clarify expectations with the team on how the next period will be organized and record important points, e.g. how and

which tools will be used

which meetings will take place on a fixed schedule

what can be done in case of sudden problems

how the exchange of information will take place

general communication channels and how to keep each other informed within the team

how work results are documented and shared

Together with your team, create guidelines in the form of a team agreement on how your remote team works best together. Among other things, the agreement will define roles and responsibilities, what information is shared, how and where, and what tools and communication channels are used for what. When such a team agreement is approved by the entire team, there is a high level of commitment and fundamental issues are clarified in advance.

2) Team performance and delegate tasks

Do not "track" and monitor hours. Define performance not by attendance, but by results. Especially when children need to be cared for, continuous attendance from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. is not possible. Give employees the freedom to manage their own time and work alongside fixed appointments such as jour fixes. And see this as an opportunity for everyone to work at their individual productive times and deliver more and better results in less time with fewer distractions. Don't therefore just delegate not individual tasks, but responsibilities and expectations for results. Have confidence that tasks will be completed on time and with quality.

3) Coordinate workload and asynchronous and synchronous team communication.

Divide the work, the workload, into clear manageable tasks and define the desired outcome, responsibilities and timeline for each task so that you can delegate effectively and everyone on the team can work in a self-organized manner. Provide all resources so that the tasks can be completed. If too many follow-ups are required among the team, it slows down the entire team. In addition, each message causes disruptions. Also, at the beginning of virtual teamwork, not all employees dare to use digital communication channels when they have questions or do not know how to act. They sit out the problem or wait for the next team meeting/jour fixe to solve the issue.

Make it transparent to everyone who is working on what to illustrate interdependencies.

Clarify roles and responsibilities.

Have a good mix of asynchronous and synchronous communication: asynchronous time is important for focused, trouble-free completion of tasks. Synchronous time is important for generating ideas and solving problems together. However, if these two forms of communication alternate too frequently, it makes the team unproductive.

4) Don't forget feedback and appreciation

Give feedback not only after the task is completed, but also during the work process. This way you stay up to date, can discuss intermediate results, clarify problems. Always become active yourself and ask if there are any ambiguities in the completion of tasks. At a distance, many employees do not dare to contact you as a manager when problems arise. There is also no common working environment to be able to ask someone for solutions ad hoc. In addition, appreciative feedback in between motivates employees enormously.

5) Pay attention to special features in written communication

Collaboration in a virtual team consists to a large extent of asynchronous communication. Written communication is therefore the basis for exchanging information with each other. In text messages, it is much more difficult to express emotions and a clear intention.

It often happens that expectations are interpreted incorrectly or negatively, and a response or required action is not forthcoming. Furthermore, the "free rider" problem occurs regularly in virtual teams - "someone else does it, no one feels addressed".

Always compose messages such as emails with a clear objective and address addressees directly without falling into the command tone.

6) Conduct virtual team meetings efficiently so that commitment is achieved and tasks get done.

Perhaps you are familiar with the following scenario? You are using the right technology and tools to conduct online meetings with the team. The tools are intuitive, the technology is readily available, and most of the time, it's not the main problem. Everyone is also focused in the team meetings. But after the team meeting, the discussed actions don't happen and tasks don't get done. There is a lack of commitment. Learn to conduct, actively design and follow up virtual team meetings in a way that is efficient and achieves commitment in the entire team.

Checklist for the set up of virtual meetings

• The purpose is defined and communicated.
• Expected outcomes are defined.
• Facilitator(s) are identified.
• Detailed agenda is distributed.
• The person to take the minutes is identified.
• All decisions to be made are clearly communicated.
• Materials are sent to participants at least 24 hours prior to meetings.
• Technology is pre-tested and there is a backup channel.
• All participants have access to and know how to use the meeting technology.
• Technical support for your team members is available.
• After the meeting, there is targeted follow-up to track commitment.

7) Important note with the handling of team meetings

The following point I see often in virtual teams, and I wonder why, this so often done wrong. If you need to reschedule or cancel jour fixes or team meetings, give a clear reason. I've often seen meetings canceled without justification and then employees tend to make negative assumptions about events and feel disconnected from the rest of the team. As a manager, team leader or project manager, don't just send around a new date. Since everyone on the team is more self-organized and works to their own schedule, ask beforehand if the new date fits.

 8) Prevent loneliness and build relationships within the team

 Many employees feel lonely or completely cut off from the team when working from home. Look for opportunities for informal face-to-face communication across the team, such as set times for virtual coffee. Implement "managing by walking around" in the virtual space and "checking in" regularly with your team and each individual employee to stay connected with all employees. Employees also feel valued as a result.

 9) Be on the lookout for burnout

 The fear that work won't get done in the home office is unfounded. Remote employees tend to be more likely to overwork themselves and take fewer breaks. When employees aren't used to remote work, the lines between work and personal life often disappear. Many employees can't switch off.

 10) Tools

Make sure all employees know how to use the tools - even if they should be intuitive to use

Have a point of contact available immediately in case of technical problems.

Don't just introduce tools, but communicate to your employees the benefits and advantages for everyone based on the different scenarios in the collaboration process

Establish clear guidelines on which tools are used for which deployment scenarios and how. The most important collaboration scenarios are:

• Collaborating on documents
• Creating transparency about tasks
• Virtual meetings
• Providing information and knowledge in processes
• Sharing knowledge in problem solving
• Coordinate and communicate with each other as a team
• Search for experts
• ensure informal communication
• share internal company news, keep everyone up to date

There are so many tools on the market. A lot doesn't help much. Start with few and only the necessary tools and functions to not overwhelm your employees. These most important features and tools to start with are (without naming vendors):

• Document management: avoid email ping-pong of documents, edit documents in the in one central place.
• Task management: overview and transparency of tasks to be done in the team, e.g. organized on a digital
• Chat: synchronous problem solving and exchange
• Meetings via video
• Team meetings and private meetings
• Team calendar
• Team notebook e.g. for meeting minutes
• E-mail
• Virtual office to stay in touch