Modern leadership

In the news on 18 August 2020

In corona time, many managers have to direct their people from home. This “remote” leadership requires qualities that many managers have not used before, experts say.

“Before the arrival of the corona virus, many executives were busy monitoring their team constantly”, says management professor Frederik Anseel. But looking at how many hours people work - whether they are on time and not going home early - and paying attention to how busy the employees are, makes no sense, says Anseel. “Even when you sit next to someone, it is an illusion to think that you know how productive that person is. Believe me, people can be very unproductive right in front of you. ”

Translated by John, based on https://www.trouw.nl/economie/de-manager-van-de-toekomst-laat-de-controle-los~b9be8f7a/.

Being an IT professional and entrepreneur, I have been working from home regularly for over a decade on many different projects. Remotely managing projects and teams well starts with getting to know both the project sponsors and team members, and trusting their good intentions.

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Source: https://www.trouw.nl/economie/de-manager-van-de-toekomst-laat-de-controle-los~b9be8f7a/

I agree with several recommendations from this same article for remotely managing teams. In my words these can be summed up as follows:

  • Have daily (virtual) meetings or contact at an agreed time.
  • Allow for social interaction in your team and get to understand personal situations.
  • Organize (virtual) 1-on-1 encounters at least every 2 weeks.
  • Be clear on short term and long term goals of the work.
  • Have team members get a good feeling to be working towards these goals. No-one likes useless work.
  • Be transparant on the state of the business.

Even though these recommendations apply to remote team management in general, they certainly apply to project management, hence the tag.