Living, as I do, 200 miles from ‘the office’ has its challenges not least of which is actually getting there!  The recent bad weather and consequent transport disruption meant that many workers had a taste of remote working.  I suspect that a realisation that this type of arrangement can mitigate such risks as the British weather has moved some businesses to adopt a much more flexible approach to the workforce.  In doing so, there are now a new set of challenges facing those that manage the remote workers and here at Phoenix we have found that enquiries for management training that includes remote working are on the increase.

The challenges seem to be similar for most clients: one day you have your people nicely corralled in your workplace under your blanket supervision; the next they’re out there somewhere, hopefully in some sort of gainful employment, but hand-on-heart you have not got one clue!  They’re either out on the road and visiting the office is seen as dead time when they could be out earning, or they’re working from home with all its negative connotations of swinging bits of lead!  Additionally, all your traditional management tools and techniques are now being severely challenged.  What to do?

In the last ten years or so I have been a remote worker, a remote manager and latterly, both.  So, in keeping with my philosophy that there are always simple answers I set the grey cells to work. This trawled up an interesting case study that has clearly had an impact on my own ‘remote management’ success.

Image by slworking2 via Flickr

Let’s cut to the chase.  Remote working has its challenges for both worker and manager.  When viewed as separate challenges they contradict each other.  The worker needs to motivate ‘self’ in the knowledge that there’s no-one else around to do it for them.  They need be inspired to get down to work.  They need to resist the temptations to do nice things instead of important things.  They need to feel trusted to get on with it and they feel grateful for the flexibility. Just to be clear – motivation, inspiration & trust.

The manager, applying traditional workplace management assumes that the remote worker will need discipline and organisation in order to discharge their duties.  Accepted, the worker may well need to be organised and disciplined (for themselves) however if the manager wants and needs ‘evidence’, the manager’s behaviour is likely to be interpreted as ‘surveillance’.  Interestingly some brief research shows that the internet is littered with ways of ‘knowing where your people are’ and IT solutions for knowing who’s logged on to the server.  How useful is this information to the remote manager?  Frankly – I think it’s a waste of money.  The whole ethos of remote working is underpinned by reduced cost and flexibility for the worker delivering tangible increases in productivity, quality and engagement.  I would assert that, in order to get the most from remote working, the manager needs to discard any notion of ‘surveillance’.  Controversial? – read on!

Try a quick case study for yourself!

You delegated a report to one of your team on Friday with an achievable deadline of noon today, assuming he disregards all other work, which you have instructed him to do.  It’s Monday and you’re travelling between meetings and you need an update.  You call your remote worker and you can hear his car engine in the background and he fumbles to turn off the car radio!  You expected him to be at home ‘working’. You’ve already checked the server and he hasn’t logged on today.  You’re not looking forward to your next meeting, your blood pressure is rising, your language is deteriorating and you’re rueing the day your company went to remote working. In your opinion, there’s no way he’ll be able to get that report done with enough time for you to read and understand it before your meeting with the MD at noon.

Think about what you’d say to him, how you’d say it and what you want him to say.

• How does the call go?
• What does your tone of voice and challenging language do for the conversation?
• How ‘trusted’ will he feel?
• How motivational do you need to be?
• How inspiring do you need to be?

……or were you thinking of dishing out a good telling-off?  You were?  You are not alone!

Well, a few years ago I was in this very position: not the manager, the worker!

My manager called me and immediately challenged me on what she could hear in the background, ‘Where are you exactly?’ Sure enough I wasn’t at home.

I was challenged on my progress with the report and accused of ‘taking advantage’ (different wording though!).

I was reminded that my contracted hours were 9-5 (which I knew).

She went on to explain that she was having huge problems managing the team remotely and that she was considering solving her problems with an action plan where we [her team] would call her between 7.30 and 9.00 am every day to review the plan for the day.  I would also have to spend every Monday with her.  Finally, she explained that not delivering the report by 12 noon was unacceptable and she would be recording this incident as evidence for my up-coming review.  I listened, mainly because I didn’t get a chance to speak.

She eventually ran out of expletives and thinly veiled threats and waited for my reply.  I explained that I had emailed the report to her at 11pm the night before (Sunday) and she should check her BlackBerry!  I went on to say that in that email I had explained that I had finished the report over the weekend so that I could drop my boys off at school in the morning. Which, incidentally, I had been told was one of the perks of remote working. I had also explained that I had called at the supermarket on the way back to buy something for lunch so I could work through the day uninterrupted to make sure tomorrow’s ‘drop-deadline’ was met.

For the next few months I went into the office 9 to 5, Monday to Friday.  I did exactly what was expected and no more.  Passively aggressive I admit but I began to enjoy Sundays again.  She got the bare-minimum of effort from me and I got my weekends back – result. What little respect I’d had for her was gone.  Actually, she never really got it back before she left the organisation.  Integrity prevents me from elaborating!

Here’s a challenge for every remote manager reading this.  Remote management is NOT management.  It’s leadership.  If you feel the need to ‘manage’ your remote worker then it is not working.  Why not bring them back to a ‘workplace’ where they can be ‘supervised’.  If you do this, they will still know you don’t trust them but at least you’ll know what they’re up to – and you’ll get…..the bare-minimum.  Still!

Is there a simple answer?  Of course there is.  It’s underpinned by trust.  [At this point you could do worse than reading 'The Five Dysfunctions of a Team' by Patrick Lencioni or save yourself a few hours and accept that you need ‘trust’ to permeate your remote team and that’s YOUR job].

Demonstrate your trust, often and consistently. This is very simple but does require you to suppress any desire to monitor and control, at least in the traditional sense.

Our watchword for training here at Phoenix is practical, so if you need some pointers try these hints, tips, do’s and don’ts:

• Set the ground rules for home working VERY clearly and precisely and be seen to work to them yourself
• Don’t question what your team are doing unless you need to know – most of the time YOU DON’T.  No really – YOU DON’T.
• Consistently ask about achievements, not what’s been done
• Praise the effort that you don’t see – you’ll know from the quality and quantity of the outputs
• Do regular, scheduled, meaningful one-to-one’s – don’t just drop in
• Pre-arrange phone conversations where possible
• Don’t keep your diary and movements a secret from your team just to ‘keep them on their toes’
• Encourage your team to share their diaries but allow ‘private’ time
• Praise their ability to manage work-life balance
• Balance the need for team meetings against the need for the team to get things done
• Track outputs over activity
• Give developmental feedback on evidence not assumption – this needs you to change as well as them!

Overarching all of the above, here’s one of those ‘training room’ check-lists….

Step 1 – Get to know your people

Step 2 – Get to know your people better

Step 3 – Go back to step 2

I know. Sorry.

After spending the last two years as a successful sales manager, managing a diverse team across hundreds of square miles, I can honestly say that I did not ‘manage’ to change anything about the people in my team. I just changed me – style, language and skill set – that’s all.

Just to be clear, the solution to successful remote working is not technology, it’s people. It’s you, and your leadership.

Written by Lawrence White, Senior Learning Consultant