I got a call from a friend I hadn’t seen for a couple of years. Guess what she’s been doing: Managing a team of 10 engineers scattered across the globe. She read my recent columns about the challenges of managing a team from long distance, thought my pointers were on target and wanted to add to the conversation. Here are some of the real world perspectives she shared over coffee.
In addition to the US, she has team members from Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Asia. They have daily group meetings over Skype and in order to avoid members getting lulled during calls, she makes a different person facilitate each day. This keeps them engaged and interactive, since they’ll want others to reciprocate when it’s their turn to lead the call. Pretty clever.
She said one of her biggest challenges was to try to compensate for the “normalizing effect” that is automatically provided by a shared physical workplace. A shared space makes people feel more emotionally resilient and supported. For example, we can complain together about spouses and kids, we even endure (or enjoy) the same weather and traffic. In a shared space we notice desk photos, signs of hobbies; all adding to conversation and camaraderie.
As a remote manager, she may not have the opportunity to make small talk the way we can in person (“are those new shoes?”), but she must find other ways to be personable. For example, “When I noticed someone had changed their profile picture/icon to the India National Soccer Team, I made sure to ask about it the next day.”
Not all obstacles can be overcome. In one instance, the language and cultural barrier made it impossible to establish a strong work relationship. Of course, the 13-hour time difference didn’t help: “No matter what time of day we tried to talk one of us was bound to be exhausted”
Is she planning on managing this way indefinitely? Not really. If you’ve read previous columns you won’t be surprised to hear that after working two years at this challenging –yet very satisfying- assignment she’s also fatigued, and ready for a change. Well deserved.
© Copyright Eva Del Rio
