Best Practices for Managing a Remote Team as a Startup Project Manager

by Lenka Davis

What are some of the key elements of managing a remote team? Do they depend on the technology that is used or more on human behavior in an organization?

As good as all the new technologies are to track project progress and keep teams up to date, the fundamentals mostly come down to soft skills. Communication is the number one practice and it includes calling a team member on the phone or setting up a video meeting with a few members to keep everyone on track.

Key elements of project managing a remote team are:

1. Communication

2. Trust

3. Common Goals

4. Team Culture

Communication

One of my favorite phrases is, “communication is key”. It seems so obvious and simple, and when projects are going along swimmingly, then it is easy to communicate. It’s when the team is challenged by even a small change or new situation, then communication can be the reason for success or failure.

Setting clear expectations for what channels, how frequently, and what response times are expected help projects run smoothly. Having one platform where chats, emails and information is stored helps reduce time that team members take to communicate important information.

Trust

 In a study published in Harvard Business Review, by a group of organizational behavior researchers on how people interact in the workplace, they confirmed, among other findings, that 

It has been particularly difficult to integrate trust into virtual teams at work if the team either had a new member join while offices were doing remote work, or completely new groups started projects together.

This study also found that “Acknowledging negative emotions boosts trust more than

acknowledging positive emotions.” Why you might ask, it’s because people feel that you care more about them. It might take more time, attention and effort but it is worth it in the long run.

Common Goals

Having common goals and making sure everyone is aware of what they are will keep the team working smoothly, especially if they are remote. Startups often face uncertain times and challenging business environments, and so giving a common goal to a team is even more critical.

Using project management tools, setting SMART goals, and establishing key performance indicators (KPIs) for each team member. For more on setting goals, in this article we talk about setting business goals and marketing goals.

For a list of project management tools, this article has a list along with key steps for success and other startup tools to help you stay organized.

For more on marketing KPIs and startup KPIs check out the information me have gathered in those articles here on our site.

Team Culture

A strong team culture needs to be established with any team in order for them to be successful. It is particularly hard to do when teams are virtual. In such cases, it is crucial to keep the team members happy and motivated

Creating a good work culture takes time and effort and can be achieved by recognizing and rewarding individual and team achievements, and fostering a sense of belonging among team members. Some ways to build a culture is to find out what activities the team would like to do together. This can be a wide variety of virtual activities that are fun from trivia games and team talent shows, to guest visitors and demonstrations. Other team building activities can be a chef that walks the group through how to prepare a delicious meal or a virtual mixology class.

FunFact

When was the mute button invented? As the workforce became virtual during the pandemic, and meetings moved to Zoom or other video conference tools, a new set of skills became needed. Among those features that had to be learned was using the mute button, sharing your screen and turning your video on and off. The mute button was invented in 1956 by Robert Adler, an Austrian-born engineer working for the Zenith Radio Corporation in Chicago. It was one of the four buttons on his Space Command 400, the first commercially viable TV remote control.

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Lenka Davis is a Managing Partner at Fly to Soar. She has worked in marketing, managing projects and building tools in the high-tech industry for Fortune 100 companies and also ran her own business. Follow Lenka and the Fly to Soar Team on Instagram @flytosoarcompany