Council Post: Three Critical Tips For Leading Your Online Team To Success

By John Turner, founder of SeedProd, the most popular coming-soon page solution for WordPress used by over 800,000 websites.

Remote work is now more popular than ever before. In fact, many of us don’t have a choice but to work from home. If you’re a new leader in this situation, you may be feeling overwhelmed or confused about how to lead your remote team to success. 

We know that this struggle isn’t unique. Brands across all industries have made dramatic shifts to remote-only work since the start of 2020. In an effort to help business leaders thrive in this relatively new digital landscape, let’s look at several things you can do to be a better leader and ensure the success of your brand. 

Make Check-Ins A Priority

The truth is, your remote team will likely fall apart without crisp and transparent communication. Teams and individuals need to know where everyone stands if they want to reach their goals. 

There are several ways you can improve communication within your team. A straightforward way is to add a check-in feature to your chat program. This feature allows team members to talk about what they are going to do today, how they feel, and whether they are facing any obstacles. 

Understanding what your team is working on, and whether they are encountering any issues, can go a long way toward improving communications. 

You can also have a one-on-one video call every week where you go over your goals and progress on assignments, and ask your team if they have any questions. When your team is left in the dark, chaos will soon follow. Regular check-ins can stop this problem and improve the productivity of your staff. 

Create Outcome-Based Goals

During your check-ins, it’s crucial that you have tangible goals in mind for your team. If the people working for your business don’t know what you expect, you will have a hard time making progress on future projects. 

The best kind of goals you can create for your team are those that are outcome-based. Instead of focusing on how long an employee is active, it’s better to gauge the result of their work. Productivity and efficiency matter in business because they translate to results. 

Using this tactic, you can improve employee satisfaction and learn the strengths of each team member. Building on strengths and meeting your outcome-based goals will help you achieve positive results. 

Create a list that you can use during weekly team meetings so everyone can track their goals and performance. You’ll find that employees are more likely to improve their work over time if they see where they stand each week. Using this tip, you can also monitor individual performance and find ways to put everyone in a position where they can thrive. 

Provide Vital Resources

The next thing you need to consider is your resources. Do you have all of the resources your team needs to be successful? If not, you may have to meet and find out exactly what each department needs to reach goals. 

For example, the team that creates your images will need the same image editing software so the team can share photos without complications. Similarly, it’s a good idea to get a grammar tool for your writers so they are always publishing their best content. 

Find out what your team needs during a meeting, and gather the resources in a central place on your company website. Now, when a new staff member needs a tool to complete their job, they will have everything they need in one place.

Conclusion

As you can see, there are three pillars you need to keep in mind when you’re leading a team online. Communication, goals and resources are necessary if you want the people working for you to succeed. 

If you have a small business or are new to remote work, it will take some time to get all of these systems set up. Think carefully about your objectives and how you can equip your staff to handle the challenges ahead. Before long, you’ll have a robust online team that’s just as effective as their counterparts working in physical offices.