Remote teams pose challenges

Nowadays, most managers have teams in far-flung places reporting to them. It is a big challenge to effectively supervise these people and the consequences of mismanagement can be very damaging because, more often than not, the teams are based at a client site.

Multiple challenges are faced by both the managers and their teams.

Expectations are often not met initially. Young employees are placed on site and expected to deliver from day one, putting undue pressure on them. There are no senior colleagues nearby to guide or direct them and this demoralises and de-motivates the team.

It is important that teams are managed by their supervisor and not by the client. Teams may need to be reminded that they report to you and not to the client.

Poaching of staff can become a problem. Clients have easy access to your employees, which may lead to attrition in key positions.

Immediate superiors committing to deliver projects to clients without the team's knowledge can lead to undue pressure on the team.

Sometimes, managers will be pushed to over-deliver due to pressure from the client and this may lead to a waste of resources - be it time, money or people. Things can get complicated when the manager himself is focussed on servicing a client site.

However complex these problems may be, there are some simple solutions.

Communication is the key. The manager should always be in touch with the team and distance should not be allowed to separate them.

Stay up to date. Managers should periodically seek status reports from the team and be updated with happenings at the client site, the team's contribution to client's success factor and their day-to-day activities.

Visit the site as frequently as possible, not only to see the client, but also to spend some time with the team.

Share your experiences with team members and provide guidance and direction when needed - they should not be allowed to feel alienated.

At regular intervals, get the team members to visit your organisation's nearest office so that they get to meet and interact with their colleagues and exchange views and gain insights that might be helpful to them.

Listen to your team members and get their side of the story before taking action as a result of input from a client who may not know the full context.

Do not overreact to situations and criticise your team in front of the client.

Be willing to counsel team members and become their mentor so that your subordinates always confide in you.

Team members at client sites will interact with senior executives and should be equipped to confidently manage stakeholder expectations.

Allow team members to be involved in other projects. This increases self-confidence, makes them feel important and is a learning opportunity for them.

Finally, managers should themselves be well trained in the art of managing teams remotely if the organisation is going to get the best results from them. Managers may be expected to oversee multiple client sites and it is vital that they are capable of handling the complexity involved.

- Sanjiv Anand is managing director and V. Ramakrishnan is an engagement manager at Cedar Management Consulting International.