Sadie, your senior exective advisor.
Working virtually is becoming increasingly more common and beneficial. There are some great reasons to move into the virtual workspace, but how can you do this correctly and avoid the pitfalls?
- Communication – This one is hard to get right even when you work in the same office and can talk to each other face to face. In a virtual workspace, everyone is working in different locations and potentially different time zones. I find that working this way requires even more communication than in a traditional setting.
- Tip 1: Scheduling regular & frequent meetings to ensure everyone is on the same page. This can be a 5-minute check-in or longer if needed. My team has two standing calls per week & we talk to each other throughout each day as well.
- Tip 2: Offer as many communication tools available to yourself and your team so it is easy to talk to each other even when the day gets hectic. We use e-mail, phone, text, video meetings, etc. to ensure that we can get across our messages at any moment. A text works well if you are on another call, in a meeting, or otherwise cannot answer a call or an e-mail. This works well if the matter is quick and/or urgent in nature.
- Expectations & Metrics – Now that you have found the best way to communicate with your team how can you be sure things are getting done timely? You must establish expectations and metrics up front. Everyone must be very clear on who is doing what, when is it due by, how will it be reviewed, and anything else that will help them be successful. Our team has a few tools we use for this.
- Tool 1 – Workflow/project manager. We use Asana to manage our daily tasks by project.
- Tool 2 – Agenda for weekly calls. This includes both hard and soft deadlines and assigned team members to ensure everyone knows where things are at all times.
- Tool 3 – Zoom Meeting. We love using Zoom for team meetings/calls. You can use this software to share your screen, call in number, and record the meetings.