As a virtual team manager, it’s crucial that you make a consistent effort to communicate with your direct reports. Failure to communicate is often cited as one of the leading causes of declining employee morale and lackluster effort towards achieving company goals and objectives.
It’s a given that if you are a corporate manager in today’s economy then you are pressed for time to accomplish all the project work you’ve been tasked with as well as manage your team. Neglecting projects or your team can adversely affect your own success.
With a high performance team it’s easy to let your direct reports just do their job, knowing that they will perform well as the always do. Before you know it, a month has passed and you haven’t talked with your employee. This can lead to the employee feeling neglected and unappreciated.
Given the constraints on your time as well as the constraints on your employees time, here are three ways to improve your communications without taking up an inordinate amount of time.
- Maximize your use of social media: Use Twitter or Instant Messaging effectively. Tweeting or posting updates on Facebook lessens the distance between two people and makes it possible to stay in touch. Both of you have the advantage of real time collaboration and can be more aware of issues that are affecting your work. Be careful not to overdo it. Your employee probably doesn’t want to know every time you go to a meeting or get a cup of coffee and will resent the intrusions.
Use an intranet portal or web site: web sites or portals can be very effective in ensuring a consistent message is sent out to all team members. Links to important company/organization web sites can be maintained as well as serving as a repository of company or project documents. Use a program such as Microsoft SharePoint or a similar program.
Pick up the phone and call: If you can’t meet someone in person then the next best thing is to call them. It doesn’t have to be a long conversation. Just call and ask them how things are going. This shows genuine interest on your part and gives the employee a chance to vent and unwind. Let the employee know you just wanted to see how their day went. Avoid the temptation to pile on additional work on these calls or you may find yourself going to their voicemail quite often.
Communications between a manager and their employees is crucial and very similar to communications in a marriage. It’s usually one of the first things to be sacrificed when all parties are too busy and has the most impact in the success of the relationship.