Managing a team of professionals comes with its fair share of hurdles, even under normal circumstances. As such, with many businesses still requiring their employees to work from home, it’s become increasingly difficult for leaders to keep track of their team throughout each workday. Fortunately, you aren’t alone in this struggle, and there’s plenty of advice out there for managers just like you. These are some of the biggest challenges of leading a team from home and what you can do to navigate them effectively.

The Biggest Challenges of Leading a Team From Home

Communicating Standards and Ideas

Whether it be kicking off a new project or generating new ideas as a group, communication is the foundation of everything that goes on in the office. So, it only makes sense that it would be just as critical, if not more so, in a remote working situation. But chatting over an instant messenger simply isn’t the same as speaking in person, and a lot of potentially great points tend to get lost between the lines of text. Because of this, many leaders have begun turning to video conferencing programs as a way of bringing personalization back into these correspondences.

Tracking Project Completion

It’s also common to struggle with keeping track of project progress or even monitoring overall team productivity. This is because it’s much harder to see for yourself that work is being done when everyone is working in different locations. One of the best ways to help with this is by setting clear expectations for your team to meet each day. This could mean making 15 cold-calls per hour or completing a certain stage of a project by the end of the day. By establishing these goals for them and checking in at the end of the day, you’ll be able to get a more accurate picture of how your employees are using their time.

Addressing Complex Issues

Another of the biggest challenges of leading a team from home is figuring out how to solve any potentially serious problems that occasionally pop up. Since, as we already mentioned, communication can be difficult when working remotely, it becomes even harder to discuss issues in-depth and come to a consensus on how to fix them. On the plus side, some video meeting apps or chat programs give you the ability to set up polls and put things to a vote. This can be great for keeping everyone involved in the process and ensuring each voice is heard. 

Dealing With Team Burnout

Burnout is something you may come across during this time as well. This is due to the fact that there are no fixed boundaries between working hours and personal time when individuals are working remotely. Stress often spikes, productivity will lower, and your team might find themselves disconnected and unmotivated in their jobs. Luckily, there are several strategies you can practice to help prevent remote worker burnout and keep everyone healthy and engaged with their duties. Some might include encouraging personal time or even just letting your team know that feeling burnt out is okay.