# How are you leading your team right now? I have quite a few people reporting to me and I'm looking for inspiring, constructive, or just downright fun ways to ensure I'm supporting them the best I can even from afar. ##### Post Metadata - Posted at: over 6 years ago - Net upvotes: 3 ## Comments ### Comment 1 There are already many great examples in previous answers here regarding having a communications plan and schedule for staying in touch and managing people remotely. The way you work remotely doesn't really differ from the way you'd work with people down the hall, in that you need to be available for quick questions, and then have a cadence for meetings and sessions that are necessary for keeping larger projects moving forward as needed, with input from all necessary stakeholders. The key is making sure you have great tools that empower both types of communication. For the "quick question" need, my team and I use Slack, which is a great way to stay connected and share individual resources quickly and easily. For larger project management needs, we use a combination of the Google suite of office tools (including Calendar, Meet, Documents, Spreadsheets) and Trello, which we use for tracking specific project timelines and deliverables and assigning tasks. I've also used Basecamp in the past, which I personally prefer to Trello, but Trello was in place prior to my time here. My company had our virtual workplace process in place prior to the current virus crises, as we had a number of employees already working remotely, so it was not a challenge for us all to move into a virtual environment. In terms of maintaining a healthy work culture, we hold virtual (and informal) "Friday Happy Hours" at the end of the work day over Google Meet to celebrate our successes and accomplishments for the week, recognize achievements, call out people for great work, and maintain our relationships on a more personal level. All of our employees (15 of us) gather via video, and share their experiences for the week in a laid-back and casual manner. Management makes sure to keep morale high by discussing successes and calling out great work, but they also make sure to ask about everyone individually, and share ideas and thoughts on meeting personal challenges too, or empathizing with people as they face uncertain times. That sort of personal touch is key to keeping our employees engaged with not only their work, but with the company as a whole. We, as managers need to be sure we remember how human this challenge is, and to connect with people at a personal level to let them know we're there for them in that way, too. ##### Comment Metadata - Posted at: over 6 years ago - Author title: Branding, Communications, Creative and Customer Experience Professional - Net upvotes: 1 #### Reply 1 This is useful answer. Check if the work is being done as promised OK. However checking the fear and personal risk assessment can best be done 1 on 1. Grab the phone or do the personal videocall and connect. Connecting on a personal level and sharing your appreciation and their feed-back is key for teamwork and growing all together. ##### Reply Metadata - Posted at: over 6 years ago - Author title: learning accelerator - team turbo - lighthouse intern - serving & connecting & counseling students #SDG123 ### Comment 2 Knowledge driven approach. Transforming folks from being knowledgeable to KNOWLEDGE-ABLE ##### Comment Metadata - Posted at: over 6 years ago - Author title: LIVE IN THE KNOW ### Comment 3 I took my time to educate myself on the subject - reading, listening and talking to experts. Then, I devised a Plan of action for this crisis situation. Divided my team into two fully functional groups - one is out there, doing their job and exposed to the risk (all precautions taken, of course) for one full week; the other group staying home and healthy. Then, they switch. So I have a fully operational team (I manage a TV station) and a full reserve - good for two weeks. I personally check and monitor if they comply with the Plan and with the disinfecting measures I enforced 4 weeks ago. They feel protected; hey feel like I am personally taking care of them, and they are doing a great job. This is my best way to inspire and support them. ##### Comment Metadata - Posted at: over 6 years ago - Author title: Broadcast Television – Brand management - Marketing Communications - Internet - Startups - Business/ Marketing strategy #### Reply 1 ! ##### Reply Metadata - Posted at: over 6 years ago - Author title: learning accelerator - team turbo - lighthouse intern - serving & connecting & counseling students #SDG123 ### Comment 4 Hi I have been working with remote teams for decades, managing at one time up to 15 people. I think there's several different ways to go about this . . . first, what tools does your team use already (if any) to send IMs. If they don't already do this, do you use Office or Google Suites? I can make a recommendation to that as it should be a free add on. I do all questions via messenger to keep them out of emails. I find questions get lost there! If they need me to speak to them in order to understand a concept . . . I simple call them from the chat. I also do regular 1:1s with each member either weekly or every other week and then do a team weekly stand-up ---- knowing there could be issues where all cannot be there at that time but should let me know in advance. The agendas for both types of meetings are shared (either via OneDrive or GDocs) - meaning they can add items as well. My only parameter is that if they aren't there by the EOD before hand, I may not address them (as we don't want meetings to go over) and by that point, I likely have it planned BUT I still want them to submit up until last minute in case that item takes priority and I can either answer the question, set up another time to speak about it, let them know I am pushing to their 1:1 or to the following week's team call. I would be more than happy to take 15-30 to chat with you through this if you would like - my LI profile is https://www.linkedin.com/in/christimulligan/ Check me out and if you're down, connect with me there or here and I will reach out directly :) I know these are crazy times!!! ##### Comment Metadata - Posted at: over 6 years ago - Author title: Customer Success, Delivery & Client Relationship Expert #### Reply 1 Supportive ! ##### Reply Metadata - Posted at: over 6 years ago - Author title: learning accelerator - team turbo - lighthouse intern - serving & connecting & counseling students #SDG123 ### Comment 5 Michigan is locked down for non-essential businesses (like ours -- a management consulting firm). We are staying connected through thrice-weekly video calls. Everyone gets on the call and we check-in to see how we're all doing, etc. We take care of the people side first, and then we talk business -- planning for how to re-start and hit the ground running when the pandemic lockdown is over. We're using Zoom and FaceTime, as they are the simplest for most people to use. Working great! We've used video calls for years, so this really isn't anything new for us. ##### Comment Metadata - Posted at: over 6 years ago - Author title: CEO & Executive Director #### Reply 1 When you are already used to connecting remotely you are ahead. I call it we have tail wind. Three tijes a week with the whole team. AWESOME. ##### Reply Metadata - Posted at: over 6 years ago - Author title: learning accelerator - team turbo - lighthouse intern - serving & connecting & counseling students #SDG123 ### Comment 6 I have weekly office hours where people can sign up and jump in my zoom room to ask me any and all questions they might have. Obviously there are some things we have to keep under wraps but 99% of the time transparency will hold your employees trust and loyalty. ##### Comment Metadata - Posted at: over 6 years ago ### Comment 7 I have been making sure to have weekly face time meetings with all of my direct reports and encouraging them to to do the same for theirs. Right now it's incredibly important that we are seeing each other as often as possible, as we try to keep our ship running ##### Comment Metadata - Posted at: over 6 years ago ## Related discussions - [How well does Trello scale into a larger team?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/1-how-well-does-trello-scale-into-a-larger-team) - Posted at: about 13 years ago - Comments: 6 - [Can we please add a new section](https://www.g2.com/discussions/2-can-we-please-add-a-new-section) - Posted at: about 13 years ago - Comments: 0 - [Quantifiable benefits from implementing your CRM](https://www.g2.com/discussions/quantifiable-benefits-from-implementing-your-crm) - Posted at: about 13 years ago - Comments: 4