How Mary Builds Up her Business Using Remote Team Management

As remote teams have started to become the new norm, managers and team leaders have struggled to cope at the beginning. But there are some that have cracked the code and have been making strides in improving their remote team management. And there are others who have been working with remote teams for a long time are doing business as usual, if not more motivated, as they get the affirmation that they have made the right choice beforehand. 

And then there are business owners who are stuck managing both ends of the business. They have to check their team’s performance, but also talk to clients or partners and think of ways on how to improve their business.

So which group do you fall under? Are you still struggling to find a good team management style for your remote workforce? Or maybe you’re looking for a few tips on how to balance your team management with other aspects of your business? You may be like our client Mary. Read on to learn more.

This is Mary

Mary is the Digital Marketing Manager for a firm that she has established with her partners. While you can reach her via email and other forms of online communication, she prefers to meet with clients and her team face-to-face most of the time. Though she still meets up with them through online conferences to get updates from everyone.

Remote work is different from your typical office work structure. It makes sense that there might be a learning curve for some people. Managers specifically need to find an efficient management style that fits best with the remote team they have. Otherwise it might lead to lower productivity and morale in the long run. 
 
In Mary’s situation, it is good that she keeps in touch with her team constantly. Whether it is for team conferences or 1-on-1 coaching, it tells the team that she is looking out for them. It also implies that they can approach her any time they need her. 

That in itself is not bad. But when you are also in charge of other things in the business, you might end up having too many things on your plate.

Mary is Constantly Busy

Aside from managing the Digital Marketing team, she also talks to current and potential clients. She presents the firm’s services and samples from previous works. Mary also handles generating leads and getting them more clients. 

This means that Mary’s day is a never-ending cycle of video conferences and checking her email for responses from leads and clients, only to schedule more video conferences with them in the future. And she is doing all these on top of meeting with her team on a regular basis. 

It’s fairly common for business owners to wear many hats at work, especially if the business is in its early stages. But being stuck on administrative tasks and repetitive roles that eat up your time means less efforts on higher-level responsibilities that can improve your business. Sometimes, it is better to focus on certain responsibilities rather than spreading yourself too thin, as Mary soon found out.

Mary Drops the Ball

As expected, having too many tasks and responsibilities has taken a toll on Mary. She could not check on her team as often as she wanted, which could lead to lower morale. And being busy with clients and checking on the team also meant she has not done any research on recent market trends and concepts that may fit in their business. 

This is the issue when a manager works too much “in” the business rather than “on” the business. Doing all the tasks that keep the company afloat might seem productive short-term, but it means that no one is working on the next step. This leads to stagnation and your company getting left behind. So it is always a good idea to find balance between working in and on your business at all times. 

But what can Mary do to get out of this situation?

Mary’s Team Management Solution

One of the things Mary can do is delegate her administrative tasks, so she has time for other responsibilities. She can hire a dedicated distant assistant to handle her emails and schedule her meetings, so she can focus on engaging her clients and have some time to follow new concepts that she wants to implement. And if she wants, she can also have her distant assistant do the legwork for those concepts as well. 

The other option is to have a better remote team management strategy. She has to face the truth that she cannot always micromanage everything for them. Mary can start by giving them more freedom to decide on certain aspects, be it on the creative side or task management. This will slowly build trust and confidence in the team, so they can handle the day-to-day tasks themselves, and just update Mary on it once or twice a week instead of the usual daily meetings. 

But what if Mary still wants to get daily updates from her team? That’s where we come in.

Bottleneck Distant Assistants offers top-of-the-line Dedicated Distant Assistant services to team managers like Mary. Our dedicated distant assistants have trained in project management, so they can handle the day-to-day tracking and updates of your team for you. This will let you have more time to focus on higher-level projects and responsibilities in your business. And you won’t have to worry about your daily administrative tasks or managing your team efficiently. 

So How About You?

Are you having the same problems as Mary? Is your job getting in the way of you doing your best work? We can definitely assist you with that! 

Schedule a FREE consultation today, and see how we can work on making your business easier for you. 

Did you miss last week’s post? We share about Deb who struggles with managing too much in her company, and finally learns how to optimize her business through the art of delegation.