Commonly overlooked, evidence-based recommendations for virtual leaders.
For managers now working from home, leading a team virtually presents new challenges. And because the pandemic changed the work environment so drastically and so quickly, our advice for managers is yet to catch up.
The virtual leadership reminders currently floating around the infosphere are straightforward. Leaders should touch-up on their technical skills, focus on building trust, and encourage social cohesion through regular team check-ins.
These are accurate and helpful, but virtual work is here to stay and moving quickly. It’s time to go deeper.
Below are five overlooked, evidence-based recommendations for leading in today’s virtual work environment.
1. Pay Attention to Emergent Leadership
Ideally, everyone on the team steps up as a leader when their knowledge or skills are needed. However, this tendency to emerge as a leader changes in virtual work environments.
Communication apprehension—anxiety due to anticipated communication with others—is more common in real-time virtual communication.
This isn’t the same thing as introversion. In fact, it’s more strongly associated with neuroticism, which means that some of the most critical, perfection-oriented employees aren’t speaking up.
Leaders should nudge these employees to contribute, clear the floor to give them the spotlight, or consider alternative outlets for them to voice their suggestions and concerns.
2. Establish Virtual Communication Norms
Moving to virtual-only work disrupts preexisting face-to-face or hybrid communication norms. Embrace the change by thinking through four questions: What medium? How often? What tone? What level of detail?
In new or uncertain environments, employees mimic the behaviors of their leader. Choose wisely.
3. Stop Overloading Your Employees With Information
We’re getting comfortable with communication in a remote work environment. Too comfortable. We post or send messages about everything.
Just because it’s easier to communicate electronically doesn’t mean it needs to be communicated. Employees are overwhelmed. Be judicious.
4. Use Asynchronous Video
Employees log more overall hours when working remotely compared to face-to-face. Partly because the days are filled with Zoom meetings that disrupt employees’ flow and deep thinking.
Help your employees be more productive by recording videos with key information that they can watch whenever is convenient for them. They’ll likely watch them during the transition time between meetings or when their energy is low and they need a break.
5. Practice Balanced Monitoring
Over-monitoring employees is common when leading virtually. Leaders tend to overcompensate when they can no longer pick up on subtle signals during face-to-face interaction.
Although some degree of monitoring ensures stability in productivity, too much will annoy subordinates and degrade trust.
An Eye Towards The Future
Just like preexisting virtual leadership listicles, these recommendations will soon become outdated and overly straightforward. The foundations of leadership don’t change in virtual environments, they just make the need for high-quality leadership more pronounced. What will change, however, is the nature of the virtual work environment.
History clearly illustrates that technology changes quickly. The best virtual leaders will continue to think deeply about what’s new or different as virtual work environments evolve, and how they can go deeper to meet the needs of their team members.
A version of this article is also published at Business Insider.
Visit www.scottdust.com for more free resources for human capital enthusiasts, including a free e-book titled “A Field Guide to Human Capital Assessments.”
You’re probably already well aware that your staff is the lifeblood of your business. They work diligently and consistently toward your collective success, they’re there to help you brainstorm new ideas, and get you through those dreaded creative slumps.
Unfortunately, the global pandemic has put a major strain on nearly every company’s staff force, and yours is likely included in the list. Your team members might still be feeling demotivated and burnt out after many months of working in isolation and being anxious about the future.
Your job as a business owner, team manager, or personal relations specialist is to provide the motivation your remote team needs to get through these dire times. You need to inspire them to stay productive while looking after themselves and prioritizing their own health and well-being.
Need a place to start? Here are our 3 essential tips for encouraging, motivating, and engaging your team to boost employee motivation and employee engagement.
1. Develop a Cross-Company Rewards System
Everyone loves rewards. They’re a fantastic source of motivation, along with an effective incentive to keep your team’s spirits high.
There are two main types of rewards you can use to motivate your team: intrinsic and extrinsic.
An intrinsic reward is an offering or gift with no tangible, physical presence, like a compliment or recognition for excellent contributions. Extrinsic rewards, on the other hand, are tangible items such as bonuses, trophies, plaques, or ‘Employee of the Month’ badges.
Both types of rewards can help to boost office morale and keep your staff motivated—but the true magic happens when you combine them. If you’re trying to figure out which type of reward would best suit your team, you need to take a closer look at the kinds of goals they’re aiming to achieve.
The Right Time for Intrinsic Rewards
Intrinsic rewards are best suited for acknowledging ‘immeasurable’ or subjective goals. They have a more powerful and longer-lived effect on your team’s attitude than extrinsic rewards do. If you plan on making a long-term positive impact on your team and encouraging certain actions or beliefs, intrinsic perks are your bet best.
There are so many ways to use this reward type to motivate your staff force. Recognizing their strengths, efforts, and achievements is quick, simple, cost-effective, and one of the best possible ways you can go about ensuring your staff remains loyal to your organization.
Intrinsic rewards can include employee of the month accolades, regular shout-outs, or even one-on-one meetings between employees and supervisors. In these meetings, contributions are praised and encouraged.
Regardless of how you reward your employees, remember to make sure your approach is inclusive and sensitive to their needs, expectations, and personal beliefs. Take time to figure out what inspires each of your workers so you can reward them in a way that engages and makes them feel appreciated and respected.
The Right Time for Extrinsic Rewards
You should ideally offer extrinsic rewards when there’s an obvious and measurable goal your team is trying to reach. You can use close monitoring and reporting to determine whether or not the team has hit its goal, and then reward them as you see fit.
It’s also recommended that you add a time frame to your extrinsic reward goals. This gives your team the incentives they need to work harder and quicker towards the objective at hand.
Moreover, it’s useful to create a hierarchy of company rewards. This allows you to offer predetermined rewards that match the amount of work your team puts in within a given time frame. If you give your staff force a major goal to achieve, make sure the prize is tempting enough to incentivize them to work towards it in good time.
You can offer smaller rewards, such as advanced paychecks, for workers achieving more minor goals. Even the simplest of offerings can motivate workers to accomplish easy feats like accurately reporting their hours, or submitting documents by specific deadlines.
Reserve larger, juicier rewards like gift cards and annual bonuses for notable achievements like boosting sales by a certain figure, or significantly improving production rates to a preset level. We recommend breaking down major goals into smaller objectives, each with its own small reward, for motivating employees and adding employee engagement throughout the process to keep team members on track.
2. Introduce Workplace Gamification
‘Gamification’ has become a huge buzzword in recent years. This movement has the power to motivate employees, students, online learners, and virtually everyone in between.
But what exactly IS gamification, and how does it fit into working from home?
Simply put, gamification is a method of motivation companies use to boost employee satisfaction, productivity, and employee efficiency. The method involves implementing game-based features into daily tasks to make work more fun and more immersive for all involved.
When you incorporate this element of competition into your company’s day-to-day operations, you can encourage your team to learn new skills rapidly, and apply them creatively in a fun work environment.
You can start adopting this approach by developing a training program packed with badges, rewards, leaderboards, and measured achievements for completing individual learning modules. You can even allow your staff members to compete with one another, or with different departments within your business. You can also use gamification and competition to motivate your departments individually, even when they’re working from home.
3. Offer Regular and Honest Feedback
It’s essential to give your employees regular and transparent feedback if you want to keep them motivated. Clear communication helps to build an awesome work-from-home culture that strengthens the team. Regardless of whether your feedback is positive, negative, or constructive, being honest will allow each of your workers to grow, both personally and professionally.
If you don’t provide enough feedback, your team members will never be sure of which aspects of their work ethic need attention, and which areas they’re performing exceptionally in.
Positive feedback is obviously the easiest type to offer. However, you need to make your compliments specific for them to really hit home. If you don’t, they may seem generic or insincere. Chat to your workers about specific actions and behaviors you appreciate, and explain exactly why they were the right choices to make.
It’s helpful to focus on how their actions benefit your company and align with its ethos. Once you explain your positive feedback at length to your team members, they’ll understand why it’s important for them to continue those actions in the future.
It can, of course, be harder to deliver negative feedback. As difficult as it is to accept, poor feedback can often be a more powerful motivator than upbeat praise. Using the ‘sandwich approach’ is the trick to turning negative feedback into a motivating force.
This approach involves offering a compliment, then criticism, then another compliment in that order. When you do broach your criticism, offer it in a neutral way, and use facts and a few specific incidents to back up your claims.
At the end of the day, you should keep your focus on your team member’s performance and the steps they can take to improve it. Give them time to offer their own feedback on your criticisms too. Doing so will allow your staff members a chance to voice their own thoughts and opinions and have them heard and validated.
The Bottom Line
It takes empathy and creativity in equal measures to motivate your team when they’re working from home. While remote work comes with some pros, it has its cons too. Your team could be battling with personal issues, anxious about the future, or suffering from workload-related stress. Remember to be kind and willing to listen to their concerns.
Thankfully, there are so many ways to increase employee motivation, even during trying times. Try using gamification, rewards systems, and honest feedback to engage your employees and boost their job satisfaction, every day of the week.
HUMAN SKILL PROGRAMS ARE HITTING LIMITATIONS...
- Close the widening gap between learning and on-the-job application
- Overcome the tension of pausing productivity for development opportunities
- Integrate learning so it is actually in the flow of work
- The evolution of human skill development
- What Automated Coaching™ is and how it works.
This blog is a guest post written by Richard Fendler, a goal-oriented manager at SnackNation with proven leadership abilities. He’s an expert in increasing productivity and customer satisfaction while driving revenue and sales. Also committed to streamlining procedures while optimizing employee talent.
Keeping team members happy and engaged when working remotely after the COVID-19 pandemic is a challenge that all managers face. While it may seem like an insurmountable task in the long term, there are some team-building exercises you can do to achieve working with remote teams effectively.
With that in mind, here are 10 virtual team-building activities to add to your roster of employee engagement strategies so that remote work does not leave employees feeling isolated.
1. HOST A VIRTUAL BIRTHDAY PARTY
Office birthdays are a part of most company cultures, so there is no reason to stop this tradition when teams are working from home.
You can choose to organize virtual birthday parties yourself or assign this task to different people as seems suitable. There are lots of birthday party ideas for work that make sense in a virtual workspace, such as online karaoke sessions, masquerade balls, and even murder mystery games!
2. ARRANGE A VIRTUAL HAPPY HOUR
If your team is used to meeting for post-work drinks or even a coffee break on a weekly or monthly basis, this is another activity that translates well to the virtual space.
Make sure that you set a suitable cap on small groups to avoid the experience being overwhelming; 10 is ideal, although 20 is workable. Get team members to bring a drink to enjoy, and pre-plan discussion points or just let the conversation flow as you would normally. Being able to sit back and trust employees to gel in this context is one of the key leadership qualities you should foster.
3. PLAY ONLINE GAMES TOGETHER
Gaming may not be everyone’s favorite pastime, but there are lots of multiplayer experiences that are great for team bonding. Fostering cohesion in this way can even be one of the pros of telecommuting that would not necessarily apply to the office.
In terms of the team-building games themselves, popular options include the trivia-based JackBox.tv titles and the Scrabble-inspired Words With Friends.
4. SET AN ICEBREAKER CHALLENGE
Activities that engage remote workers’ brains are the best to pursue, so establishing a hypothetical scenario and asking people how they would cope can spark a lot of fun and debate.
A fun icebreaker question is to ask team members to think which 3 items they would take to a desert island to survive after being stranded on a limited list. This icebreaker will get people talking and stimulate their imagination.
5. RUN A BOOK CLUB
Whether or not a book club is already part of your team’s activity schedule, this works well for remote working as it does when face-to-face meetings are possible.
Be sure to choose books that are accessible, enjoyable, and interesting. Length also matters, so avoid picking “War and Peace” unless you want to spend weeks waiting for everyone to finish and meet up.
6. SET FITNESS GOALS
Working remotely can reduce the amount of physical activity that team members get each day, so you can capitalize on this by getting remote employees to choose their own fitness goals and aim to complete them together as constructive teamwork.
Be sure that this is handled sensitively and do not put undue pressure on a member of your team for whom fitness and exercise may not come easily.
7. ENCOURAGE NON-WORK-RELATED TALKS
While virtual meetings and conference calls are all well and good, sometimes it’s nice to talk about things other than work without being scrutinized by lots of other people in real-time.
To that end, partner people in small groups with one another and ask them to become pen pals, corresponding via email about their days and boosting each other’s morale through this online team building.
8. GET CRAFTY
When working remotely, team members may have more time on their hands freed up by not needing to commute daily.
This can make completing craft projects together an entertaining option for team-building events. Whether you decide to take up pottery, woodwork, knitting, or any other craft-related hobby, doing this while chatting with colleagues on Zoom can eradicate feelings of isolation in a fun way.
9. TAKE HOME TOURS
As team members may well live long distances from one another, a remote working scenario could be the ideal opportunity to let them show off their abodes and also display a bit more of their personality to their remote team members.
Each member can be given the chance to show everyone around their home, either in real-time or by filming clips and editing them together.
10. SHARE PERSONAL PHOTOS
Seeing pictures of someone as a baby or from their youth can be a fun way to engage with others in a work environment.
Get team members to send you photos of them in their youth, collate them all together and then share them with the rest of the team in a video chat, then get attendees to guess the identity of each pic.
Read more about virtual team-building ideas here.
Most importantly, listen to each member of your team and work out which team-building activities for remote teams will best suit their personalities and needs. Being responsive and open to feedback is the best way to improve your management of virtual offices.
HUMAN SKILL PROGRAMS ARE HITTING LIMITATIONS...
- Close the widening gap between learning and on-the-job application
- Overcome the tension of pausing productivity for development opportunities
- Integrate learning so it is actually in the flow of work
- The evolution of human skill development
- What Automated Coaching™ is and how it works.
Nothing compares to the power of a great team. The hard-working people, the camaraderie, the laughs; being a part of an exceptional team is an amazing experience. Unfortunately, that feeling is difficult to duplicate. With contrasting views getting in the way, not to mention team members who participate in activities far less than others, working in a team isn’t a top priority for many. But with the right tools and systems in place, being happier and successful as a team can be a lot easier to grasp.
As the challenges above relate to team-building activities anywhere, there are even more difficulties when working remotely. But as the world is starting to focus more on remote work, finding solutions to these teamwork inefficiencies is a top priority for many companies. And as more people are finding it difficult to stay productive in their office space while working from home, the need to find these solutions is higher than it has ever been. Luckily, there are many tips for team building for remote teams.
Keep reading to learn 18 tricks, tips, and insights on how to boost your remote team-building activities efforts for your online workspace.
HUMAN SKILL PROGRAMS ARE HITTING LIMITATIONS...
- Close the widening gap between learning and on-the-job application
- Overcome the tension of pausing productivity for development opportunities
- Integrate learning so it is actually in the flow of work
- The evolution of human skill development
- What Automated Coaching™ is and how it works.
1. VIRTUAL TEAM BUILDING ICEBREAKERS
Have you ever had a virtual meeting before? If so, then you might have thought it was a little awkward. From barking dogs to awkward pauses, a virtual team meeting can be a little weird. But to clear the air and make things comfortable for everyone, sometimes it takes a good icebreaker.
Virtual Icebreaker Questions
Many virtual teams will decide to participate in various icebreaker games. One of the leading activities involves asking your team members questions. Then, all team members take turns reading the answers out loud to the team. While this might be an approach that you saw in the third grade, it can be very effective at breaking the ice.
5 great work icebreaker questions:
What does your current role play to your strengths?
Who is someone that you admire?
What is going well outside of work?
How do you manage stress from work?
When working with another person, what do you value?
2. PLAY ONLINE GAMES
If you want to connect with your team remotely, then game activities can be a fun way for your company. There are many games to consider, so try to brainstorm the best games that are relevant to your team. Let’s now look at a few popular games to consider…
Trivia
Everyone loves a good game of trivia. And this game can be a perfect way to engage with your team. Try Kahoot for an educated technology approach!
Two Truths and a Lie
For this fun game, team members will be asked to write down three statements about themselves. However, two of these statements should be true and one should be false. Other team members can then add a mark on which option they believe is the lie. After that, each team member will then go around and explain which statement was false.
Bingo
Who doesn’t love a solid game of bingo? And what better way to bond with your team over one of the greatest team-building games ever made? And better yet, you can create a custom bingo game that is relevant to your company! One idea is to create a bingo board that includes several action items or accomplishments on it. For example, spaces on the bingo board could say: “big win recognized this week, random act of kindness, received client positive feedback, project completed before deadline.” Then you mark that spot on your board when a team member accomplishes each activity, BINGO!
3. SPEED TYPING RACE
If you want to get the friendly competition flowing with some fun and excitement, then have a typing speed race with your team members. And better yet, there are many tools out there that let you do these races for free! After the race is finished, the results can then be posted on a company message whiteboard or sent via email. To make things even more interesting, you can even set up teams that relay to different team members. This can help your team collaboration, and it just might add another level of excitement. This challenge may sound simple, but it can help to keep your team interested and focused on online team building.
4. COOKING CHALLENGE
As your team is working from home, chances are they cook up some bomb meals from time to time. Another tip for keeping employee engagement is to have a cooking challenge where team members whip up their favorite cuisine. To add an interesting twist, you could even make it themed where employees cook up a type of dish like Italian or Mexican. Then, you could have your team post a picture of their amazing creations on your company message board or send them to a company-wide email. Another way you can mix up this challenge would be to have others create recipes from other team members. This can work as a great team bonding effort, and it might even lead to learning some top-notch recipes to make yourself.
5. VIRTUAL HOUSE TOURS
Sometimes, remote team building is lacking because the team doesn’t know much about each other. Another one of the leading team-building activities involves home office tours from your workforce. Each employee can be assigned the task of walking around their home while connected to a video conference meeting. This can help to break the ice and it can do wonders for team bonding efforts. Before you know it, one of your team members might even invite everyone over to use their super awesome pool.
Remember Boundaries
While this virtual event can be great for everyone to get to know each other, be sure to tell your team that showing their home is optional. Remember, this is their private space, so they don’t have to show it if they aren’t comfortable doing so. Ignoring these boundaries can be very bad for team building.
6. HAVE A CHANNEL FOR SOLELY DOG PICTURES
Who doesn’t love a great dog photo? And when you’re stuck at your virtual office slaving away at the job, a simple dog pic can give you the boost you need and encourage strong remote team building. That being said, another tactic is to have a process where everyone posts a picture of their dog, or even sends emojis or gifs of other pets. Since everyone loves dogs, this can create many non-work conversations with team members and it can bring the remote workers closer together.
Get Creative
If you love this dog picture idea, then you can get creative with it. One option is to have a different theme every week where you dress your dog up a certain way or get them to do something unique. This can give members of your team a good smile and laugh when they need it most — and that all work towards remote team building!
7. REMOTE TEAM COHESION ACTIVITIES
If you’re looking to build a stronger bond with your team, then you may work towards having more cohesion. Check out some of the leading team-building events for remote teams below.
Schedule Fun Online Meetings
Chances are that your team members have some stuff in common. To work on better cohesion among your remote employees, try to schedule events surrounding their interests. For example, you could start a book club or schedule weekly screenings of a popular TV show.
Quarterly Christmas
Remember how great Christmas felt as a kid? Now imagine if Christmas happened four times a year. For remote employees, that could be a reality! Having a Christmas celebration quarterly can create exceptionally strong team building and it can show appreciation towards your employees. Every quarter, send a Christmas care package to every team member that includes some funny gifts and some other super cool gifts. This can bring a breath of fresh air to remote operations that can sometimes feel mundane. You might even have your team open up their presents on a conference call with everyone so the remote team can see their reactions and start some conversation. This is one of those activities that is loved by businesses everywhere!
Virtual Happy Hour
Last but certainly not least, another team-building tactic for remote teams is to have a virtual happy hour. This typically involves everyone grabbing their favorite beverage (alcoholic or not), then hanging out and socializing together. Some employers even have fun games or exercises that everyone does together while sipping on a cold beverage. And unless you want spacey work, be sure to schedule this happy hour at the end of the shift.
Fitness Gatherings
What better way to mesh with the team than by running in a real-time race? Completing a race together and building cohesive accomplishments for the team can make everyone feel closer. Busting a sweat with your remote colleagues can help them socialize, get out of the house, and can help everyone get to know each other a little better. There are tons of fitness activities out there, so get moving with your remote team today.
Take Time to Stretch
Especially if you’re used to an in-office job, transitioning to a remote position takes a huge toll on your mind. In addition, working remotely also has an enormous effect on your body. As you might spend more than eight hours a day glued to the computer, that can be very damaging to your neck, back, and spine. To encourage more stretching, including boosting team-building efforts, it’s a good idea to frequently take time in your workday to stretch as a team. Maybe once a day or a few times a week, schedule a time where you and your workforce stretch together to release tight muscles and improve posture. This team-building exercise is a must.
8. URGE SOCIALIZATION ON OWN TERMS
If you have employees in an office environment, then one of their daily activities probably involves hanging around the water cooler from time to time and socializing often. But when remote life is the new norm, these moments are taken away from your team. To keep teamwork and socialization alive, do your best to encourage remote team members to collaborate and socialize on their terms aside from group meetings. If you foster a culture with this in mind, then you can create a remote workforce that stays close and stays passionate about working together.
9. PROMOTE ONE-ON-ONE VIDEO CONFERENCING
While there can be many causes for a disconnect between remote workers, one of the leading causes is that video calls typically consist of all remote team members at once. To boost efficiency, and make an easier transition from office to virtual, it’s wise to promote face-to-face, individual video conferencing. When other remote team members get together virtually other than in the group gathering, then that can help mimic an in-house environment and might just lead to greater efficiency.
Monitor Means of Communication
While you always trust your employees to get the job done and to communicate with team members in a way they see fit, try to encourage mixing up the means of communication. If some employees only communicate via email, try to enable them to hop on a phone call or video chat. Changing up these activities can go a long way towards establishing a great culture.
10. HAVE MEETINGS WITH EVERY TEAM MEMBER
If you’re in charge of managing a remote team, then another tip is to schedule one-on-one meetings or activities with each of your team members. Whether it’s every week or every other week, meeting with all of your team members to discuss concerns, needs, tasks, or anything else can do wonders for morale and the overall happiness of your team members. You might even choose to schedule this out ahead of time and meet with the same people on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. This tactic can help to keep everyone on the same page and focused on the right goals.
Check-In Periodically
Especially if remote work is new for your employees, then you may have no idea how they’re adjusting. Maybe they still complete their work on time and seem to be doing just fine, but you should try to have a one-on-one discussion with them to learn how they’re feeling about the team. Here, they can voice any problems they have, discuss how management has been, and mention if anything needs to change.
11. SCHEDULE IN-PERSON MEET-UPS
While you can have amazing remote teams that excel at team building on a high level, activities for these remote teams only go so far. That being said, it’s very beneficial to schedule in-person meet-ups from time to time. Depending on your budget and the size of the company, you could schedule events such as dinners, laser tag, bowling, or karaoke. These events can work as rewards for a job well done, but they can also be an exceptional team-building solution!
Throw Something BIG
Of course, this might be impossible for some companies, but throwing your remote employees something HUGE can go a very long way for team building. If the budget allows for it, plan an all-inclusive trip somewhere with the team. Even just a two-day trip can create a team bond that can last a lifetime.
12. ENCOURAGE SOCIAL CONVERSATIONS
While you want to always get work done, team building virtually is a much different work environment compared to the standard office. And if your team is used to talking with one another daily, then it’s best to keep that chit-chat going if possible. That being said, never discourage extra conversations during virtual meetings — whether it’s over Slack channels or via telephone. As long as work is being completed, socializing is how employees stay sane in a remote environment. So as a manager who is in control of a virtual team, it’s up to you to kick-start conversations to boost remote team building. This can be done through basic small talk like asking them how their weekend went, what’s going on in their personal lives, etc. If you discourage personal conversations in a remote environment, then your employees can become unhappy very quickly.
13. MIX MEANS OF COMMUNICATION
If you’re on a remote team that only connects via phone, then team building may not be a focal point for you. To have the highest level of success as a team, it’s best to mix different types of communication channels. And with all of the technology we have at our fingertips, this should be easy! Try to incorporate an instant messaging tool, email, and video conferencing. This allows team members to step away from the mundane emails or phone calls and gives them a chance to socialize face-to-face — which can go a very long way for team building remotely.
14. SET UP COFFEE SHOP MEETINGS
While most people can go a little stir-crazy when locked up in the house all day, it can also have a huge impact on productivity and team building. And if your team meetings always happen on a boring telephone call, you’ll want to mix things up a bit to keep your team engaged. One tactic is to set up coffee shop meetings with your employees. Encourage them to travel to a local coffee shop where everyone can sit down and talk about team updates, progress, etc.
Share Beverage Choice
After your employees have purchased their beverage at the coffee shop, everyone should then share their drink choice. This can help to stir up some small talk and get the ball rolling for the meeting. While this may sound minor, this simple activity can create great team building.
15. SEND FREEBIES
Another strategy for remote team building is to send them freebies. If you’re a company that can budget for gift cards, then sending these to your remote employees can go a very long way. Even though a $5 gift card to a coffee shop is still only $5, it can show appreciation towards the employee and might even lead to stronger remote team building. Since remote employees don’t typically receive the perks of an in-house job, companies should compensate for that through gift cards for coffee, food, and more.
16. SHOW YOUR TEAM’S IMPACT
To create a great company culture with your remote team and form an amazing bond, then you should try to show the “why.” Give them proof that they’re doing exceptional work that is appreciated by tons of people. For example, if you have a web designer that just built a super awesome website for a client, show them the exact words that the client said about the project — assuming they’re happy about it. You always want to remind your team why they are putting in the hard work every day. Showing testimonials, published work, or videos showcasing your team’s work can drive team building through the roof!
18. BUILD THE TEAM OF YOUR DREAMS WITH CLOVERLEAF
If you’re looking for top-of-the-line team building for remote teams that help to build trust and top-notch communication, then you have to look into Cloverleaf today! We set out to recreate the best team you’ve ever been on by supplying sophisticated software that puts in the hard work for you. The Cloverleaf platform unlocks the mystery behind high-performing teams by delivering insights aimed at making your whole team better at their remote positions. Keep reading to learn more about us.
We Integrate with Your Tools
Unlike other platforms and tools that just throw a whole new confusing system at your team, Cloverleaf integrates with the tools your workforce uses every day. This helps to establish genuine relationships that boost collaboration, trust, and overall team building.
Say Goodbye to Trust Falls
Trust isn’t only built on in-person interactions — it is very possible to build trust in a virtual landscape. By using Cloverleaf, we’ll help to drip useful content to team members so everyone has a better understanding of tasks and projects as a whole. Also, this method allows team members to have a better understanding of where their strengths fit in the team’s dynamics. This creates fantastic team building through long-lasting trust — not a “big bang” that fades out over time.
Tools Everyone Can Use
When using Cloverleaf, everyone on your team has access to the amazing tools on the platform when they need them, which makes your remote workforce better equipped to work through conflict and problem-solving, take accountability, and do what’s needed for effective team building.
When the new year comes around, your people will likely come back to the office with plans, goals, exciting stories, and a momentum that is so important to keep alive as the following months near. Here are 10 ways that we can help you achieve this in the new year.
1. Resolve old conflict.
You’ve heard the phrase, new year, new me. Well, since you’re still you, why not say new year, better me! And how better to achieve this than resolving old conflict that was brewing with the end-of-the-year anxiety and rush. If you still feel a negative energy lingering into January, learn how to deal with conflict in the office so that everyone starts out ready for whatever comes their way.
2. ARRANGE A VIRTUAL HAPPY HOUR
If your team is used to meeting for post-work drinks or even a coffee break on a weekly or monthly basis, this is another activity that translates well to the virtual space.
Make sure that you set a suitable cap on small groups to avoid the experience being overwhelming; 10 is ideal, although 20 is workable. Get team members to bring a drink to enjoy, and pre-plan discussion points or just let the conversation flow as you would normally. Being able to sit back and trust employees to gel in this context is one of the key leadership qualities you should foster.
3. PLAY ONLINE GAMES TOGETHER
Gaming may not be everyone’s favorite pastime, but there are lots of multiplayer experiences that are great for team bonding. Fostering cohesion in this way can even be one of the pros of telecommuting that would not necessarily apply to the office.
In terms of the team-building games themselves, popular options include the trivia-based JackBox.tv titles and the Scrabble-inspired Words With Friends.
4. SET AN ICEBREAKER CHALLENGE
Activities that engage remote workers’ brains are the best to pursue, so establishing a hypothetical scenario and asking people how they would cope can spark a lot of fun and debate.
A fun icebreaker question is to ask team members to think which 3 items they would take to a desert island to survive after being stranded on a limited list. This icebreaker will get people talking and stimulate their imagination.
5. RUN A BOOK CLUB
Whether or not a book club is already part of your team’s activity schedule, this works well for remote working as it does when face-to-face meetings are possible.
Be sure to choose books that are accessible, enjoyable, and interesting. Length also matters, so avoid picking “War and Peace” unless you want to spend weeks waiting for everyone to finish and meet up.
6. SET FITNESS GOALS
Working remotely can reduce the amount of physical activity that team members get each day, so you can capitalize on this by getting remote employees to choose their own fitness goals and aim to complete them together as constructive teamwork.
Be sure that this is handled sensitively and do not put undue pressure on a member of your team for whom fitness and exercise may not come easily.
7. ENCOURAGE NON-WORK-RELATED TALKS
While virtual meetings and conference calls are all well and good, sometimes it’s nice to talk about things other than work without being scrutinized by lots of other people in real-time.
To that end, partner people in small groups with one another and ask them to become pen pals, corresponding via email about their days and boosting each other’s morale through this online team building.
8. GET CRAFTY
When working remotely, team members may have more time on their hands freed up by not needing to commute daily.
This can make completing craft projects together an entertaining option for team-building events. Whether you decide to take up pottery, woodwork, knitting, or any other craft-related hobby, doing this while chatting with colleagues on Zoom can eradicate feelings of isolation in a fun way.
9. TAKE HOME TOURS
As team members may well live long distances from one another, a remote working scenario could be the ideal opportunity to let them show off their abodes and also display a bit more of their personality to their remote team members.
Each member can be given the chance to show everyone around their home, either in real-time or by filming clips and editing them together.
10. SHARE PERSONAL PHOTOS
Seeing pictures of someone as a baby or from their youth can be a fun way to engage with others in a work environment.
Get team members to send you photos of them in their youth, collate them all together and then share them with the rest of the team in a video chat, then get attendees to guess the identity of each pic.
Read more about virtual team-building ideas here.
Most importantly, listen to each member of your team and work out which team-building activities for remote teams will best suit their personalities and needs. Being responsive and open to feedback is the best way to improve your management of virtual offices.
Imagine sitting at home or in a coffee shop behind a screen all day and being included on emails with your team. This would likely feel normal if you knew the other teammates on the email, but what if you are a completely remote worker? How do you build a foundation of trust when you are only virtually communicating with your team?
TRUST: WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?
One thing we know about remote and distributed teams is that connection is the key to performance. Trust is an essential building block of group cohesion (Sarker, Valachich, & Sarker, 2003), and trust is required for team success (Handy, 1995). Without trust, your team’s productivity will decline. Distrustful teammates may feel the need to excessively monitor each other’s work or even work in isolation without collaboration (Al-Ani, & Redmiles, 2009), and we know that collaboration is of paramount importance in virtual teams. Want to know how you can foster trust in your team and empower your employees to do their best work together? Keep reading!
HOW TO BUILD TRUST
Foster a culture of trust (McManus & Mosca, 2015)! A great place to start is by understanding what motivates behaviors and cultural preferences. Our CulturePulse and Motivating Values assessments can provide you with a bird’s eye view of those, and you can use the results of these assessments to understand what your team is motivated by and how they prefer to fit into a team. This allows a mutual understanding, respect, and awareness of each other, and from there you will have a better idea of how to work with each other.
“Building a culture of trust requires commitment from the top down” (McManus & Mosca, 2015).
This means that, as a team leader, you should “practice what you preach” by modeling a culture of trust to your employees through your words and actions. Self-disclosure helps build trust (Ma, Lim Mingjie, & Naaman, 2017), and one way Cloverleaf can help you self-disclose who you really are is through your profile — it is a wealth of information about your strengths, preferences, and what makes you YOU! Invite teammates to explore the platform and learn more about what makes you tick.
Transparency and honesty not only shows that you are open to discussion, but also that you want a strong foundation of truth. A way to build trust in your team is through effective communication and information sharing (McManus & Mosca, 2015). These qualities are all evident through the Cloverleaf Calendar Integration. The events on your Google or Microsoft calendar are pulled into Cloverleaf and presented for the day with the event, the people you are meeting with, and (if they have a Cloverleaf account) a coaching insight about them. This feature is available to EVERYONE who uses Cloverleaf in a team! Another way to promote information sharing among team members is to encourage employees to use their email insights every day. These email insights provide information about teammates’ strengths and preferences — promote a culture of transparency and trust. Even though some of your remote or distributed team members may have never met, they can still get to know each other as people and build relationships!
Learn more about the Cloverleaf integrations here to have a more engaged and cohesive team.