Develop Healthy Relationships
Remote Manager, Issue 3
In this installment of The Remote Manager, we investigate some practical ways to prioritize healthy relationships. All of the tips shared here are rooted in the idea that to foster healthy organic relationships, the remote manager must be intentional.
The last decade has seen growing concern in recognizing and supporting the whole person at work. Remote work amplifies these concerns because it breaks down the false dichotomy of personal and professional leaving us with both the opportunity and the moral imperative to engage the whole person in each interaction.
To support healthy relationship development, the Remote Manager must develop operational structures that will provide opportunities for themselves and the team to get to know one another, personally and professionally. The relationships that develop within these processes will be organic, in that they will naturally grow when a healthy environment is created. To flourish, they must be cultivated with purpose and wisdom.
Relationships can not be forced. They are the products of trust built and maintained over time. There is no one size fits all approach, but the tips in this article will give you a starting point to design unique processes to support your team or to improve the ones that you have in place.
Remote work can be lonely. Even in hybrid situations, team members spend a lot of time alone without the visual cues that connect them to the broader team. Individuals respond to this situation in differing ways, with differing levels of impact on their mental health, professional development, and over all sense of well being. Every team member will inevitably feel disconnection in some way.
In recognizing the potential for isolation, processes for supporting a remote team need to be flexible to respond to individualized needs. Here are some ideas to jump start your processes to combat the loneliness that comes with remote work.
- Make people feel valued
Identify how different people feel valued and experiment with ways to recognize each person. Tap everyone to gain insight into each other’s value. You may find yourself surprised by the ways that team members rely on one another. - Celebrate growth and achievement
Celebrations inherently connect people. Creating a culture and cadence for celebrations builds community, which helps to dispel loneliness in remote teams. Anniversaries and other milestones provide excellent opportunities for acknowledgement, but get creative when it comes to finding meaningful causes to celebrate groups and individuals based on your cultural values and your business goals.
Remote work offers unique opportunities to connect to your team and to connect your team to one another. To fully embrace the opportunities of remote connection, take a step back and look at it holistically. Identify the aspects of remote communication which are similar to in-person communication. Then think about the possibilities virtual interactions enable that can not be replicated in person. This holistic approach will fire up ways of thinking that you can use to cultivate strong relationships.
- Translate the familiar into new tactics
Being creative doesn’t mean you have to invent everything from scratch. If there are strategies that work for supporting relationships within your team, continue to use them. Look at why those strategies work in real life and then leverage technology to employ tactics to create the same or similar outcomes. - Take risks and try new ways to connect
Don’t be afraid to experiment with new tools or techniques. Insulate your team from change fatigue by making your intent and desired outcomes clear. Time box experiments and provide breaks between them. Get people’s feedback and incorporate what they like and don’t like in your experiments. - Solicit your team for ideas or tools
Use the accumulated experiences of your team members to find new tools or techniques that represent innovative approaches to building or sustaining relationships in the digital age. Incorporate their suggestions as often as possible. When their suggestions are not feasible, explain why and brainstorm some alternatives together.
People are more than their work. Evaluating work or outputs can provide insight into the person, but it’s no substitute for getting to know them. Remote teams need managers who understand and embrace their role in getting to know people, personally and professionally. Even more than knowing people themselves, remote managers need to create an environment where people know each other as well. The lovely benefit of remote work is that creating such an environment is easy.
- Connect people so they can help each other grow
Silos are easier to break remotely. Think about how people who would not ordinarily work together in a traditional setting might learn from one another when the barrier between “offices” is removed. Connecting people with different insights into the business or areas of expertise can encourage deeper understanding, improve productivity, and generate innovation. - Look for unexpected growth opportunities
Without the logistical constraints of traditional office settings, remote teams can take advantage of formal and informal learning structures that can improve their relationships and value to one another. Think about how webinars or online courses would support the growth goals of individuals and encourage relationships. Consider group learning sessions.
Whatever strategies you employ, keep track of what you learn about your team members. Schedule check-in’s that allow you to leverage your knowledge and add to it.
Undoubtedly, there will be members of your team with whom you resonate more. Keep track of how often you check in with each team member so you don’t unintentionally play favorites. A disciplined scheduling cadence will provide everybody equal access to yourself and give you the benefit of connecting with each person equally.
Track how often your team members allude to their connections or developing relationships with each other so that you can foster those connections.
Remote teams need healthy relationships to sustain themselves and their work. As a remote manager, you have the privilege of sponsoring and nurturing those relationships. The relationships themselves will develop organically and can not be forced; but the environment you create must be designed to encourage those relationships by offering the most fertile conditions for them to grow. To that end, be intentional about developing structures and cadences that make personal connections feel natural and easy.
Ultimately, your goal is for every member of the team to fit comfortably into a web of relationships that support their personal and professional growth. Businesses with connected individuals prosper.
Jennifer Columbe is the lead Operations Guru at Blue House Solutions. She blends her experience in operations, project management, product development to help business leaders build processes that work for their people.
She writes and speaks about issues impacting operations and building people centric businesses.
Reach out if you want to chat about how ideas in this article can work for your business.
