Jennifer Schuster of Segal Benz: 5 Things You Need To Know To Successfully Manage a Remote Team

…Creating a collaborative work environment. We are employee communicators, and we like to bounce ideas off one another and work together to get things done, and remote work can make this more complicated. We’ve become very comfortable with sitting together on Zoom or Teams video, sharing screens, and working together in real-time. We’ll grab snacks, take breaks, tend to our kids, and come back together. We’re understanding and flexible and even have fun!

As a part of our series about the five things you need to successfully manage a remote team, I had the pleasure of interviewing Jennifer Schuster.

Jennifer Schuster is Vice President, Communications at Segal Benz, the communications consulting practice of Segal, the benefits and HR consulting firm. She is a member of the San Francisco office. Jennifer has 25 years of experience in strategic communications planning and execution. She helps employees connect their organization’s mission, vision and strategy with the work they do, and the rewards they receive. Jennifer specializes in using social media and mobile communications to connect with employees.

She advises Segal Benz’s multiemployer, corporate and public sector clients across industries, including healthcare, higher education, financial services, technology, defense, media, healthcare, manufacturing, sports, hospitality and transportation.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would love to get to know you a bit better. What is your “backstory”?

I certainly didn’t think I’d be a consultant when I grew up. I happened into this profession straight out of college. I started as a temporary / contract employee with a consulting firm, working with a local communication consultant, supporting desktop design and production management needs. With my studies in economics and writing, internal communication felt like a great fit for me. I started taking on more responsibility and learned all of the parts of the communication consulting role over time — writing, project management, strategy, budgeting, and people management. I love this work because it makes a difference for people — it helps them to make great decisions about their health, finances, careers, and life needs.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?

One of my favorite stories is related to facilitation. I attended a meeting with a colleague who led the day with a few sports team analogies. The stories fell a bit flat, so after a break I took it upon myself to tee up a different story about imagining how the group would work together if cooking a meal. Who’d plan the menu, who’d chop the veggies, who would grill, how we’d serve the meal, and who would bring the wine. The room lit up as we shared details about our favorite foods and the roles we’d like to play. And later that week, we found ourselves invited to the Chief Human Resources Officer’s home and cooked up that meal. A great experience!

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

It’s likely an experience many communicators share: I transposed a phone number in a print piece, which mailed to over 20,000 employees. And… it connected to a sexy, spicy line. Even as a seasoned consultant, to this day I personally check every phone number and programmed URL included in our communications!

What advice would you give to other business leaders to help their employees to thrive and avoid burnout?

While we know this is easier said than done, encourage employees to set and honor their own boundaries — and to openly communicate those boundaries with their team members. Also, encourage your people to take their PTO/vacation time, even as now in 2021 we’re looking at another few months of “staycations.”

Ok, let’s jump to the core of our interview. Some companies have many years of experience with managing a remote team. Others have just started this, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Can you tell us how many years of experience you have managing remote teams?

I’ve been working remotely and managing people full-time, since 2008 — well before the pandemic began. Pre-pandemic, most of the folks on my team worked in one of our offices at least two days a week. We are scattered across the US: Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Chicago — and I live in small-town northern California.

Managing a team remotely can be very different than managing a team that is in front of you. Can you articulate for our readers what the five main challenges are regarding managing a remote team? Can you give a story or example for each?

1. Creating a collaborative work environment. We are employee communicators, and we like to bounce ideas off one another and work together to get things done, and remote work can make this more complicated. We’ve become very comfortable with sitting together on Zoom or Teams video, sharing screens, and working together in real-time. We’ll grab snacks, take breaks, tend to our kids, and come back together. We’re understanding and flexible and even have fun!
2. Encouraging the team to set boundaries between work and personal/life space. It can be difficult to shut down/off when working remotely, especially as we’ve sheltered in place for the past year. While we all need flexibility, for many of my team members that translated to starting early and working late while balancing home needs during the day. This is difficult to sustain, and I’m encouraging folks to “step away from the laptop” at a set time, even if they aren’t able to complete the day’s tasks. To make this work, we’ve focused energy on building everyone’s comfort with asking for help early and when needed.
3. Fostering and sustaining trust among the team. We’ve worked hard to communicate and model flexibility while setting realistic and clear expectations for performance. With a year into sheltering in place, the pace is truly challenging to maintain. So, through frequent and open conversations, we’re finding opportunities to tag-team on projects. We’re mixing and matching our expertise. For example, a seasoned consultant is serving as a project manager; a more junior team member had responsibility for designing our new virtual benefits fair solution. As a manager, 2020 showed me that flexibility is not just about “time.” It’s equally about flexing skills and expertise as we work together. We’re leaning on and learning from each other, and an improved sense of trust among our direct team members is the result.
4. Staying focused. I’ve worked remotely for years, and 2020/21 feels like a year of heightened distraction! It’s like a Calgon commercial from back in the day, and whether it’s barking dogs, Amazon deliveries, my kid’s homework and growling tummy, or my Asana notifications, it can be hard to stay on task. So, I’m encouraging my team to consider easy things they can do to improve their focus. Close email for an hour a day; power down Teams; say no to unnecessary meetings; do a short meditation; take a quick walking break to recharge. These simple acts have made a big difference for my emotional health — and improved my productivity.
5. Practicing patience and empathy as the team adapts to and adopts new tools. We all have our “Zoom stories.” Mine involves my son low-crawling behind me in his skivvies — and we’ve found moments of connection, humor, and awkwardness as we’re broadcasting live from our home spaces. Many struggled to adapt quickly to the tech — or feel on overload from all the tools (WebEx, Teams, and Zoom, oh my!). Internet connections can be unreliable, with bandwidth eaten by multiple users at home. We’ve experienced power outages, wildfire evacuations, extreme weather. So, as with everything else in 2020/21, we’re leading with kindness and understanding, and being prepared to back each other up.

Based on your experience, what can one do to address or redress each of those challenges?

To distill it all down, it’s important to guide your team to treat each other as they want to be treated. The level of stress is overwhelming, but when we show thoughtful kindness to each other it makes such a difference.

In my experience, one of the trickiest parts of managing a remote team is giving honest feedback, in a way that doesn’t come across as too harsh. If someone is in front of you much of the nuance can be picked up in facial expressions and body language. But not when someone is remote. Can you give a few suggestions about how to best give constructive criticism to a remote employee?

I’ve actually experienced the opposite with my remote team, because our conversations are through video conference, and it seems easier to gauge expressions and make eye contact while staring at our cameras. (But it’s true we’re all video-weary at this point!) My best tips for providing constructive feedback:

1. Be direct with kindness.

2. Establish two-way feedback as a part of regular check-ins and conversations

3. Deal with issues in the moment, offer ideas for correcting a problem

4. Take notes when it feels necessary

5. Agree on when to check in again.

Certainly all the tips are important, but having frequent and informal check-ins yields the best results the most for my remote team. Our scheduled 15-minute meetings about project status or tackling a client need have often morphed into longer discussions about a different work challenge — or into a life-related topic, like that new red curry dish, a new book, and shared concerns about parenting our teens. It feels easier to give and receive feedback when it’s just part of the natural flow of our conversations.

Can you specifically address how to give constructive feedback over email? How do you prevent the email from sounding too critical or harsh?

Emojis! But seriously…Email is my last choice for providing feedback to my direct reports. But, if needed, I keep the content grounded in facts, set clear expectations for next steps, and make myself available for questions and follow-up. I have a 24-hour rule if I’m writing about a conflict or potentially hot topic. Write my thoughts, save, then review the next day. That helps to keep any perceived tone in check. Also, I typically provide a heads up call or IM/text before hitting send, and schedule a follow-up meeting within a day to encourage open and honest conversation.

Can you share any suggestions for teams who are used to working together on location but are forced to work remotely due to the pandemic. Are there potential obstacles one should avoid with a team that is just getting used to working remotely?

This seems like a no-brainer, but it goes a long way when establishing norms for a newly remote team: be honest and open about what’s happening during your day, and don’t be shy about blocking out personal time on your calendar. For example, my 9 a.m. is another team member’s noon, and he makes lunch for his kids during this window. Others start the day early on the east coast, while some work late on the west coast. With that in mind, we’ve made it clear that while one may be working later hours, others can’t expect an in the moment response from a potentially sleeping team member, and vice versa.

What do you suggest can be done to create a healthy and empowering work culture with a team that is remote and not physically together?

I start with my belief that everyone on the team comes to work with good intentions: committed to doing meaningful work and to supporting one another. During the past year, we’ve learned to be patient and flexible with one another, as each person on the team has faced big challenges at home. We lead conversations with, “Are you doing ok?” and close with “What can I do for you?” This fosters trust among the team, and I’ve watched them build close relationships with one another, which will carry us well beyond the pandemic.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

I live in a small community, and during the pandemic, food insecurity has emerged as a critical issue. So, I would like to encourage people to work with their local grocery stores (I have two national chains and a small family-owned market) and restaurants to package up food that is close to expiring for donation to the local food bank. There is much waste that can be put to great use.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

One of my favorite quotes is from Julia Child. Her words became especially meaningful to me while sheltering in place and devoting much time and energy to cooking. Julia says, “Learn how to cook — try new recipes, learn from your mistakes, be fearless and above all, have fun.” I love trying new things and learning from the things that don’t go as planned. Every time I flip an egg without a spatula, I say, “You have to be fearless.”

Thank you for these great insights!