The levels of communication you have with your remote teams will be the crux of your team’s success. It doesn’t matter how hard your workers are or where in the world they are based, whether it’s down the road or the other side of the world if you haven’t nailed the communication skills you need, the team simply won’t work.

To help you avoid the main mistakes that these teams make, here are six awesome habits you can develop to help your teamwork to the best efficiency possible!

Working the Other Side of the World

If your remote team is operating is on different sides of the world, this could obviously cause a problem. When trying to host meetings, you may find that not everybody is available at the same time, so it’s important to find middle ground early on how the team is going to address this problem.

Firstly, work out where your teams are and what time zones they’re operating in. You can use Every Time Zone to work this out easily. From there, you can use software platforms, such as Trello, to build a team workspace where everybody can collaborate in their own time.

You’ll be able to create notes and task boards so even if a member of the team misses a meeting, they’ll still be able to catch up easily.

Manage Your Team Properly

One of the biggest problems that remote team managers face is making sure that everybody is pulling their weight. After all, it’s not like you can simply peer into their office cubicle to see what they’re up to.

So, you’ll need a way to do. One of the simplest ways to do this is by using a software tool, such as Asana. Using tools like this, you’ll be able to delegate the tasks that need to be completed amongst your team with live feedback on how they’re doing. This means you can remain in control of everything that’s going on.

Master the Art of Writing Emails

Instead of standing by the water cooler and catching up on everything that’s going on, your email inbox will become the new cooler spot. However, if you’re writing poor quality emails to your team, not only is this going to waste your time, it’s simply not a very effective way of communicating.

Instead, practice your writing so you can be sure that every email you send is perfect. This means proofreading and editing them before you hit send. You can enhance your writing skills, or have your work read over by a professional writer, using services such as Essay Roo and UK Writings.

Write Properly

If you’re not writing properly, it’s so easy to miscommunicate, and this is where problems will start to arise. For example, if you’re using poor grammar and punctuation, the sentence you meant to say can be very easily misinterpreted, and the original message will be lost.

Always ensure that your writing skills are the best they can be to ensure that this doesn’t happen. For example, you could use online grammar resources, such as State of Writing to brush up on your writing knowledge.

Likewise, you can use online writing guides, such as Boom Essays, to ensure you’re communicating in the right way and using the best format possible.

Be Direct with Your Messages

It’s important to be direct with your messages. Keep things short and sweet and don’t write messages that are 1,000 words long when it can be summarised comprehensively in a couple of sentences.

This is a much more direct form of communication which leaves little room for miscommunication. To practice this skill, you can use online tools, like Easy Word Count or Academadvisor to track your word count in real time. When using messages, try to keep messages below 100 words if you can.

Use Dedicated Communication Channels

As you can see from the above, there is a tonne of communication tools and channels available for you to make talking to your remote team as easy as possible. To make things even easier, why not dedicated each channel to a specific purpose.

For example, you may use Skype, Slack and Email. Why not organise these channels into Skype for group meetings, Slack for social media queries and then email for project updates. Obviously, you’ll need to adapt these to suit your business, but it can be extremely beneficial and your days will become a lot more productive.

Conclusion

Nobody said that running a remote team is easy work but it doesn’t have to be as painstaking and stressful as many businesses make out. Get into your communication habits and routines early on and make sure that everyone knows their place so you, as a team, can get on and get things done!