The basics of being a good distance manager

28 of September, 2022

You might have found yourself during the Covid-19 pandemic in charge of a team, and struggled to build a rapport with your team. Distance management is a difficult task for any manager. Distance can become an issue depending on the span of control too.

Not to worry, distance management no longer has to be an issue.

What is distance management?

If you are managing a team remotely, then you are engaging in distance management. This includes employees in the same city or area that maybe occasionally come into the office for meetings, but for the most part are working remotely. The dynamics of management change when you as a manager do not have a day to day interaction with your employees. You can’t pick up on anxieties as easily or come to their desk and help them with a specific issue.

Managing people remotely is thus a hard task but its not impossible. Distance management as a concept is becoming increasingly studied with remote working becoming more common. You also have increasingly independent contractors coming in to do a specific task in your company.

How does distance effect team performance?

Distance effects team performance in several ways :

• For one you need to build a rapport of trust with your team so that they can feel comfortable reporting any issues.
• You will find it potentially harder to explain certain technical or theoretical concepts
• You cannot tell if your employee is working enough or give more instant feedback
• Over video call there are more interruptions and technical obstacles
• Body language and hints are much harder to interpret

Luckily with effective distance management you can address these obstacles. With our tips below we will have you up and running in no time.

Our recommendations for distance management

To be a good distance manager you need to cover some basics of elementary management first :

• Have one-on-ones, preferably with web cams, with your employees. One-on-ones are especially important with employees who are remotely working.
• Make sure your direct or employee has the tools available to effectively communicate and work with their peers in other locations.
• Have a time tracking app for the employee to show which tasks they are working on so that you can still
• Have a synced online calendar that shows what their schedule is so that you are always aware of their availability, including what holidays they have taken.
• Make sure that if you are managing people remotely you have

The key thing to remember with being a distance manager is that you need to take responsibility for maintaining a relationship much more than with your colleagues in the office.