Together Apart Managing Workers

at a Distance

Derek Mowbray’s tips for how team leaders and managers can strengthen the resilience and performance

of their remote teams

2020

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Introduction

Since Covid-19 came into our lives at the very end of 2019, and more acutely (in Europe) in February/March 2020, businesses around the world have been finding ways to continue working whilst looking after their staff.

Home working has grown as a consequence of the changing nature of work, the need for greater agility in organisations and people, and the availability of the technology needed to facilitate change.

Enter a global virus threat that has made us stay indoors, not our business’ indoors, but our own. We see teams physically fractured, and managers across the board faced with a new role: handling teams whose members work apart – from one another, from their task load and from their manager.

Managing teams at a distance requires a combination of managing processes and leading team members. These skills may be found in a single person, or they may be divided among several as they require a range of personal skills.

Managers tend to deal with certainty: processes that repeatedly produce a pre-determined or expected outcome or output. Leaders deal more with uncertainty: people who may respond to events idiosyncrat-ically, change their minds or give unexpected responses.

Managing teams from afar isn’t new. Many global organisations have been doing this for years. Some-times, teams have members working in Beijing, London and San Francisco, all needing to dovetail with each other’s work to produce a complete product. It’s not easy for global teams to talk to each other without the day being lengthened at one end or another.

The person at the centre has a conducting job that is demanding of leadership skills. This role needs someone with vision and direction who can inspire, motivate, stimulate and keep everyone calm (in-cluding him or herself), and can carry out the classical roles of a manager – to plan, co-ordinate and control.

Resilience requires team members to perceive adversities as challenges that arouse enough interest and motivation for them to rise up and find solutions.

For teams to be resilient they have to feel strongly it is worth their while to be resilient. Resilience is a choice based on an analysis of the adversity, the context in which the adversity occurs, the attitude of the team members towards the adversity, and the capability of finding ways of overcoming the adversity without experiencing distress.

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Team members are more likely to choose to be resilient if their self-esteem, self-efficacy and mental control are supported and developed. This leads to an opportunity to feel psychological well, feel and be agile, adaptable, flexible, creative and dedicated to their work and organisation. These characteris-tics add up to people being mentally strong and flexible, the best foundation for forming an attitude to be resilient.

There are, undoubtedly, some managers who view their team members as automatons having to be minutely instructed, monitored and controlled. These managers, when managing remote working, may intensify close supervision due to an inherent lack of trust in their team. The closer the monitor-ing, the greater the dissatisfaction of the team members with their manager, work and organisation, and the lower their overall performance. They may work longer, but their productivity per hour will sink.

The evidence is unambiguous that automaton style management is expensive, has limited utility, and is completely inappropriate to most companies and all human beings. This is particularly so in busi-nesses that require their workforce to think, analyse, evaluate, innovate, be creative and take adaptive decisions, and want their workforce to realise its potential and achieve great success.

Winning teams need a framework within which they can operate with relative freedom. This suggests a change in the role of the manager. No longer is the manager purely managing processes, but instead they are managing people within a framework – more akin to leadership than management per se.People need leaders; processes need managers. When working remotely, teams look to both skills being fulfilled in their team leader.

Most team members want to feel psychologically well, part of which is to get a buzz out of working, otherwise known as flow. To achieve this, they have to work in a stimulating environment that pro-vokes individuals to feel they are experiencing events that make them feel great.

These tips are for team leaders with teams that have members working remotely. They are for team leaders who want to ensure their team achieves great success whilst working remotely. They are for team leaders who are invested in making their team members feel great at work, while staying at home or otherwise.

As with all tips, these are tips of icebergs. Beneath each one is a wealth of additional material that explains and amplifies the message.

I hope you find these tips helpful and useful.

Derek Mowbray PhD., FBPsS

PS These tips are a consequence of a distance collaboration with members of my immediate family. I express my appreciation to Heather Mowbray and Céline Lamée in Beijing, and to Hazel Mowbray in London. Barbara Leigh (my co-director of MAS) and I are responsible for the final document.

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The six elements of my resilience framework

The framework for these tips is shown here. It has six elements leading to team resilience. The tips that follow are linked to each of the elements in the image. It will be obvious to all that the elements are not mutually exclusive, and that each has an impact on the other, with overlaps between them.

This framework is based on The Wellbeing and Performance Agenda (2008), an agenda for trans-forming organisations into high performing and psychologically safe places to work. It is, also, based on The Resilience Agenda (2019), designed to help strengthen the resilience of organisations, teams and individuals.

The key element is the leader and leadership. Everything depends on how the role of leader is played out in organisations and teams. The success of this role in remote working is very heavily reliant on individual characteristics of leadership.

Managing remote working processes is relatively straight forward.

On the other hand, leading remote working teams requires persuasive, inspirational and attractor skills to keep remote workers interested and motivated in their work and team. Remote working teams present particular challenges around trust and motivation, and it is up to the team leader to ensure both are in good order.

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Team culture is about creating the appropriate tone, values and working atmosphere for remote working. Two aspects of culture are the principle of Responsibility Sharing for the future success of the team amongst its members, and Psychological Responsibility which is about ensuring everyone in the team knows it’s an obligation to look after yourself psychologically, as well as helping other team members look after themselves, and for there to be no psychological harm created by team members towards each other or anyone else.

Intelligent Management are items to consider when managing the routine of remote working. They include meetings, performance appraisal and involvement, each of which is made more com-plicated by remote working. Working environment refers to the physical environment of remote workers. It includes looking after your physical health as well as making sure the technology in use is appropriate and has utility.

Team resilience is the consequence of all the elements briefly described above.

Based on The Wellbeing and

Performance Agenda (2008) and The Resil-ience Agenda (2019)

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Team Leadership

The contribution of a team leader in strengthening the resilience of remote workers.

Processes need managers and management; people need leaders and leader-ship. Teams are people. A leader ensures the team, as a group of individuals, knows where it’s going and can enjoy the experience.

Leaders inspire; they motivate; they have the psychological wellbeing of each team member as their foremost concern, and they know how to blend the team members together. They can do this when a team is together. When a team is fragmented physically, they need to use supercharged forms of communication and cultivate outstanding personal characteristics.

Resilience is about having strong self-esteem, self-efficacy and mental con-trol personally. These features are incorporated into an assessment of ad-versity that takes account of the context of the adversity. A positive context tends to provoke a response to adversity that arouses individual motivation to be resilient.

Team leaders set clear directionsThe team has to know what it’s doing. It also has to know why it exists and what its contribution to the organisation is. This plays to commitment and engagement.

Team leaders express a clear visionThe team needs to know where it’s heading next year and the year after that. Ideally, it needs to know what the leader thinks the team will look like in 5 years’ time, even if the vision is fuzzy. This plays to commitment and engagement.

Team leaders provide a mutually acceptable working framework for remote workingEveryone on the team needs to be completely clear about the framework in which they are expected to perform. This can be a semi-structured day, and/or key touch points during the week. Or it can be a project management system such as Scrum. Essentially, the team members need to know if they have discretion to work how they like but with outputs being delivered at specific times, or little to no discretion with regular outputs expected fairly frequently.

Team leaders give control; they don’t take it.There is a need to build trust, and one way is to give control to team members, so they work out between themselves how to deliver what is expected and when. Team members, also, would be ex-pected to resolve problems as they arise unless the issue is one that requires the leader to intervene because others, outside the team, may be involved in the issue. Once control is given, don’t ever take it back. If something goes wrong work with the team members concerned – do not take the issue back from the team members.

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Team leaders empower othersPart of the process of giving control and not taking it is to empower your team members to take decisions and make arrangements for the completion of tasks amongst the team itself. Of course, you, as leader, can join in, but the idea of empowerment is you give them the power to act. Do not take that power back unless it is absolutely necessary to do so for security reasons, for example.

Team leaders share responsibilityResponsibility sharing for the future success of the team is part of the same trend of giving control to others in your team. This principle is a critical aspect of the team’s culture. Everyone is in it together, and together the team members will work out how to resolve the issues of the day. Encourage open dialogue, cri-tiques, ideas, innovative practices – in fact, expect anything to happen that will make the team more successful tomorrow compared with today. The role of leader is to encourage this cultural approach to leading the team.

Team leaders place their team members as their top priority each day.The most important feature of the team is its members. Surprisingly, this isn’t always obvious to peo-ple. However, the team wouldn’t exist without its members. Uppermost in the leader’s mind must be the psychological wellbeing of the team members. Without this, individuals will not be able to per-form effectively and at their peak. Psychological wellbeing is about being in mental control, having clarity of mind and being free from any negative elements of stress.

Team leaders spend much of their time holding conversationsThe most significant skill of a leader is the ability to hold conversations. These must be interactions where the leader is able to persuade others to do things they may otherwise not wish to do, and to do them without the other person experiencing strain or distress. This is, also, known as seduction. About 70% of a leader’s time is spent in this way. It is only by spending this amount of time that a leader can adequately support his/her team in all the ways needed to achieve great success. When the team’s members are remote working, conversation time may increase due to the need to use video links for this task, and these take time to set up, make a connection and work in a way that makes both parties feel comfortable and relaxed.

Team leaders hold team members to accountAs part of the process of giving control and not taking it, the leader has to make explicit that he/she holds team members to account for the tasks that are mutually agreed need completing. The process of holding to account involves explicitly defining the task (even if the task is vague in content), a timescale for reporting back progress and completion, budget and personnel involved.

Team leaders set mutual expectations with team membersMutual expectations between the leader and team members, and between team members them-selves, need establishing to ensure everyone knows what is expected of themselves and everyone else. This leaves little to chance in the relationship between all members of the team including the leader.

‘Leaders inspire, empower, motivate

and have the psychological wellbeing

of each team member as their foremost

concern’

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Team leaders recognise the need for team members to socialise with each otherWork is a huge part of life. A healthy life partly depends on our ability to interact effectively. Part of this process is to interact socially with others, to find out what is happening around us, and to get to know others to a level that is deeper than the superficial. Social intercourse between people who are remote working is more acutely required, to offset the risks of isolation and detachment of team members from each other, and their team leader. Team leaders can suggest that 10 minutes before the commencement of business in a meeting is devoted to mutual socialising, whilst expecting indi-vidual team members to socialise with others in the team at other times of the day.

Team leaders are trustworthyTrust is the absence of second guessing the motivation of others. Where trust exists, people take at face value the behaviours and actions of others. Achieving this state requires you to be transparent and open about everything you do, including any mistakes you might make. Conceal nothing; reveal everything!

Team leaders know their team members well, and each member knows their leader wellIt’s the leader’s role to persuade others to do things they might otherwise not wish to do, without causing any distress. Each team member is unique, and the team leader has to adapt their own be-haviour and approach to each to ensure that communication between the two is effective, and each understands the other. With team members from different cultures and countries, there will be the added complication of language, and the need to be sure that the meaning of words is fully under-stood and makes sense. This requires trust going both ways. When faced with an adversity, and each member being remote from each other, the need to trust each other in arriving at a resilient attitude as a team, is even more essential.

Team leaders are attentiveAttentiveness is the most important attribute and behaviour. It means paying attention to surround-ings, to opportunities, to changes on the horizon, but most important, paying attention to other people, especially those with whom you interact. If people feel as though you are attentive to them, they cannot avoid being attentive back. They will feel good about you, and you will be better able to direct their work.

Team leaders enjoy humour and funFun and humour reduce the risk of suffering degrees of stress. People derive enjoyment from fun and humour, and need to enjoy their work and workplace to be able to perform consistently at their peak. So, having fun at work is an essential ingredient of peak performance. Humour and fun are two of the aspects of remote working that need to be encouraged throughout the day, to offset the risks of isolation and detachment. Humour and fun, also, enable individuals approach adversity with a further degree of calm that strengthens mental control.

Team leaders have clear ethics and live their core personal valuesLeaders are role models; they are watched all the time; even by people working remotely. When us-ing video communications, scrutiny of others is more intense, because it’s harder to pick up cues that influence our own behaviour when responding to others. When you display your ethical decision making and behaviour, it is enormously attractive to those in your team. People like ethical people and respect those who live their core personal values. It all helps to identify the person behind the leader mask. This helps develop trust, and gives a steer as to how adversities are to be tackled. With remote team working, having a leader that has a strong ethical identity that rubs off on the team and its culture, provides another form of cohesion, keeping the team closely knit together.

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Team culture

The contribution of culture to the resilience of remote team workers

Culture is normally represented by the symbols, tone, style, rules and behaviours of those in a particular organisation and team. These influence the ways in which people think about their team, and how they, and oth-ers, behave when working with the team. We spend time working out the culture of the organisations we are in, in order to blend our behaviour with the culture, rather than ‘sticking out’. In remote working teams the cultur-al triggers need to be overt, in plain sight, and constantly reinforced in an accentuated manner to help bind team members together, especially when experiencing an adverse event that requires their resilience.

The kind of culture that team members respond best to is one that provokes both psychological wellbeing and performance. Most people derive an enor-mous boost to their psychological wellbeing from performing at their best and being successful at what they do at work.

The Team Leader needs to take a lead in developing and sustaining the team culture.

Instil an outcome driven culture It is the outcome of the team’s work that is important. The process is less so, especially when the Team Leader has given control away and empowered the team. Setting mutual expectations about outcome is vitally important. This includes timescale, as well as the identification of potential bar-riers to success, and how these may be overcome. The word mutual is significant. The team leader must ensure every team member agrees with the outcome required and the time to produce it.

Instil a culture of productivity and caring Setting out the outcome required should take account of the need for the team to be motivated, active and fully engaged in their work whilst working remotely. Therefore, the team leader needs to emphasise that remote working should enhance productivity (per week) if possible, whilst recognis-ing that working from home has added challenges as well as benefits such as looking after domestic matters but, also, having (potentially) quiet to concentrate. However, team leaders, also, need to understand that by knowing his/her team well and responding positively to domestic crises, when they occur, team members will intensify their commitment to the leader and team because they feel indebted to the leader for helping with a problem at home.

Identify the team’s ‘big idea’.Team leaders need to establish with the team the ‘big idea’ behind the team and its existence. What does the team stand for; why does it exist; what is it brilliant at doing? This helps develop identity of the team within the wider organisation. Identity for remote workers, especially those who might be working on different continents, is a vital ingredient in motivation, cohesion and strengthening re-silience through having others ‘in the same boat – rowing in the same direction, achieving the same aim’.

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Chatty or formalTeam leaders with team members should establish how every-one communicates with each other. This may differ between individuals but the overall cultural style should be apparent to everyone. The two ends of the spectrum are behaving formally or being chatty and informal. When in communication remote-ly, allowing team members to chat is a good way of cementing relationships and finding out what is going on elsewhere, which is what most want to know!

Align the cultural values of the team with the personal values of team membersThe cultural values of the team are those values the team wishes to work within. The kind of values being considered here are social responsibility, security, creativity, quality, and integrity. The team’s cultural values should reflect the personal values of the team members. Values are drivers. Capturing the personal values of team members and using them as the drivers for the team, strengthens the re-silience of the team, as they ‘see’ the world in a similar way, and strengthens the relationship between team members when working remotely.

Align the team values with those of team membersTeam values are the priorities of the team – what is of value to the team as a whole. These need to be aligned with those of team members, and once discovered, used on a regular basis to work through any dilemmas in priorities, for example. The link of values being considered here are – customers, clients, shareholders, workforce, and money.

Align ethical values with those of team membersWhilst the team leader needs to demonstrate overtly his or her ethical standards, they should, also, be aligned with those of team members to produce team ethical standards. The kind of ethical standards being considered here are: submission, power, honesty, probity, trustworthy and courte-ousness. Once discovered, the team ethical standards should be applied routinely. They will, also, be useful at times of adversity and dilemmas when they will help the team to know what to do. Ethical standards help cement identity, helping with knowing what the team stands for, and helps with en-suring individual team members, working remotely, are all ‘singing from the same hymn sheet’.

Make sure security is a top priorityRemote working means sorting out excellent communications between team members and between them and their team leader. Communications systems are generally exposed to the risk of hacking, and theft of data. Team leaders have to ensure their communications systems are of the highest level of security they can manage.

Establish a “test and learn mentality”With remote working, team leaders have to step up to being leaders of teams with some management tasks – the balance being in favour of being a leader. This means that team members, who have been given control and empowerment by the team leader, will be facing adaptive challenges on a routine basis. The team leader should be encouraging team members to test something out and learn from the experience rather than expect everything to work first time and perfectly. Working on your own means working out how to solve problems. This often results in trying out different approaches to the problem. The team leader needs to encourage this approach.

‘In remote working teams, the cultural

triggers need to be overt, in plain sight,

and constantly reinforced’

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Responsibility Sharing

The contribution of Responsibility Sharing to the resilience of remote team workers

Remote workers have to fend for themselves in solving problems and chal-lenges as they arise. They are independent people working within an agreed framework with mutual expectations established between each other and their leader.

Cementing this approach is the principle of sharing responsibility for the success of the team amongst all team members. This places an obligation on each member to focus on what will make the team more successful in the future. Everyone is expected to offer unsolicited ideas, critiques, and obser-vations which they believe will improve the potential for team success.

The sharing of responsibility is over and above the team member’s obliga-tion to undertake their job. It is about the success of the team. This binds team members closer together, and because the principle plays to enhancing self-esteem, self-efficacy and mental control, it strengthens individual atti-tude towards adversity, thereby strengthening resilience of team members.

Implementing this principle requires the team leader to take a lead by giving away much of his/her own work.

Make “we’re all in this together” a core value‘We’re all in this together!’ – team leaders should ensure this is a core mantra for their remote teams.  Responsibility sharing for success with your team members.Team leaders should promote responsibility sharing for the success of the team amongst all team members. This is a consequence of giving control; not taking it. It means that everyone takes a lead in the team, and is obliged to come up with observations, critiques, suggestions and comment about how the team is performing. The focus for all is the success of the team, not the success of the team leader. This has a strong influence on maintaining strong commitment by team members when working remotely, as they are doing more than their jobs; they are making sure the team is success-ful. This attitude helps the team approach adversity purposefully.  Expect independent thinking from your teamTeam leaders should expect their team members to have independent thoughts about everything. This is the consequence of giving control and sharing responsibility. This means that, when faced with an adversity, each team member may have a different approach, and it is up to the team leader to seek a consensus for the team to choose to be resilient. Drawing people together to achieve a com-mon view is part of the challenge for team leaders of remote working teams. Encourage and value everyone’s thoughts and contributionsMake sure that everyone is encouraged in making unsolicited but valid observations about any

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aspect of the team’s functioning. Such observations should be acted on so that team members are reinforced to make observations, in the first place.

 Challenge your team

The team leader should create challenges for the team collectively, as well as for individuals. As resilience is about rising up to challenges, cre-

ating such challenges acts as a preparation for adversity as well as equipping the team with the skills to interact effectively to overcome challenges. In addition,

as the team is working remotely, such challenges help sort out any communication problems be-tween team members when faced with a challenge. Tackling ‘elephants in the room’The team leader and team members need to raise and resolve all controversial issues openly. This includes any difficult ‘elephants in the room’. This helps the team to feel safe with each other, even though they are remote from each other. It strengthens trust and makes the underlying resilience of the team stronger.

Failure is a success waiting to happenEncourage the team to reflect and review events that have happened, and to learn from them. As team leader continuous learning could be the reason for bringing the team together each day over a video link.

‘Share responsibility

for the success of the team

amongst all team members’

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Psychological Responsibility

The contribution of Psychological Responsibility to the resilience of remote team workers.

Psychological Responsibility is an obligation placed on team members to look after their own psychological wellbeing as well as helping others to look after theirs. The implication is that team members have to be aware of their impact on other people’s psychological wellbeing and behave in a man-ner that does not harm to them.

This principle plays to self-efficacy and mental control. Therefore, the prin-ciple is an aspect of personal and team resilience. To be resilient the person has to be in mental control to access strategies for resolving an adverse event, and the person, also, has to feel aroused by the challenge of the event to become energised to rise up to it. This happens when the person, also, believes they can overcome the challenge successfully. This principle plays directly to strengthening resilience.

The team leader needs to take a lead in implementing this principle by adopting the tips and encouraging team members to do the same. Team members need to look after their own psychological wellbeing as well as help others to look after theirs.

Taking responsibility for your own psychological wellbeingRemind yourself just how fantastic a person you areTalk to yourself in a mirror, first thing in the morning. Tell yourself how fantastic a person you are. Because hearing is the most sensitive sense, listening to you talking to yourself results in the brain looking out for opportunities for you to reinforce your feelings about yourself.

Work out what makes you feel success and happinessWhen you feel success and happiness, you will be feeling psychologically well. What features in your daily life make you feel great? Typically, sources of success and happiness include family, friends, sport, socialising, travel, work, fresh air and a few more. Work out for yourself what these features are in detail. Then work out just how great you feel with each – do you feel more success and hap-piness with one feature compared to another? If you can improve how you feel, make a plan to take action to feel even better than you feel now.

Talk to yourself – tell yourself that today is going to be greatWhilst in front of a mirror, tell yourself that today is going to be great. The brain will look out for opportunities to remind you of just how great the day is going. Everything will feel brighter and more positive. Strange but true!

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Follow the tips for remote workersThe tips for remote workers provide a large number of tips that enhance psychological wellbeing.

Stay calmIt’s important to remain calm when experiencing an adverse event because you need to remain in mental control of the situation. Try breathing down to your diaphragm over a count of 6; hold your breath for a count of 12; and let out your breathe over a count of 6 – this controls your breathing, which, in turn, controls your anxiety, which enables you to have the opportunity to remain calm.

Keep in touch with your team mates Remote working can make people feel isolated. To combat this, it is important to try and have regu-lar contact with those with whom you work most closely – your team mates. It is better for this type of contact to be chatty, relaxed and informal. This can take place during the working day.

Find the humour in everyday eventsHumour is a great de-stressor. Humour makes people relax. Humour is an important aspect of the human condition that is unique. The team leader should encourage team members to be lighthearted whenever appropriate, as this reduces tension and substitutes it with laughter and chuckles.

If you don’t feel psychologically well, tell the teamIt’s really important that if you feel psychologically unwell you tell someone and seek help if you need it. ‘Look after your

own psychological wellbeing as well as

helping others to look after theirs’

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Taking responsibility for helping with other people’s psychological wellbeingFind the fabulous in everyoneRemember – everyone you meet is a fabulous person – you’ve just got to find out how!

Greet everyone with a smile and acknowledgementSay ‘good morning’ or ‘good afternoon’ or ‘hello’ when first coming across a colleague or friend during the day or evening. Do the same to strangers you meet. Demonstrate a welcome in your ac-knowledgement, such as ‘lovely to see you’.

Ask unique and meaningful questions When talking to someone try to ask the person a unique question, something that they realise is unique to them. If you ask how the person is feeling, make some reference why you’re asking that question in order to make the question unique to him or her.

Be attentiveWhen talking to someone, smile and be attentive. If the person feels you are being attentive, they will reciprocate and be attentive to you. They will feel good about your attentiveness and you’ll feel good as well.

Be consistent and trustworthyAlways be consistent in your behaviour and actions with others. This enables others to trust you and take you at face value without wondering why you are saying or doing something. Be trustworthy.

Establish mutual expectationsWhenever possible try to establish mutual expectations between yourself and the other person, and between the other person and you. This avoids the possibility of conflict and helps each to under-stand the other. Resolve conflicts before they start.

Learn from failuresAlways remember that a failure at anything is a success waiting to happen. We learn from our fail-ures and apply what we’ve learnt when a similar situation arises in the future.

Allow others to express their emotions – help them to return to being in controlAllow others to express their emotions. Emotions should be controlled so that we can keep control of ourselves, but the reality is that emotions have to be expressed sometime. Don’t allow the emotional expression to last long in a public space – we find other peoples’ emotions hard to handle – encour-age the person to go somewhere quiet until the heat of the emotion has cooled and they return to being in control of themselves.

Encourage othersTry to give encouragement to others. If someone has written something, or completed a particular task, or made a presentation, give some encouraging feedback. Give the encouraging feedback in a manner that shows you share the experience, and understand the circumstances of the experience itself. This enhances the value of the encouragement to the person being encouraged.

Show your gratitude Always express gratitude to others who have provided you with any form of service.

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Intelligent Management

The contribution of Intelligent Management to the resilience of remote team workers The tips that follow emphasise the manager’s role, as the tips are more process orientated, and are more likely to produce an expected outcome or output.

The processes chosen are those that will result in team members feeling psychologically well, more committed to their work and team, more en-gaged with their team and leader/manager, and feeling greater trust in their leader/manager. All of these features improve the opportunity for team members and the team collectively to be resilient against adversity. They are more likely to see an adverse event as a challenge than a threat.

Establish mutual expectationsThe team manager should start the ball rolling in establishing mutual expectation between the manager and each of the team members. The statement and questions used in this process could be ‘My expectation of you is that you’ll do the following things for me…….do you agree with this? Tell me, what are you expectation of me?.... I agree to fulfil those’. Each team member needs to establish mutual expectations with each other member, especially when working on a project that requires contributions to be dovetailed together in an orderly manner to make a complete whole.

Mutually agree tasks, timetables and prioritiesThe team manager needs to agree with team members what tasks are expected to be completed, when, and, if there are conflicting priorities, what the priority is for this project.

Adopt a project management system, such as Scrum

Originally developed for software development purposes, Scrum is a project management tool for complex information based production projects. The approach is suitable for any project manage-ment requirement that is complex. If not Scrum, then use an appropriate system to help with project management.

Virtual meetings should have an agenda that is a question to answerAll agenda should be questions to be answered. This makes the meeting productive, meaningful and should stimulate interest amongst team members to attend. Only those with something to contribute to the answer to the question should be expected to attend.

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Recognise that remote workers have little time to chat to each otherUse your virtual meetings as opportunities for team members to chat amongst themselves for about 10 minutes before business commences.

Broadcast your availability to your team membersIn your manager role you should broadcast when you are available to help with management activities. The rest of the time, of course, you are in your lead-er role, holding conversations with team members and others, to make sure they are feeling well and motivated to continue to work hard.

Create regular opportunities for remote workers to join together as a teamWork out with your team, the opportunities for the whole team (if an appropriate size) to meet virtu-ally together, simply to talk about the day, what has been learnt, what elements need improvement. This is the practical aspect of sharing responsibility, when team members can share with each other what needs to be done to make the team more successful.

Check out the psychological wellbeing of your teamAlthough, as a leader, you may be doing this as part of your leadership role, as a manager you should also be checking, at every opportunity, if your team members are feeling psychologically well. This should be done at every opportunity.

Share with your team what you do each dayCommunicating with your team about what you are doing each day, brings team members into a loop with you. It reassures team members that you are around and what you are engaged in doing. This helps bond the team members together.

Provide encouragementWhilst this might be more in line with your leader role, you should always encourage individuals in your team. This means what it says on the team – you provide courage to others to do something they may be reticent about doing. Your support makes all the difference.

Performance appraisalYou should be appraising your team members on a regular and informal basis. They should be ap-praising their manager, as well. There should be no formality about this, just a word of observation and encouragement is enough. It helps build the notion that sharing responsibility means unsolic-ited observations, critiques and ideas, and that sharing responsibility and performance appraisal go together as regular activities without formality involved.

Worklife balanceThe team manager should always consider helping a team member who may have a domestic crisis. With remote working, team members will already be at home, so the role of the manager is to accept that, on occasion, your team member will be focusing more on a domestic issue that a team issue.

‘Choose processes that will result in team

members feeling psychologically well’

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Working Environment

The contribution of the working environment to the resilience of remote team workers

The working environment of remote workers has an influence on their ca-pacity to be resilient. Although we are dealing here with physical aspects of working, these have an impact on the psychological wellbeing of people. If the physical environment is good and supportive, the person will feel well, in control and able to resilient against adversity.

Having a balanced diet, for example, makes a significant contribution to personal energy. Binge eating or snacking may not. If your office furniture causes you to constantly stare at your computer or sit uncomfortably, this will impact on your psychological wellbeing.

Team managers should adopt these tips and encourage their team members to do the same. Agreement on a common approach to certain tips is necessary.

‘The working environment of remote workers influences the capacity to be resilient

and productive’

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Make sure your computer/laptop/tablet screen is aligned to your eyesYour body should not be bending over. Keep your spine straight.

Make sure your chair supports your back and that it is straight.In similar vein, make sure you site straight in your seat and the back of the seat provides good sup-port for your back.

Use a standing desk if possibleSitting down for long periods is not good for you. If you can obtain a standing desk then use it. If you can’t then stand up from time to time to prevent you from sitting all the time.

Walk around every 50 minutesEvery 50 minutes go for a walk around the house, or around your garden. Keep your circulation circulating.

Make sure your lighting is powerful and bright.Natural light is good, but as it gets dark, make sure you have a strong bright light on any surface you’re using to write or type. Maintain good eyesight.

Select the communications platform suitable for your team’s purposeTeam leaders select the communications platform suitable for his/her and team purpose.

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Technology: using digital tools effectively

Best for Example tools

Content Creation

- Joint document creation- Live c0-editing- Joint white boarding- Central knowledge space

- Office 365- Google Docs- Confluence- Miro

Video conferencing

- Problem-solving and co-creation using shared screen or whiteboard- Weekly planning and review sessions- Decision meetings- Workshops and training

- Zoom- Tencent Conferencing- Ding Talk- Webex- Microsoft Teams

Document Sharing

- Sharing files and documents- Structured repository of information- Version control management- Access across organisations

- Box- Sharepoint- Dropbox Business- Baidu Cloud Disk- Cowtransfer- Wetransfer

Channel-based communication

- Process syndication- Urgent questions and seeking guidance- Keeping up to date in real time- Social team talk- Stream-based repository of knowledge

- Ding Talk- WeChat Business- Slack- Microsoft teams- Basecamp- Hipchat- Google Hangouts

TaskManagement

- Keeping track of assigning tasks- Backlog prioritisation- Performance management- Project management- Checklists- Single source status

- Trello- Jira- Asana- Smartsheet- Microsoft Planner- Basecamp

Polling - Interactive presentations- Retrospective and team learnings- Interactive Q and A- Engagement- Polls

- Kahoot- Ideaboardz- Slido- Poll everywhere- Mentimeter

Adapted from ©McKinsey & Company

Many tools can be integrated with each other through single sign-on and content sync. Choosing the right tools for the company requires close collaboration between Business, IT and Security. Rolling them out effectively is a change management effort – from training to adaptive ways of working.

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A team leader or manager ensures the team, as a group of individuals, knows where it’s going, enjoys the experience and can confront adversity with resilience. When the team is physically all over the place, a leader supercharges commu-nication powers and unleashes qualities that motivate and inspire.

Summary

Cultural norms and behaviours influence the ways in which people think about their team, and how they, and others, work with the team. Values should reflect the personal values of all team members. Capturing these and using them as the drivers for the team, strength-ens the resilience of everybody.

Make “we’re all in this together” a core mantra. Everyone takes a lead in the team, and is obliged to come up with obser-vations, critiques, suggestions and comments about how the team is performing. The focus is the success of the team, not the success of the team leader.

If the physical environment is good and supportive, you will feel well and in control. Having a balanced diet makes a signi- ficant contribution to personal energy. If your office furniture causes you to constantly stare at your computer or sit uncom-fortably, this will impact on your psychological wellbeing. Agreement on a common approach is necessary.

Each team member needs to establish mutual expecta-tions with each other member, especially when working on a project that requires contribu-tions to be dovetailed together in an orderly manner to make a complete whole. With remote working, your team mem-ber may sometimes be more focused on a domestic issue that a team issue. Get these processes in sync for healthier more resilient team collabora-tions.

Tell yourself out loud that today is going to be great. The brain will look out for opportu-nities to remind you of just how great the day is going. Every-thing will feel brighter and more positive. Breathe deeply to control any anxiety, and have regular contact with your team mates, not just about work.

You can find out more in Derek’s Guide to Team Resilience and Guide to Transforming Managers which contains exercises and questionnaires to help managers become leaders and support the resilience of their teams.

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Derek Mowbray BA., MSc., MSc(Econ)., PhD., DipPsych., CPsychol., CSci., FBPsS, FIHM., FISMA..

Derek Mowbray is a Chartered Psychologist and Chartered Scientist with a doctorate in the psychology of leadership. With CEO experience in public, private and voluntary sectors, Derek has held various top leadership posi-tions prior to turning his attention to helping organisations understand the link between psychological wellbeing and performance.

Derek specialises in the primary prevention of stress at work (a major inhib-itor to performance) by focusing on elevating psychological wellbeing in the workforce. He facilitates the application of The WellBeing and Performance Agenda, a framework that transforms organisations by focusing on the be-haviours and actions of leaders so they provoke the workforce to thrive and perform at its peak.

With a special interest in organisation health psychology, which aims to harmonise the relationship between organisations and their workforce, Der-ek’s specialties are building organisation-wide positive work cultures, the performance related behaviour of leaders and managers in relation to their employees and strengthening mental resilience.

He is the originator of Psychological Responsibility, which places on the individual a responsibility for feeling psychologically well, as well as a responsibility to do no psychological harm to others.  He is, also, a sponsor of the method of ‘sharing responsibility for the future success of the organisation’ as a principle underpinning organisational success and high achievement.

His work approaches and interventions are well recognised and adopted throughout the UK and internationally.

‘Derek’s mission is to create and sustain

‘the workplace as a fabulous, high performing

place to work’’

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Products and Services

Free StuffPsychological Wellbeing and Performance articles in our library: www.mas.org.uk/mylibrary.html

Several of our questionnaires are freely available here: www.mas.org.uk/questionnaires.html

Our GuidesFurther information can be found in Derek’s Guides - available from www.mas.org.uk/publications. (For bulk purchase contact MAS – barbara.leigh@mas.org.uk)Derek Mowbray’s Guide to Personal Resilience Derek Mowbray’s Guide to The Manager’s Role in Resilience Derek Mowbray’s Guide to Team Resilience Derek Mowbray’s Guide to Organisational Resilience Derek Mowbray’s Guide to The Line Manager’s Role in Stress Prevention Derek Mowbray’s Guide to Developing Managers Derek Mowbray’s Guide to Psychological Responsibility Derek Mowbray’s Guide to The WellBeing and Performance Agenda Derek Mowbray’s Guide to Adaptive Leadership

Personal Resilience ELearning Programmes1. Short Personal Resilience eLearning ProgrammeThis short version of our Personal Resilience eLearning Programme is designed to be made available organisation wide. It takes about 45 minutes to complete, covering the same ground as our in depth programme but with fewer exercises and questionnaires.

2. In-depth Personal Resilience eLearning Programme An in-depth programme, designed to make a difference. The programme takes about 3 hours to complete fully and includes 2 powerful questionnaires - the Resilience Assessment Questionnaire (RAQ40) and the Personal Values Questionnaire plus exercises that require the user to think deeply about themselves and their current situation.

For further information, contact barbara.leigh@mas.org.uk or go to our website www.mas.org.uk/personal-resilience-elearning-programme.html

On-line Programmes (delivered via Zoom by our associate Roy Marriott)

- Strengthening Personal Resilience Programme (online) - Brief Mindfulness (online) - Taking your training remote (online)

These programmes can be seen at www.mas.org.uk/public_seminars_workshops.html ideally deliv-ered via a series of short sessions. Email Barbara for further information about our programmes for on-line delivery.

One-to-one on-line coaching for leaders and managersEmail Barbara.leigh@mas.org.uk to arrange an initial chat with Derek Mowbray or Roy Marriott.

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www.mas.org.uk

Derek Mowbray PhD., FBPsSOrganisation Health PsychologistDirectorManagement Advisory Service

derek.mowbray@mas.org.uk

Barbara Leigh

Director Management Advisory Service

barbara.leigh@mas.org.uk