Many of us have been working from home and while we’re uncertain of exactly what the future holds, it’s clear that leading teams virtually is here to stay. If you didn’t have the experience prior to the ongoing pandemic, you’ve likely realized that managing people from a distance is possible. Perhaps it’s worked out for you better than you thought. Perhaps it’s been a little easier than you expected.

On the other hand, you may have realized, or soon will, that leading from a distance and ensuring sustained high performance isn’t just a given. It’s one thing to make it happen out of necessity for a few weeks, but entirely different to lead from a distance for a longer period (if not permanently). All beginners get lucky, but wind up being severely tested in the end.

I’ve been fortunate to have some years of experience leading from a distance. I wanted to take a few minutes and share with you some of my best advice. The thoughts I’ll share are conceptual. I trust in your ability, based on your individual circumstances, to fill in the details. I’m not looking to provide you a lengthy ‘how-to manual’ but rather a few thoughts and ideas to inspire you to do some self-reflection and to figure out what you can apply.

From my experience, working virtually only further exposes the weaknesses of some teams and often of the leaders themselves. If you’re challenged with communicating clearly or staying connected with people while face to face, expect these things to be even harder from a distance. Not acknowledging these challenges and not doing something about them will undoubtedly impact your ability to effectively lead.

Leadership is a serious responsibility and doing so from a distance requires some serious thought. Below are what I see as the top 2 challenges. I’ve included some suggestions about how to address them.

#1: Confusion

• The Challenge: when people aren’t right in front of you to watch over it gets easy for things to be confusing. Almost anything can spark a series of misunderstandings, leading to fragmentation, inconsistency, frustration, and even the erosion of trust and rapport. Even the most simple of subjects can easily get misinterpreted. Things are easily ‘lost in translation’ under normal circumstances let alone when everyone is separated. Tone can be misread if teams are communicating frequently via email or instant messenger. To make it worse, often you as the leader may not realize the extent of the confusion before it’s too late and the damage has been done.
• How to Address: nothing beats clear, constant communication. If you’re a leader and people are confused, take accountability. To an extent you can’t control if people tune in or tune out, but you can control how the messages are framed and how they are shared. Before you assign blame to others, first look at what you can do better to communicate more clearly. Try different ways of communicating. Secondly, communication needs to be constant. Sending an email is not communication. Emails are a way to deliver information – words and phrases on a screen for people to read – but don’t guarantee understanding. Communication is two-way dialogue. Communication requires repetition, checks for understanding, and opportunities to clarify.

#2: Isolation

• The Challenge: when people are working from home it’s easy to feel isolated. After all, people are literally distanced from each other. Isolation often breeds paranoia. Think about your own experiences being on your own. I’m sure you can think of times where you experienced the fear of missing out. Or perhaps you felt like others had important information that they were withholding from you. We don’t have time to delve into the depths of human psychology, but the point is that being isolated can make us all a little bit crazy at times.
• How to address: when people are working remotely, silence in my opinion and experience is never a good thing. Being ‘out of sight and out of mind’ comes at a big cost for your ability to lead from a distance over a sustained period. The solution is simple: stay connected, even when you don’t have to. Don’t brush off a 1 on 1 with your employees or a team meeting. Schedule these meetings, preferably a month or more in advance, and stick with it. And more than these structured meetings, make the effort to reach out to people ‘just because.’ Send them an instant message to ask about their weekend. Start a team chat to get some group discussion going. Draw out those that are quiet by asking them direct questions or getting them involved in a project or task. And a little added bonus is all the virtual meeting technology — turn on the camera, if not all the time at least 9 times out of 10.

Thanks for taking the time to read my article. I’d love to hear from you. Perhaps you have other ideas you could share to address the challenges of leading from a distance. Perhaps you’ve experienced other challenges altogether.

Either way, I wish you the best during this time and hope that you have the chance to learn, grow, and emerge an even stronger. Whether from a distance or in person, enhancing your ability to communicate clearly and connect with people will always make you a better leader.