Highlighting the Challenges of Remote Management

The Wall Street Journal's Career Journal has a nice article on managing teams dispersed around the world, titled "Managers Learn to Bond with Remote Workers." The article directly relates to my recent writing on global IT deployment. The sub-title gets right to the point in saying that "far-flung employees need close contact and clear objectives."

Just as with the scenario of deploying IT globally, the author Elizabeth Garone makes the valid point that "as more companies expand their efforts away from headquarters, the need for managers to understand how to oversee remote employees is becoming more critical. Increasingly, managers of distant employees need to get up to speed on their own."

As I have explained as part of discussing my global IT deployment framework, Ms. Garone includes a nice quote that emphasizes the importance of having the right approach and combination of tools in keeping a dispersed team in synch (comments in parentheses are mine):

"Communicate each person's role and business objectives regularly, and establish agreed-upon ways to resolve conflicts and solve problems early on (framework and best practices), says Mr. Eicher. Find out how technically savvy your remote employees are -- and get them trained in technologies (tools that enable and help to strengthen the framework) you plan to use to keep in touch, he says. Remote employees should be comfortable with voice over Internet protocol, or VOIP; video streaming; and instant messaging."

The article goes on to expand upon how to strengthen relationships and these suggestions complement and in some circumstances repeat what I have written earlier. Overall, the article clearly illustrates the value of having in place a framework when engaging in a global IT deployment.