Management Tutorial: how to improve your team's productivity from home

Learn the keys to improve the effectiveness and motivation of team members working from home, with Foncho Ramírez-Corzo

With telecommuting becoming more and more widespread, and facing a new work paradigm that is going to change how companies operate over the next few years, the importance of learning to work from home (or from anywhere with an internet connection, really) is an issue that is becoming more visible day by day.

In the following video tutorial, consultant and entrepreneur Foncho Ramirez-Corzo (@cholutions) gives us the main keys to improve your team's productivity while working from home. Discover it below:

1. A leader's job is to absorb uncertainty

As Foncho himself assures, it is not the same to lead a team face-to-face as from a distance. It is important to understand that a good leader must be able to absorb the uncertainties of his workers about the changing future of work, their personal concerns linked to this, their expectations... and not just manage the team in a mechanical way.

2. It is important to establish a formal relationship of cooperation

We have mentioned that it is not enough just to manage mechanically... but having a well-organized structure of responsibilities, hours, attention and work for all the elements that make up the team is key. This helps to cohere the team and make it feel like a single body, in the absence of a physical building where all its members can meet and work on a daily basis.

3. There must be one source of truth

That is, the entire team must share the same information and have authoritative sources should any questions or problems arise that need to be resolved effectively. There must be a common knowledge base that can be called upon.

4. Ways to organize the tasks of your team

There are different methodologies that we can use when it comes to organizing the different tasks that workers are going to dedicate themselves to throughout their workday.

Personal kanban board

The simplest methodology of all: it proposes to separate tasks into three columns, depending on whether they are things that need to be done, things that are being done or things that are already done. It is a quick and useful way to see at a glance where we are located, but it lacks details in case we want to go deeper.

The MoSCoW method

MoSCoW is an acronym derived from four categories: Must have (non-negotiable tasks, which must be done immediately), Should have (important but not vital tasks), Could have (important, but not as important as the previous category) and Wont have (tasks that are not worth doing).

Keeping these four categories in mind, we can organize our tasks in each one of them, which will help us to clearly see their relative importance; it is important to always look for that task that "saves the day", the essential work that we have to have ready at the end of the day.

The Eisenhower matrix

To implement this method, we will divide a sheet of paper into four equal parts, and assign to each part a combination of characteristics. The upper left part will contain urgent and important things, the upper right part will contain not so urgent but equally important things, the lower left part will contain urgent but not so important things, and the lower right part will contain things that are neither urgent nor important.

In the first quadrant we will place everything we have to give priority to; in the second, those things that are important but not so urgent, so we can schedule them for another day; in the third, those things that must be done quickly but can be delegated to be done by others; and in the fourth, those things that at the moment do not need to be done at all.

Did you like this tutorial? Remember that you can learn with Foncho Ramirez-Corzo the basic tools of teleworking to improve the effectiveness and motivation of your team members working from home. Discover his online course 'Remote work: keys to work from home'.

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