What is the difference between organisations that have successful remote teams and those who do not? The answer might surprise you. Productivity is the obvious answer, but it is not the only factor. It is not each individual being as productive as they can while on their own—it is the members of the team working as true teammates.
Even before COVID-19 and the shutdowns, remote work was on the rise. Indian firms such as Tata Consultancy Services anticipated that as much as 75 per cent of their workforce would have the option to work from home by 2025. Now most companies have at least some of their workforce working away from the office, voluntarily or not. The issue for many of these entities going forward is creating the same level of engagement, collaboration and team, spirit they had while working in the office together.
In researching our new book, The Long-Distance Teammate-Stay Engaged and Connected Working Anywhere, Kevin Eikenberry and I uncovered some unexpected factors in the longterm success of remote workers.
The first was how they identified themselves. Certainly, being able to maintain productivity unsupervised was the obvious part of the equation. But we found that even the most focused, capable individual worker sometimes felt stuck or unmotivated, and often began to exhibit signs of stress and burnout after several months. Those who felt they were individuals answering to their manager and otherwise on their own were, in the long run, less productive, engaged, and satisfied than those who thought of themselves as ‘teammates’.
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