You may think you have what it takes to be a great manager, but how well do you think you’d do if you worked in a location separate from your team? To manage remotely, your communication skills need to be top notch, and you should be very comfortable conducting video calls to provide your team one-on-one engagement. Angie Hill is General Manager of Skype Audience Marketing in Microsoft’s Apps and Services organization, a role she’s held for the past 3 years. She lives in California, while her team is located across Palo Alto, Seattle and London. Angie shares her insight into how she makes sure out of sight doesn’t mean out of mind.
You manage a team of 24 people, yet you work remotely from home in California. How has not being on campus with your team changed your management style?
When you work remotely, you have to work even harder to build a trust and respect with your team. My management style has really evolved over the years and I continue to learn new ways to improve. One thing that you have to fight when managing a team is paranoia that you are not there in the room. There is no room for self-doubt, you have to let your work and the achievements of your team speak for your ability to manage remotely. It’s also really important to create a team “purpose” and ensure everyone is aligned when it comes to objectives, priorities, budget and expected deliverables. When you manage remotely, you have little room to be vague. Since my entire team is essentially remote there are time zone challenges, language barriers, cultural differences, therefore the most important thing I have to create as a manager is an environment of mutual respect and genuine desire to collaborate and work together. I also have to cultivate an environment where “life” can converge with work because it’s inevitable that someone will be taking a call at 6am or 10pm. My team has to know they have the freedom to make their own choices on how to manage their day – the entire day (personal and work).
What is the secret sauce that makes you an effective manager?
To be an effective manager you have to be in touch with your team. Understand that each person is unique and has their own frustrations, challenges, desires for development, short and long-term goals and different capacities for stress. One of the key jobs of a manager is hiring and finding team members that bring different skills to the team. It’s the mix of talents and behaviors that creates an amazing team culture. I also have advocates at all of our locations who help keep me connected with the pulse of the offices. I ask a lot of questions, ask how people are doing and ping people throughout the week letting them know what I know. For instance, if I hear in a meeting that one of my employees did a great presentation, I will IM that person and say, 'Great job on your presentation today.' It's important for your employees to know you are aware of their achievements regardless of your location.
You said you pinged a team member - how do you leverage technology to build a rapport and maintain a cohesive team?
Technology has enabled us to do our jobs from anywhere giving people greater flexibility than ever before. That said, we know nothing beats actually seeing your colleagues to help build relationships, assess facial expressions and delivering feedback. For the 25% of people who work remotely more than half the time, Skype is a key tool in facilitating these face-to-face relationships. I also love the group chat feature on Skype. During team meetings I’ll often side chat with the group. It helps to keep the conversation active with everyone and it enables people to ask questions without interrupting. It also enables a lot of team comments, expressions with emojis and the ability for people to enhance the topic by inserting links to stories or content that supports the topic, it’s essentially our ability to have “water cooler” talks from offices all over the world.
What do you do to build a personal relationship with each member of your staff? Do you let them know how to engage you when they need you?
I live on Skype and show video most of the time. There are some days I spare my team the embarrassment of seeing my insane hair. I usually start every call, though, with a hello on video to maintain the visual connection. Additionally, a lot of managers say they have an open door policy. I may not have a physical open door, but my team knows they can always reach me on Skype IM.
What’s one key piece of advice you would share with a hiring manager?
Look for employees who have an appetite for ongoing communication and who will proactively engage with their team despite being remote. Watch out for the person who always says “Let me know the next time you are in town so we can meet.” That person is probably unable to handle the changing landscape of the workplace and the role technology now plays in team collaboration and our ability to be efficient and effective no matter where we are.
