Managing Remote or Distributed Project Management Teams

Introduction

This article will show that there are nine (3x3) management styles for a project manager with a remote team and will look at how four of them are never an excellent choice, and then how to choose the most suitable one from the five that are applicable for several types of project team. 

Management/Leadership Style Options for Remote or Distributed Teams

If you consider the planning of a project and then the implementation of a project, there are three options for each: 

Planning

The three options are  

1. To consult your team means that you, the project manager (PM), produce a plan but run it past your team to check you have not missed anything. You have ownership of the plan.
2. To share the planning with the team, you sit down with them over Zoom or Teams and work out a plan together.
3. To delegate the planning to the team, you give them the parameters and let them produce a plan. They own the plan. 

Implementing

The three options are: 

1. The team must check with you before they can do a task.
2. The team must tell you after they have completed tasks—perhaps once a week, in a Zoom, Teams, or 1:1 Meeting, in a monthly report, or perhaps straight after they have done whatever it is.
3. The team does not have to report at all; they are free to get on with whatever the agreed-upon plan is. 

This gives you a 3x3 matrix of styles: 

Can You See Which Four of the Nine Combinations Are Not Recommended?

The first one we should rule out is number 1, because if you - the PM - have written the plan (albeit consulted the team to check that it is OK) they surely do not have to check with you before carrying out each part of it. You know the plan is OK because you wrote it! This would be over-control and not a sensible way to run things. 

Similarly, we can rule out style number 4, which is also over-control. If we have shared the planning, there is no need to check every task again before doing it. 

Conversely, style 9 is too loose – to let the team write the plan and then let them carry it out without checking or reporting, I feel that this is too risky, with a remote team. If you were in the office and could see what they were doing by “managing by walking about,” the risk would be acceptable, but if you cannot see them, I think you need some control, either in the planning or implementation. 

What is the Fourth Style that We Can Rule Out?

I would suggest that it is style 3, which has too great a contrast between the planning and the implementation. If you do the planning yourself but then give it to the team without even checking on their progress, you have to ask yourself, “If they are so trustworthy and great, why didn’t I share or delegate the planning?” or “If I have to do all of the planning, can I trust them to implement it 100% to my wishes?” – so I think that style 3 would be better if it was either 6 (you share the planning) or 2 (they tell you how they are getting on). 

All the other five styles are options, depending on the team and the task, as follows: 

The go-to style should be style 5: this is where you share the planning, and then the team reports on progress, either daily, weekly or monthly, depending on the speed of the project and the level of risk. Reporting could be via a coloured-in Gantt chart, regular Zoom meetings, or both.  

This style has the advantages of the most thorough planning—you have combined your knowledge and the team’s knowledge—and some light control: you know how progress is going from the regular reports. 

If you have a very trustworthy team that you have worked with before, you can move to style 6, where they carry out the plan without needing to tell you what is going on unless there is a problem and they need help. This is highly motivational for the team, they really do have ownership, they are clearly trusted because they are not being checked on by you. And, of course, in some remote-working situations, in the Antarctic or the jungle or at sea, it might not even be possible for them to report back to you on how it is going. 

Moving from 5 to 2 and 8: situation 2 is where you are the one with the knowledge. Perhaps you’re an expert on projects like this, or perhaps there is very little time, so YOU come up with the plan, but from then on, the team can implement it with just a little reporting. I feel that 5 is always better than 2, because even if they cannot add much, the team will be motivated by being involved (shared with, rather than just consulted), and they can always contribute something to the plan, however small. Sharing is a form of coaching, so it is ideal if you have the time for it. 

Style 8 is better—you delegate the planning to the team, perhaps because they are experienced enough to do the planning (or perhaps because you cannot really contribute anything much yourself), and then they carry it out, reporting regularly on progress as they go along. This is the closest to delegation. The feeling of team ownership is remarkably high, and it is a great style if the team can produce the project plan. 

Finally, there is style 7, which is where you’re dealing with a person or team who appears to be an expert. However, you don't really know them (customers often use this on me when they are getting me in to do a keynote talk for them) – you delegate the plan to them since they are the experts, but then you get them to check with you before they do each part, or you check the whole plan before they start implementing it.  A plan in the form of a Gantt chart would be pretty easy to check before they start, and then you can either get them to confirm each task before they do it (style 7), or after they have done it (which would be style 8), depending on the size and riskiness of each task. 

So, there are five styles to choose from, depending on how experienced the team are in planning and how much you trust the team in the implementing: 

For remote workers, it is important to feel involved, so these three planning styles help with that, particularly sharing and delegating. Remote workers are prone to feeling that all the important decisions are made at the head office without them and that some of these decisions are stupid, so consulting, sharing or delegating are great answers to this problem. 

Then the challenge is to keep some sort of control over the remote workers, ideally by getting them to report after they have done each part of the project, but sometimes by getting them to check before (at your weekly team meeting, each person can tell you what they are planning to do that week). Empowerment of remote teams is quite risky, but as already discussed, it is highly motivational, and if you have shared the planning and it is a team you know well, it can work. 

Conclusion

When you are next starting a project, ask yourself which of the planning styles and which of the implementation styles feels right, and then see which of the nine options you end up with and whether you feel happy with that. Inform the team how you want to work with them on this project – this is not something secret.  And of course, if they have a good reason for wanting the working method to be different to the one you have chosen, you would be interested in hearing about it.  That is consulting – they might be right!