Are you ready for team management of the future? Today’s teams work different than just ten years ago. International teams, remote work, flexible hours and a soaring number of freelancers: Do you have what it takes to manage today’s teams?
The tools for team management have changed. Will the rules too?
Do you know that feeling when you and your team achieve the goal you have been working for? It’s like arriving on top of a high mountain. You’re tired and exhausted; but also euphoric, proud and happy to have made it up there – together.
From up there, team management looks easy… (Biletskiy Evgeniy / adobe.stock.com)
From up there, everything looks easy. Forgotten are the hard work, the set-backs and problems that come with every project. To me, that feeling on the top of the metaphorical mountain is the essence of “teamness”: You and your team become one; a singular and powerful force, arising from the potential of the individuals working together. Let that force be yours!
A good team is a powerful force, arising from the potential of each individual.
Team Management Software
Communication is key – and knowledge is power. Good team management software gives you both: tools for efficient team communication, and access to everything that’s going on. **From efficient project calendars to time tracking, from document storage to secure communication: great team management software is as comprehensive as teamwork is. **To fully profit from technology, your team management software should be online - up in the cloud.
Online Team Management Software
Because online team management software takes you one step further: It lets you manage your team from above, freed from the boundaries of place and time. Access information wherever and whenever you need it, from your phone, the laptop or your desktop computer. No installation, no complicated back-up system, no synchronization. That’s the beauty of cloud-based software: It is always live – and always there.
Remote Team Collaboration
Once upon a time, getting your team together meant getting them to the same table. Today, it means getting them on the same page. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 24 percent of employed people in the U.S. did all or parts of their work remotely in 2015, and the numbers are rising. Remote team collaboration requires a different set of tools than a flip chart and a meeting room.
Once upon a time, getting your team together meant getting them to the same table… (Rawpixel.com / adobe.stock.com)
Tools for remote teams
For one, tools for remote teams need to be accessible from anywhere, anytime – they need to be in the cloud. There are several tools for time tracking, project management and communication available online, some of them are even free. But do you really want to use ten different apps and services? Luckily, there are tools for remote teams that combine all your team’s needs – and the really good ones let you track your team’s performance live, like zistemo does. Look for yourself!
Remote team building
Ok. Now you’ve got it all. Services like zistemo offer smart time tracking, safe communication channels and document storage, all up in the cloud. Add project management, automatic billing services and a live view of your team’s performance, and you’re good. But the real challenge of team management today is remote team building. How do you create that feeling of togetherness without actually being together? How do you unleash the potential of each individual member if you never speak eye to eye?
Get to Know Your Team – Up in the Cloud!
The good news: With cloud-based team management, you get to know your staff in real-time. Smart time reports don’t just output a list of hours - they can show your team members’ strengths and weaknesses. Integrated project management lets you survey progress and problems in real-time – anywhere, anytime. Thanks to live team time tracking, you’re always up-to-date on your team’s performance.
Team Time Tracking has never been easier!
The bad news: There is no clear set of rules what to do with that knowledge. Because great team management acknowledges the people you work with. Even though you’re not in the same room, nor the same hemisphere.
What you really need to get your team up that mountain is experience, common sense - and basically the same set of social skills you needed at that table.
The tools to get to the mountain top might have changed; the basic rules did not.
What do you think? What has changed for you and your team? Let us know!
