Managing a geographically dispersed team can be tricky.
To effectively manage them, you're going to have to give
special consideration to your team members time zones,
schedules, and local holidays. Thankfully,
there are some useful tactics to help you handle the challenge.
A good starting point is to find ways to keep track of all your
virtual team members schedules and time zones.
One way to do this allowing at a glance viewing is to
draw up a schedule or calendar of all team members activities.
You can place time zone clocks on your wall.
Don't forget to also keep track of daylight savings time
if some members live in regions that use it.
Keeping track of others' time zones might seem simple,
but it is actually one of the trickiest aspects of
managing communication with your team.
However, by remaining mindful of others time zones and schedules,
you'll not only be able to communicate with team members at
appropriate local times, but also show understanding of
and sensitivity to their circumstances.
This awareness mitigates the frustration when sending an
email at 9 PM their time and not receiving an immediate response.
A useful practice is keeping a calendar that indicates
everyone's schedules including your own,
so you can easily see what's going on and when your schedules overlap.
Decide on a baseline time zone for your projects.
For example, the zone with the most team members,
which becomes the home time zone.
All virtual team member schedules are then considered relative
to the projects home time zone.
And be mindful of public and religious holidays in the countries
or regions where your virtual team members reside.
This will prevent you from calling meetings on unsuitable days,
which can make you seem inconsiderate.
Working with team members in multiple time zones means that sometimes
you'll have to compromise your meeting schedule.
Make it a priority to first review your team members time zones
and their input before deciding on the best time to meet.
It can be hard to find times that are ideal for all team members,
so compromise is sometimes necessary.
This could mean taking turns having meetings at the most convenient
time for members in different time zones.
Decide together if possible how to include and handle members
whose time zones fall outside of the business hours of their teammates.
Obviously, work hours will be staggered
when teammates work in multiple time zones.
Make the time difference work for you by organizing tasks
to flow from person to person when possible
to capitalize on the longer overall workday.
But beware; running tasks across time zones will need coordination,
so build some extra time into the schedule to detail the process.
Keeping time zones in mind and creating conditions where
everyone can work smarter can actually be a
hidden benefit of dispersed teams.