As our workplaces become less centralized in a traditional office building and more localized to our homes, you may find your team is now spread out and that you are suddenly responsible for managing a team of people that you no longer see every day. As managers of people, we want to do well and support our team members so they do well. How do we do that if we aren’t physically interacting with them each day? Instead of defaulting to scheduling endless “check in” meetings with the whole team, taking the time to be reflective and then intentional allows us to be proactive for the future.

By reflecting on what has worked well in the past and in what situations our team members were at their best, followed by taking an intentional moment to pause, we can gain clarity and allow team members to prepare accordingly for new challenges. Taken together, reflection and intention can help you to proactively address situations and tasks rather than sitting back and watching things unfold from a far.

Be Reflective – when were we at our best?

Invite your team to complete a reflective exercise to help discover their ideal working situation. Ask them to think about a time when they were truly at their best. Once they have that, consider not the outcome, but instead focus on the situation surrounding that outcome. What allowed them to work so well? Identifying specific logistics, circumstances, or atmospheres from their own perspective may offer you insight as to how they best operate, which may be different from you or anyone else on your team. And that’s okay! How might you know that their optimal working situation is different from yours? Because you should complete this exercise for yourself too.

Ideally, you will discover commonalities among your team members as well as differences. Knowing how your team members work means you can capitalize on situations where certain people work similarly and honor others that are unique. Not every member of a physically distanced team will work the same and that is the beauty of a team – everyone has a role to play and a niche to fill.

Be Intentional – what do I want to accomplish?

The time that people do come together, whether physically or virtually, should be spent as effectively as possible. No matter the logistics of your meeting, the more clarity around the intention of the discussion or task, the less chance of misinterpretation.

Something as straightforward as an agenda can be a useful tool for intention. Your agenda can be made even more clear by adding not just who will lead each topic, but also including the purpose of it. For example, if there is a decision to be made about a certain topic, making note of that on the agenda for everyone to see ahead of time allows team members to come to the meeting prepared for decision making. That is a different type of preparation than that of a discussion topic, or information sharing. This maximizes the meeting focus and involves minimal additional effort when putting the agenda together.

Be Proactive – time to connect the dots

Now that you know your team’s working styles and they know what to expect from your meeting or project, how might your team position themselves to be most effective? Look for specific ways that people’s talents and situations can complement one another. Encourage those who work best by talking things out to pick up the phone and connect with a colleague. You might schedule a standing meeting to simply share ideas and brainstorm around a certain topic as the sole intention . Those who thrive from verbal discussion can participate and those who prefer intense self-reflection might sit those ones out.

Set an example for honoring individual working preferences by committing to honoring your own. Maybe you realized that your preference for managing email is to block time aside each day to check your inbox and you will close your inbox outside of those times. Set those boundaries for yourself and communicate them to your team, along with why you are doing so and how this honors your own work style. By modelling this for your team, you also give them permission to find their own best practices for managing their work. Remember, the more you can draw out the strengths of your team while being clear about expectations, the more you can design a future that your team will work to achieve together.

Megan Foster is passionate about helping leaders inspire and energize their team members. As the founder of Mosaic Engagement, she is on a mission to motivate organizations to harness the expertise and creative power within their own team. Learn more at www.mosaicengagement.ca.