Before the advent of Internet, the old business landscape mostly had team members assembled within individual companies. Project managers and employees would work together within the four wall of the physical business location to complete a projects.
Today, it's the way around! Technology has advanced so much, that even when you are traveling abroad for business purpose - it is still possible to communicate with team members efficiently.
Today, it's the way around! Technology has advanced so much, that even when you are traveling abroad for business purpose - it is still possible to communicate with team members efficiently.
Below are 5 actionable steps you can take, as a business owner or as a project manager, to communicate with team members better while traveling.
- Be available always
When working with team members within the walls of the physical location, it becomes easy to stop by any of your employees desks to assist, comment on their work, or call them into the meeting room, allowing quick conversation. However, when your are traveling communicating with team members can be a hassle, when performed over the phone or by emails. And, as a project manager, it becomes really important you adopt cloud-based technology that allows you to communicate with team members immediately whenever they need you.
- Utilize multiple communication tools
Tools like "emails" and "phones"are the most common communication source used by project managers while traveling. However, they cannot always be a reliable tool, if you looking for quick and safe communication with team members. Emails can be left unread for days, while phone calls can prove to be expensive, especially when you are traveling abroad. Instead of relying only on emails and phones calls, adopting "virtual meeting platforms" will help you communicate with you team even more better, no matter which part of the globe your are traveling.
- Tag only those who are needed
While traveling, you would like to deal with less of confusions to avoid delay in projects. In most cases, it seen that project managers usually sends an email in common to all members of the team. This was done to make sure, that in case if the concerned person does not open the email, he/she could be informed by any other member of the team to perform the tasks. However, most of times, this method created confusions which automatically lead to delay in projects. Today, there are many cloud-based team collaboration tools that keeps you away from such ugly scenarios. Adopt one, and simply tag only those who are needed using a "#", who will then be immediately notified for the same on-the-go. This way, you not only streamline team communication but also eliminate confusions which becomes hard to handle, especially when you are traveling.
- Always interact with team members in real-time
While traveling, it becomes tiring and confusing to switch over multiple emails when you need to assist your team member, when they need you. And, referring to the first point, "You always need to be there" for your team. Eliminate the hassle of logging into different emails accounts and assist your employees from wherever you are by adopting a real-time communication system. This will help you not only save and secure all communications but also makes it easy and quick to assist your team members from any corner of the world you travel.
- Invest in a team collaboration system
Building a good team and ensuring effective communication becomes very important for any project manager. And, for those project managers who frequently travel around the world, yet need to manage a team - adopting a team collaboration system will be an ideal choice. Workhive - an easiest project management and team collaboration system allow project managers to perform the above four tasks in few clicks of the mouse. Allowing you to manage and access any of the team members over the cloud, Workhive can be an ideal team management solution when your are traveling.
