Building a Culture of Trust Strategies for Managing Successful Remote Teams

Tech waits for no one! In this thrilling epoch, speed reigns supreme; the traditional 9-5 paradigm cannot bog down business. The 21st century has witnessed a sea change in the way we work. Remote work has big banged the rest of the way we live! It has opened up a universe full of opportunities. Unprecedented levels of freedom for businesses and employees are now possible with remote hiring.

However, this newfound freedom comes with a great set of unique challenges. The most significant challenge is building a culture of trust within remote teams.

As a leading provider of remote software development services, Aspired understands the critical importance of fostering a culture of trust and collaboration within remote teams. 

Aspired builds relationships, not just resources!

Our approach goes beyond providing top-notch software development services; it centers on building a community that encourages and inspires each other to achieve their goals.

This blog post unravels the secrets of building trust and managing successful remote teams. We share our insights and best practices for creating a dynamic, cohesive, high-performing workforce that flourishes on trust and collaboration.

But first, let's define a high-trust culture and why developing one in your team is essential.

Game of Teams: Embrace High-Trust Culture

A high-trust culture is a workplace that places trust and mutual respect at the core of its values. After all, who doesn't want to feel respected and valued as a professional? We certainly do!

By fostering a culture of trust and respect, we attract and retain top remote developers, driving business growth and success. Here are some of the key traits that we emphasize in our company.

• Transparency, fairness, kindness, and generosity are the core values of our company culture.
• We foster collaboration and accountability among our team members.
• Regular feedback sessions ensure our team members feel heard and valued.
• We trust our employees to make their own decisions.

Are you wondering what it takes to build a culture of trust in a virtual work environment? Here are powerful strategies that Aspired executes to establish trust and strengthen bonds within the team.

Create your blueprint: Establish Your Goal

Leading a remote team entails frequently establishing and maintaining the following items:

• Team objectives
• Team purposes
• Team Priorities

Establishing defined priorities, goals, and purposes will increase team transparency. You may set goals for your team in a variety of ways. The SMART objectives system is frequently an excellent place to begin.

A Smart goal is as follows:

• Specific: What exactly should your team accomplish? Who is to be held responsible?
• Measurable: How will you monitor your progress toward the goal?
• Achievable: Can your team achieve this goal with the resources they have?
• Relevance: How does this aim to apply to your job? Why are you putting effort into it?
• Time-Bound: What is the time frame for completing the goal?

Amplify Your Unity: Introduce Teamwork Tools

Collaboration tools are critical for successful remote work. These solutions make it simple for team members to stay in touch and often reduce the required meetings.

Each team will require a unique set of collaboration tools; it's a good idea to start with the following.

• Slack and Discord. They are two good examples of chat software.
• Software for video conferencing, such as Skype or Zoom
• Google Drive and other file-sharing and cloud-storage services
• JIRA and Monday.com are examples of project management apps.

Increase trust and remote collaboration by synchronizing your team's workflow and communication.

(These tools serve as suggestions only; it is up to the individual reader and business to research to determine which tools best suit their needs.)

Rally Your Troops: The Power of Regular Meetings

The digital workplace relies heavily on collaboration, achievable with technology but has challenges. For example, maintaining a feeling of belonging and connection calls for frequent in-person contact.

More meeting means less time to work on critical tasks. Therefore, online meetings should be designed and utilized to their full potential to avoid becoming burdensome.

To maximize productivity, consider holding the following meetings

The Initial Meeting: The first meeting introduces your teams' communication and cooperation methods.

The Routine Meetings:  Establish a regular schedule for team meetings. The meetings will be held regularly, with the date and time published in advance. For example, you can hold meetings weekly for customer-facing employees or twice a month for back-office personnel.

Private Meetings:  Make it possible for employees to schedule private sessions with management. It is an excellent way for managers to connect with employees.

Informal Gatherings: We also create casual gatherings for remote developers and development teams at Aspired. It is just a relaxed get-together for the staff. We also called it a happy hour event. It's an excellent opportunity for having fun and learning more about each other. It helps to build confidence and reliance on each other.

Champion Dialogue: Peer-To-Peer Feedback

Peer-to-peer feedback is different from an annual evaluation with a manager. Instead, it is a method for team members to realign and enhance their teamwork continuously. Receiving feedback from a close colleague shortly after the completion of the project is frequently more targeted and actionable than receiving an annual performance review.

As your remote team members become more acquainted, you can foster a culture encouraging peer-to-peer (P2P) feedback. Consider your options. Speak with your teammates. Add more structures to encourage feedback. Frequent feedback leads to less stress and more motivated staff, which is especially important during review season.

Team Triumph: Recognize and Reward 

By stressing the group's cohesiveness, you can also aid in their confidence-building. You can reward your team when the key performance indicators (KPIs) are met or exceeded by tracking project progress and results. Remember to consider the value of thankfulness as a currency. Create a culture of thanksgiving and acknowledgment. Ensure your team recognizes huge wins so everyone, not just you, feels appreciated.

Balance booster: Support work-life harmony

Lastly, one of the most effective methods to create trust with your team is demonstrating that you support their efforts to maintain a healthy work-life balance. Here are the following ways you can help employees maintain a healthy work-life balance

• Encourage your workers to utilize their vacation time throughout the year.
• There is no need for after-hours phone calls or email communication (except in exceptional, occasional circumstances)
• Collaborate with your organization to provide resources for team members' health and well-being.
• Create a backup mechanism, so the team knows whom to contact for specific needs when one person is unavailable.
• Ask those team members who work after hours to plan emails and messages in group communication platforms for distribution during regular business hours.

If your staff struggles to strike a work-life balance or believes they need more trust and support, you may experience increased burnout and turnover. Yet, if individuals feel encouraged and trusted, they are likelier to remain enthusiastic and interested in their work.

Next Step…

Embracing above mention strategies helps you create a lively onboarding process and foster effective collaboration with remote teams.

If you are excited to take the next step and looking to hire remote developers and development talent, turn to Aspired for direct access to skilled professionals with the precise expertise you require. Be it software developers, full stack developers, or entire development teams that make digital dreams come true, Aspired has it all!

Ignite the spark in your projects today by joining hands with our unparalleled remote developers and development teams and watch your project come to life in a symphony of colors and creativity.

Don't just work remotely-work strategically and vividly with Aspired!