Working from home feels like freedom of its own, right? Working from your comfortable couch, bed, your local cafe, and anywhere with a stable internet connection and operational working equipment might seem fascinating, but are you prepared?
Remote work has a few pros to count. Still, it also has identified a series of bummers that can hamper the working culture and the contribution of individual peers or the team as a whole. For example, there can be a slow communication rate, poor network connectivity, employee motivation to work, etc.
But, how do we overcome these challenges as an Individual and become a valuable team player?
How to be a team player while working remotely
To become a team player, you need to ensure that you are connected with your peers and critical personnel while working remotely. So let’s explore few steps that you can implement and make you and your surroundings feel motivated and engaged.
1. Communicate regularly with your team members
An essential aspect of becoming a team player is communicating with all your team members as frequently as possible during remote work. You need to bridge the distance gap with communication channels and platforms so that the probable result of falling into mistrust is eliminated.
There might be circumstances when the communication lines may clog and fill your inbox with dozens of email threads, creating chaos for you to stay connected. So make sure that you also prioritize the communication stream and network with your peers along with.
2. Indulge yourself with organizational activities
To become an active team player, you need to make sure that your team members don’t feel left out by communicating with them and staying up-to-date with all the conflicts and updates in your department.
There are other activities that you can perform as well to stay connected as a team player within your organization:
- Organizing or attending weekly or fortnightly training and engagement programs
- Train your peers the skills you are good at and learn what others are good in
- Organize an informal video call with your colleagues and strengthen the bond professionally as well as personally.
3. Achieve milestones through results, not time invested
The transition from a 9 to 5 working schedule to flexibility in remote working has eventually deterred the predetermined format of physical working and dedicated timing for operations.
However, while working at a temporary yet dedicated workspace, completing your day-to-day task within the 9 to 5 schedule would always seem impossible.
To become a team player, you need to instill this framework of time management within you and encourage your peers to do so. It should not be necessary for you or your peers to create a foundation to report at a stringent time rather than support a common and flexible schedule as long as all the operational activities are on a roller coaster ride.
4. Create a dedicated workstation
In remote working, you should not just curl up in the bed and work the entire day. With freedom comes responsibility. You should commit to yourself, your family and dedicatedly work during a standard working hour proactively.
To attain this kind of commitment, you need to shift yourself from your comfort zone to a suitable yet dedicated remote workstation.
Decorate that desk and walls around you with anything that can make you feel more focused. You can see the difference in productivity between the comfort of working in the bed and a dedicated workstation.
5. Know when to stop
When you are working remotely or work from home, you need to make a pact and amend it. The pact of not meshing the personal and professional life just because you are not in the outline of the physical office framework.
It might be a challenging step to align the coordination at the commencement of transition. You should not feel guilty at the end of the day for staying as unproductive as you could have been until you knew when to stop.
Conclusion
The real problem requires a modern solution, and to adapt to the changing environment of remote working; the trend is to embrace rather than deject.
You will have to contribute to the responsibilities of your small workplace that might distract you for a while, but you will have to regain yourself and your focus back to your work.
