2021年经济学人 如何高效管理远程办公的团队(1)（在线收听）

Business

商业

Bartleby - How to lead from afar

巴托比 - 如何远程领导

New and old skills will be needed.

新旧技能都需要。

When office workers were sent home in the spring of 2020, managers suddenly faced a new challenge: how to supervise teams that were working remotely.

当办公室员工们在2020年春天被遣散回家时，管理者们突然面临着一个新的挑战：如何监督远程工作的团队。

While employees are now gradually heading back to their desks, a much greater share will work from home at least occasionally than before the pandemic.

虽然员工现在逐渐回到办公桌前，但有更多的人至少偶尔在家工作，这一比例比疫情之前大得多。

A new book, “Leading at a Distance”, by James Citrin and Darleen Derosa of Spencer Stuart, an executive-search firm, attempts to provide some practical tips for managers dealing with staff whom they do not see face to face.

高管猎头公司斯宾塞·斯图尔特的詹姆斯·西特林和达琳·德罗萨合著的新书《远程领导》试图为管理者们提供一些实用的技巧，帮助他们与无法面对面接触的员工打交道。

The authors are not in the gloomy camp that believes remote working is a disaster.

两位作者并不认为远程办公是一场灾难。

They think it can be just as effective as face-to-face work.

他们认为远程办公可以和面对面的工作一样有效。

They point out that the ability to hire people who can work anywhere means that businesses will find it easier to develop more diverse workforces.

他们指出，能够雇佣可以在任何地方工作的人意味着，企业将更容易培养更多样化的劳动力。

A study by McKinsey, a consultancy, found that 70% of companies thought remote hiring would help in this respect.

麦肯锡咨询公司的一项研究发现，70%的公司认为远程招聘在这方面会有所帮助。

The book offers some useful advice.

书中提供了一些有用的建议。

For starters, keep virtual teams small.

首先，保持虚拟团队的较小规模。

The upper threshold seems to be around a dozen.

上限似乎在十几个左右。

A study found that 37% of low-performing teams had 13 or more members, compared with just 24% of high-performing teams.

一项研究发现，37%的表现不佳的团队有13名或更多的成员，而表现优秀的团队中只有24%。

In addition, the best-performing teams tended to be drawn from one department, such as marketing, rather than from across the firm.

此外，表现最好的团队往往来自一个部门，比如市场营销部门，而不是整个公司。

The trickiest part of the manager’s job is building rapport.

管理工作中最棘手的部分是建立融洽的关系。

It is easy for remote workers to feel isolated so supervisors should be in regular contact.

远程工作的员工很容易感到孤立无援，因此主管应该与他们保持定期联系。

But it is a tricky line to walk.

但这是一条很难走的路线。

There is a difference between checking in to see if someone needs support and constantly monitoring their progress.

查看某人是否需要支持和持续监控他们的进展是不同的。

If team members feel they are being nagged, they will conclude their superiors don’t trust them.

如果团队成员觉得自己被唠叨催促了，他们就会认为上司不信任他们。

Much communication will be by email, which has its advantages.

大部分交流将通过电子邮件进行，这有其优势。

It is easily shared, can be read several times to aid comprehension and can be referred to long after it is sent.

邮件很容易分享，可以多次阅读以帮助理解，并且可以在发送后很长时间内以供查阅。

But email also introduces the risk that nuance is lost.

但电子邮件也带来了（语气、表情等）细微差别丢失的风险。

The authors cite studies showing that emails perceived to be neutral in tone by the sender are seen as negative by the recipient; and recipients consider neutral those perceived by the sender to be positive.

作者援引的研究表明，发件人认为语气中性的邮件，收件人会认为是消极的；而收件人认为语气中性的邮件被发件人认为是积极地。