Leading a team at a distance: A Literature Review on Distance Leadership

Abstract

In 2020 all of our lives changed, influencing many aspects of our daily lives. Over 60% of the Finnish population switched to working from home that year, and still today it’s a possibility for many of us. Leading a team remotely have a unique set of challenges that require unique solutions. Remote teams with all their advantages and challenges are here to stay. Working from home separates the worker from the leader, which creates challenges such as lack of face-to-face supervision, lack of clear expectations, low productivity, lack of communication, lack of team cohesiveness and social isolation. This thesis was conducted as a literature review with the approach called the five-stage grounded-theory method and it included defining, searching, selecting, analysing, and presenting. Many factors go into effectively leading a team from a distance. Leadership is viewed as an activity, a responsibility, and an opportunity. It focuses on people, vision, influence, direction, and development. Leadership is a complex subject that requires regular practice and additional study to master. When leading a team remotely, it is critical to have a clear vision of what kind of organisation you want to be or how the workforce will fit into the culture you want to create. Creating a meaningful workplace with a team that works remotely, is crucial. To stay up with the evolving technology and remote workers, they require regular examination, restructuring, and modification. It’s possible that what has worked before won’t work as well in the future, and new concepts need to be created as people leave their jobs and are replaced by new workers, all of whom have unique talents, traits, demographics, and motivational factors.