How am I doing with managing my team remotely? Reflection questions for managers

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Schools and colleges in the UK are now several weeks into the closures triggered by the coronavirus crisis and we are currently in the Easter break period. It feels like a good point to pause, step back and reflect on that transition to teaching and learning from home and what we can take forward into next term. Here are some questions for managers to think about or discuss, to support that reflective process. These questions relate to the move to managing teaching teams remotely as opposed to face-to-face.

1. Which approaches have been helpful in the transition to remote management of the team?
    
2. When has my mindset helped with managing the transition?
    
3. What have I noticed about communicating with my team during a crisis?
    
4. What has surprised or impressed me about how the team have made this move to teaching from home?
    
5. What do the team need from me going forward? And the learners in my area?
    
6. What do I need to be doing differently, in order to be more helpful and useful to the team?
    
7. How will I know if someone in the team is struggling and needs help of any kind?
    
8. Who might need digital or session planning support and what can I/we offer?
    
9. How can I adapt my management support to meet the different needs within the team?
    
10. How can I collaborate with coaches, advanced practitioners and digital champions to help the team to develop through this process?
     
11. What will help us to stay connected and strong as a team during this period of working from home?
     
12. How can I balance online team meetings with other forms of individual communication, to avoid wasting teachers’ valuable time or eroding trust?
     
13. How can I show the team that I trust them to do a good job with remote teaching?
     
14. How can I monitor student progress without having negative impacts on staff workload or trust?
     
15. What strengths and skills do we have in this team that can be harnessed now? How can we do that together?
     
16. Where can I go for support or guidance about my management of the transition?
     
17. Which of my management skills could be especially useful in the next term?
     
18. How can I help the team to stay motivated and remain resilient as the pandemic disruption continues?
     
19. What positives do I hope we can take away from this experience, to enhance our teamwork and service for learners?
     
20. What do I hope the team would say about my management during this crisis?