4 Ways to Inspire Creativity within Your Virtual and Remote Teams

Nurturing and developing your teams for them to showcase and use their creativity is an essential part of being a business owner. But what if you have a virtual team or have members that work remotely? As an entrepreneur you can still inspire creativity in all your team members and foster community and strategic thinking for your business. 

1. Run Brainstorm Sessions, not just Update Meetings

When catching up with your team members, don't just spend all of your time talking about what happened the week before and action points for the week ahead. Give your team members time to think and come up with ideas and be there in the process to generate new ways of thinking.

2. Get Out of Your Comfort Zone

Make time to meet face-to face with your team members to let them know what updates and ideas you have and let them know that you value their input on how to make things happen. Often, your remote workers will be in their home office, so inviting discussion and real conversation in a funky co-working space or even a great and quiet pub can spark some out of the box thinking. Or meet them on their turf to let them know you are interested in their thought process - that's why you hired them, right?

3. Let Your Virtual Team Run Away with Ideas

With start-ups, sometimes business owners want to be so close to coming up with every idea that they block themselves off to new and innovative solutions. Instead of dictating what needs to be done, set up the problem and invite your team to THINK and PRESENT their way of solving it in their own way and in their own time. Sometimes brilliance doesn't necessarily come during the prescribed 9 to 5 hours allotted for client work, but knowing that you value their time and energy in developing creative ideas means your teams will work harder for you.

4. Let Your Virtual Team TALK to Each Other

This one may seem simple, but many people think having a Virtual PA means having a nameless person behind a computer screen or telephone doing diary management. But the reality is you can create and use an entire team of highly skilled workers to help with administrative tasks, social media management, finances and bookkeeping, event management, and so much more. PA&GO offers flexible packages and s a one stop shop for any support needed for your business, whether it's just a few hours a month or a comprehensive support system for multiple business functions. Having an integrated team that knows each other and communicates regularly fosters community and makes bouncing good ideas around so much easier.

Creative thinking is a treasured asset in a start-up, so make sure all of your workers, no matter where they are based, are playing to their unique strengths to improve your business by fostering an environment of innovation and excellence in every task they do.