Managing Remote Teams

The question of remote work is still up in the air — some companies are requiring people to come back into the office while others are opening 100% remote or allowing hybrid work (personally, I think the future will lean hybrid).

Nowadays it’s very likely that managers will be managing remote teams or workers — either across global regions or as WFH workers. And if you’re new to managing remote workers, navigating a hybrid team remotely, or have picked up responsibility managing global/remote teams, it can sometimes feel overwhelming managing offsite teams. So, here are a few tips I’ve picked up over the years that might help.

Technology is Your Friend.

This is a no-brainer, and in a post-COVID world I would hope that we’re all familiar by now with platforms that allow remote communications and shared work. Platforms like Slack and Microsoft Teams are the most common nowadays, and project collaboration platforms like Basecamp allow teams to work collaboratively. Some companies will also have shared drives where work can be placed on a company’s intranet for collaboration, discussion, or more simply, to archive material for anyone to find as needed.

Project management software like Trello or Asana are also fantastic project management tools for team members to see the status of projects as well as be alerted to any roadblocks that are causing delays. As a manager, I find these platforms helpful in seeing all team projects in one place with info. on the status of each.

The key here is to be consistent on which platforms you use for communications, work sharing, information sharing, and archiving — and making sure everyone knows which platform is to be used for what. Knowing how to access information, share project updates, and communicate is important in keeping projects and communications on track (and this is true regardless of WFH or in-office).

Be Present.

When working remotely or when you’re in the office and someone on your team is off-site, it’s easy to focus on your own tasks and projects, assuming your remote workers are also doing the same. But that doesn’t mean you can just focus on your needs. What happens if your team members have a question or need support? How are you supposed to know what they need if you don’t see them physically every day?

It’s important to make sure you’re available when you say you will be — that could mean providing visibility to your calendar, setting “office hours” or just showing you are “present” on remote messaging platforms.

Make yourself available by leveraging communication platforms like Slack or by sending proactive messages (just “checking in”) to see if your team members need anything. I find a proactive outreach is often the best way to touch base — you’ll find that if your team member needs support, they’ll let you know or they’ll respond with an “all good!” in which case, you know they’re in a good place.

Also, as much as you can manage it, don’t make your remote team wait for answers — if you’re in a meeting, set your messaging platform to “in meeting” but make sure to respond as soon as you can, even if the answer is “I don’t know, let me find out.” Your team is relying on your help to move them forward and oftentimes that means they need answers from you before doing so.

Proactive Communication.

This is important — and honestly, this applies for both in-house and remote workers. Always make sure you are clear in your communications with both your team and with individuals. With remote teams, you need to establish expectations and make sure they are clearly defined. Some examples of expectations could be as simple as general working hours, being available on the company’s messaging platforms or via phone, or info. on the specifics around a project or an individual’s contributions. This means you will need to write out the expectations and share them with everyone — even if mentioned in a team meeting, you will always want to follow up in writing.

Communicating your expectations clearly and often will help mitigate any issues around prioritizing work or managing outcomes. I like to reach out to each team member at least once every day even if we have no pressing projects or priorities to ensure expectations are clear and there are no stumbling blocks they’re encountering. It’s also just a great way to connect individually with team members and show them that I’m here if they need me.

And always plan on consistent individual catch-ups with each team member. That might mean a once/week or less often, whatever makes sense for your team. With more experienced teams, I find a team meeting one week and an individual meeting the next week works well but some projects or less experienced teams might need more regular updates so plan calendars and your time accordingly to make sure you’re available.

Be Empathetic.

Working remotely has its challenges — some might have a toddler in the background of a Zoom meeting demanding crackers while others need to jump off a call to answer the door for the new dishwasher that’s being delivered. Be open to these interruptions — this is life, and we all have other things going on outside of work we need to address. And if work isn’t affected by it, I see no issue with someone taking a break to work in their garden or throw a load of laundry in. At the same time, if someone is not getting work done then that is a performance issue that will need to be managed.

It’s also important to remember that some people might be struggling working at home. Make sure you listen to their concerns. Be patient with them as they navigate a new way of working and be empathetic to their needs. Help them by offering support and tools for them to be successful but also give them time to get up to speed on these new tools.

Trust Your Team.

Two words to remember: Don’t micromanage. This is a hard one — especially for new managers. You need to trust your team to do the work they were hired to do. Don’t assume that just because you can’t see them physically that work isn’t being done. Unless an employee has shown poor time management (or other issues that require more management involvement), trust your team to do their jobs. You will be able to get more formal updates on projects via team meetings or 1:1s, and of course, you can always ask for one-off status updates for the most pressing projects. At the same time, unless your company has a very established way of working, don’t get caught up in the how but instead focus on the outcome/deliverable.

I once worked with a new leader who gave approval for team members to work from home but every time they did, she would always express frustration that they weren’t working. When asked for reasons why she felt that way, she couldn’t provide any info. other than her perception. Well, here’s the thing: Unless there is factual info (poor work output, deadlines being missed, etc.) then there is no reason to assume people aren’t working. Let your team get on with their work and don’t worry about what they’re doing every minute of every day. Otherwise, you risk pushing talent out the door.

Build a Remote Team Culture.

There’s no doubt that managing teams remotely can be challenging to build team cohesiveness, keep the team motivated, and on the same page. It’s important to have regular team meetings to align strategic direction, prioritize work, and help teams learn from each other. Having team members see each other regularly (albeit on screen) will help create relationships amongst team members, encouraging them to engage with one another outside of meetings. This helps keep the team motivated, inspired, and in my experience, they look forward to team meetings instead of dreading them.

At the same time, managers need to make sure to celebrate team wins and personal achievements outside of team meetings. This could be as simple as posting or messaging out to others in the organization something a team member has done to help the business, giving that person recognition that can sometimes be overlooked when everyone is working from home.

And don’t forget to have fun! Let the meeting start organically by giving everyone a few minutes to say hello and catch up with one another. One remote team I managed used to have a monthly “happy hour” where every third Thursday, we would all log in at 4:30 and have a drink together (it didn’t need to be alcoholic). We purposely wouldn’t discuss any pressing projects (we had other meetings for that), but we used it as a time to get to know one another, which only made us a more cohesive team in the end. It was never mandatory, but almost always, everyone would show up. Never underestimate that human connectedness and try to find ways to build it into your remote culture.

And if your company can afford it, plan at least one team retreat a year. You’ll want to get everyone together at some point — sometimes in cool places like Bali (fun!), but not every company can afford such elaborate retreats. The focus of an in-person meetup is team building and collaboration, so don’t get stuck on the location, but instead focus on the reason why you’re doing it and find the best place that works for your needs (for example, you night need to be in a conference room with a white board to build strategic plans), your budget, and the team’s geographic locations. Unless you’re all flying to an exotic locale, try to keep travel time for remote employees to reasonable locations.

Don’t Forget Remote Workers When Everyone Else Works In The Office.

Some companies might have in-person teams with some people working remotely. If something is shared internally, make sure you (or someone you delegate to) closes the loop with your team members who work remotely, sharing out info. that might have been discussed offline or outside a standing meeting. It’s not on the employee to find this info. out (they can’t search out what they don’t know!), but it’s on the manager to close that loop. Yes, it can sometimes feel like it’s more work for a manager, but in the long run, it’s always better to take those extra minutes to send off a short Slack note or email to missing members so that everyone on the team is getting the same message. Remember, consistent communications for everyone are important to keep the team aligned.

Meet At Times That Work For All.

Managing global teams means setting up global meetings can sometimes be challenging — one office is likely to get the early morning or late night time slot. One global team I managed meant I’d often have to meet at 10 or 11pm to meet with London (6am) and Australia (5pm). While not ideal for London and US, we had a larger contingent of people on the Australian side so I would often schedule those global meetings in Australian hours.

However, always try to mix things up so one global team doesn’t always get the worst time slot. In the instance above that was often hard — it was always late for San Francisco and early for London, but as time zones changed, there was more crossover and the planning was easier in the (N. Hemisphere) summertime. And when we met as a team, I tried to keep things focused and moving forward so everyone wouldn’t be inconvenienced by the nontraditional meeting times. The key here is not to make the meeting too onerous for anyone, and make sure to acknowledge and thank those team members who are on late night calls or early morning calls. They’ll appreciate knowing that you recognize the meeting times are not always ideal.

One of my favorite resources for scheduling global meetings is the World Clock Meeting Planner.