Remote Leadership

Managing a team remotely

Image: Anthony Garand on Unsplash

Some people have been asking: “How is it to manage a team remotely? Does the team still work as hard/with the same commitment? Are you as effective?”

Short Answer: Yes! It works. I will summarize a few topics:

• Team
• Routine
• Communication

Micromanaging is not made for remote leaders.

Team

Hire the best people, keep the best people! This is the first step to making things work. You really need top performers on your team, as micromanaging really does not work remotely. It is impossible to check every step your team is taking.

By working remotely, you are more results focused. I hear people saying managing people remotely does not work; usually it’s because they need to be monitoring every step of the process. If you don’t have the right people, forget about managing remotely. The people who will make managing remotely a success are the people on your team.

Routine

Define a routine that keeps the team aligned and makes them feel comfortable talking to you about everything. Some routines are already expected when you are not working remotely, such as weekly planning, retrospective, etc.

When working remotely, there is no “shoulder tap.”

I have had to create a new routine to keep me connected to the people on my team: chit chats/touch bases.

Chit Chats are 1:1s with the people on my team. This dedicated time is for us to have 30 minutes to discuss anything on my team member’s mind — personal or professional.

There is no remote shoulder tap.

Communication

Communication is already really important in the office, and it’s no different working remotely. However, there are some important tips to keep in mind:

Reinforce the importance of communication tools

We don’t give the right importance to the equipment we need. You are not next to each other, and every little problem influences people’s behavior in that moment.

Basic equipment needs to be tested beforehand:

• Headset/microphone and speakers
• Webcam
• Software

The correct equipment is essential.

Define the best communication channel

If a conversation or discussion needs to be had, verbal is best. Otherwise, written communication will work.

Below, you can see what we defined for our team:

Different communication channels work for different purposes.

Updated agenda

Always keep your agenda or calendar updated. This way, your team will know when you are available. With your agenda updated, they can simply check when they can schedule time with you or call.

In our case, we put other personal stuff in the agenda, such as appointments, lunch, etc. For private meetings, you can just put it as a private event in Google Calendar:

Also, this gives a context to your team if, for example, you are not answering, then they might know you are busy with other stuff. As this Trello document says, “Context is king.”

Remotely, people need more context.

We use Slack as our main communication channel, so we also update our status there by synchronizing with Google Agenda. Here is the app for you to do that.

Extra

Trello made six commandments for remote work, in general, that I find really useful:

1. Value individuals over infrastructure.
2. Avoid impromptu meetings at someone’s desk.
3. If one person is on a video call, everyone is on a video call.
4. Communication is asynchronous. Deal with it.
5. Socializing is not around a water cooler.
6. The tools you’re using matter. A lot.

Some topics mentioned are not only applicable for managing your team, but for any remote team, in general. You can see here a small presentation I shared with my team when I starting to work remotely. At the end of the presentation are links to the remote work guidelines of other companies, such as Trello, Zapier and Basecamp.