Leading Teams Remotely

4 Important Steps to Effective Remote Leadership

By: Danielle Giannone

The pandemic has fundamentally transformed the landscape of work and what it takes to effectively manage our teams. As many organizations adapt to the expectations of the modern workforce by allowing fully remote or hybrid work arrangements, we need to find ways to engage more effectively with our teams and continue to focus on the work at hand.

I wanted to share some of my learnings as a leadership and team development coach on how to effectively lead teams remotely. Regardless of the type of team you are leading, the following are important steps to take to ensure your effectiveness as a remote leader:

1. Set Clear Expectations and Ground Rules

Even when decisions have to be made quickly, clear expectations from the beginning are a necessary first step in ensuring that your team is working just as effectively as they would be in the office. Some organizations have clearly stated expectations around remote workers. Even if this is the case for your organization, it makes sense for you to take time to understand how this will fit into your leadership style. Some questions to ask yourself:

• Do you care about the hours someone is working, or do you care about their output? 

• Do you want to allow flexibility, or does everyone need to work between specified hours?

Obviously, the type of business you are in and the role your team plays will dictate some of this direction, however, it is worth having open and up-front conversations with your team about your expectations. Given the new norm of spouses and housemates often co-existing in the same home-office environments, I encourage a focus on output with the largest amount of flexibility possible.

2. Communication

The highest performing teams communicate well, whether they are in crisis mode or if business is as usual. Regardless of the physical location of your employees, building in frequent, clear, and consistent communication is key. 

When you are in the midst of a crisis where things are moving quickly, I suggest daily ‘stand-up’ meetings to get the team aligned and focused on the immediate needs of the organization. This is also a great time for you to set the tone for the day.  Positivity goes a long way when you are about to climb a mountain. Using face-to-face technology such as Zoom, Skype or Teams makes a huge difference to phone conversations.  In-person, we rely on body language and other cues to understand the effectiveness of how we are communicating. Although it is not the same, visual cues and connections are more powerful over video.

3. Accountability

As with all teams, success is dependent on how accountable your team is to delivering results. This always starts with goal clarity. Some questions to ask yourself:

• Does your team have clear, measurable goals they are aiming for? 

• Are they clear on what their responsibility is to achieve those goals?

Whether a team is getting used to working remotely or has been doing it for years, I recommend each individual share their weekly priorities with the rest of the team.  This not only keeps the team aligned, but also ensures everyone is holding up their end of the bargain. 

Having a weekly or biweekly team meeting where each person shares how they are doing in regards to accomplishing their goals is a good tool to have the team hold each other accountable.  It is also critical that your one-on-one’s with your direct reports happen weekly to stay connected and to make sure you are holding your team members accountable and providing them with the support they need to be successful.  Feedback is something that should be embraced by all members of the team. 

4. Team Building

Team building is a term that often gets overused, and the importance of it with a remote team often gets overlooked. Some things to consider when it comes to the importance of team building:

• How well does the team know, support, and respect one another?

• Are they open and direct with one another?

• Can they handle conflict openly and for the good of the whole? 

By nature of being remote, you as a leader should be incorporating ways for your team to connect and build the key aspects of teamwork. You can take small steps that can go a long way, such as opening meetings with quick get-to-know-you icebreaker questions, having your team members collaborate on key projects, or creating a buddy system to identify key hot issues that the team needs to focus on to be more effective, etc.