It’s a fact of life today — especially in tech — that we’ll be working in a globally distributed workforce. However as teams and companies made the transition from in-office to remote and back or to a hybrid situation, we’ve continued to hold on to our old habits from when we all worked in the office.

I’ve put together some tips and guidelines from my experiences leading globally distributed teams in multiple continents and timezones. Hope these help and would love to hear some of your remote management tips.

Managing Teams

  • Clear role definitions - Ensure that each team member has a clear understanding of their role and responsibilities and how those align to the overall business and team priorities. This applies for both in person and remote management, however it’s even more vital for remote teams as communication can sometimes be delayed with remote work. Work their responsibilities into the team’s OKRs and over-communicate their responsibilities to the rest of the team. My rule of thumb is that when I’m sick of hearing myself say something, the virtual team is starting to get it.
  • Respect time zones - rotate meeting times so no one person is always up early or staying late. At one point I was managing a team with people based in Europe, Africa, South America and California, with those time differences, there was no good time for everyone for our daily stand ups. In order to accommodate this, we had a “stand-up” channel in Slack where people would post updates and blockers by a certain time. We still had a daily call that was optional for team members without blockers. Another time the dev team I was working with was based in Europe. It was growing old for them to stay late, especially in the summer, so I started getting up early at 5 or 6am before the rest of my family was awake to meet with them for a couple hours. They were cool with my bed head and PJs as long as they could sign off at a reasonable hour. After our call, I’d help get my children dressed and off to school, shower, and start my day with a sense of accomplishment.
  • Recognize and celebrate different cultures - spend time to learn about the diverse backgrounds of global teammates and encourage others to share aspects of themselves. In my last two jobs, I’ve worked with people from Ireland, Poland, Sweden, South Africa, Czech Republic, Italy, Israel, and Germany to name a few. While I don’t remember everything we worked on or accomplished, what I do treasure is the local colloquialisms and traditions that stay with me to this day. What’s the Craic? Braai Day. Fika. Learning the rules of Rugby.
  • Encourage cultural awareness - provide resources to the team so they understand different communication styles and cultures from around the world. For instance, Israelis tend to be very direct and can come across as blunt or even rude to someone not expecting it. On the other hand, when working with a team in Sweden, their style was a bit more indirect and tended to look for consensus building when making decisions.
  • Celebrate wins - no matter how trivial they may seem. We created a “Shout-outs” channel in Slack to celebrate wins or publicly thank someone. Then in our weekly team meetings, we would spend 5-10 min to expand on these shout outs. A little acknowledgement of a small act of kindness can really make someone’s day.
  • Encourage a culture of feedback - This goes for both in-person and remote management and starts with you as the leader. Provide regular constructive time based feedback. I always tried to follow up with a direct report right after an event such as a meeting they ran, demo, or presentation with feedback, what went well, what can be improved. Ensure it’s constructive and specific.
  • Mental health check ins - Recognize that people working remotely may feel isolated, provide them with support or mental health training focused on the unique challenges of remote work. Check in daily on each team member, even if it’s a simple Slack message such as “How’s things?” or “Do you need anything from me?” Work with your HR department to schedule formalized training or mindfulness sessions. I scheduled weekly game time during the pandemic where we played Codenames online as a way to unwind. Just keep in mind that these virtual team building sessions are not for everyone and to respect the decision of those who want to sit it out.
  • On-site assistance - In a hybrid environment, find a local mentor for on-site junior team members. I had a junior direct report and while I spent a lot of time with her, I wasn’t able to provide her all the mentoring and support she needed to be successful had we been in the office together. I worked with a peer in the office to provide her with the hands-on mentorship she required to be successful. Worked both ways as the mentor was able to form a relationship with a colleague 20 years his junior.

Meetings

  • Regular team check-ins - Schedule a weekly team wide check-in to discuss progress, challenges, and team morale. Review the team’s progress toward quarterly or annual OKRs, progress on projects with RYG status with asks for help, blocker identification, and lastly a general team vibe check in. I originally got the idea of team morale from reviewing my children’s remote schooling slides, everyday, they would have to report on their mood with three emojis. A simple yet effective means to track the team morale and furthermore, report on this just as closely as big deliverables and set up goals around team morale.
  • Confirm meeting agenda - spend the first 3-5 min of every meeting confirming the agenda in order to assure everyone is in the right place. There may be some brainstorming meetings that lack rigid structure, if that’s the case, note it at the start of the meeting.
  • **Use video on calls - **strongly encourage video when necessary, especially in 1on1s, team meetings, or smaller meetings especially as the team is growing in order to build rapport. I have found that this really helps build team rapport and chemistry, especially for a new or growing team. On the flip side, recognize that video fatigue is real and some people might prefer to take a break from video, therefore respect the decision of those on larger calls with maybe more than ten people,

One-on-ones

This section is evergreen advice for remote, hybrid, and in-person work environments and should be gospel for all managers, no matter their level or years of experience.

  • Schedule weekly 1on1s with every direct report. Bi-weekly 1on1s with second level reports. These times are sacred and keep these meetings on the books at all costs. Last minute cancellations can send an employee spinning. I would always get into my own head when a manager canceled a one on one at the last minute.
  • Be consistent - Start every 1on1 with the same question, I like “What’s the most important thing right now?” or “How’s it going?” The answer does not always have to be work related, an employee’s family member could be sick and that’s the most important thing to them right now. This helps pick up on patterns as well. I used to start every 1on1 with “How’s it going?” and one direct report who answered “fine” every week for several months, then one day she sighed and said “OK.” This signaled something was off, while it wasn’t exactly work related, we were able to discuss in vague terms and she took some personal days to handle some things.

Communication

  • Use asynchronous communications as much as possible - Slack, Email. Patience is the key, you should expect to wait 24 hours for a reply for non-urgent matters. For items that may seem urgent, I have found that just typing out the question would force me to look at a problem in a new way and I’ll find an answer.
  • Use the send later feature in Slack or email to be mindful of different time zones. On the flip side, use do not disturb settings in Slack and your phone to limit off hours notifications. Respect your co-workers time outside of regular business hours. There was once I received a Slack message after 8pm and rather than unwinding from the day and spending time with my family, I’d open my laptop and next thing I’d know it’d be several hours later, way past my bedtime and I’d be set up for failure the following day.
  • Disseminate Slack etiquette. This tends to differ from company to company so when new people join an organization they’ll rely on their previous organization’s Slack culture. Some examples that have worked for me:
    • Limit private DMs
    • Make everything public, channels are free, use them. Create a “tmp-project” channel for a short lived project.
    • Use threads for deep dives/rat holes
    • Set up a public “ask-me” or “ask-tim” channel for people to drop in and ask random questions. This keeps communications public and builds up a knowledge base
  • Create a strong culture of documentation – Use a wiki, there are plenty of options to use, don’t get hung up looking for the perfect solution. The simplest format I’ve used is just a Google Doc with ongoing notes and decisions for the team. It was crude but effective for a team of three people.