The vast majority of literature on leadership assumes that teams are led face-to-face and not virtually at a distance. This is likely to change in the coming years as remote work and globally distributed teams with distributed locations or working remotely from home become more commonplace in knowledge work. Managers will therefore need to learn new or different skills in order to effectively manage teams remotely.
In this article, I will show you as a manager which 5 tips you can use to become an outstanding remote leader of your direct report – regardless of whether you work according to Scrum, Agile or traditional waterfall.
Remote Team Management: What is a distributed team?
To create a common understanding, I would first like to answer the question of what we mean by managing a remote team. In short, it is a team that is distributed across several locations. The locations can be different company sites or the home offices of individual employees. The locations can of course also be spread across different time zones.
There are many current practical examples of virtual leadership: Teams in the field of software development, in sales and also in the public sector work distributed or hybrid almost by default, i.e. only partially at the main location. This brings with it a number of challenges for remote leadership, which we will discuss in a moment.
Why do more and more companies have distributed teams?
Good question: Offering remote working is increasingly becoming an important argument for companies to be an attractive employer. Distributed working also enables companies to potentially attract talent worldwide. Another goal is often to take advantage of local cost benefits in terms of labor costs.
In order for these benefits to actually materialize, strong remote managers are needed who are also able to lead these distributed teams or remote direct reports effectively: With trust and psychological security, while maintaining productivity.
Remote team management: the challenges of virtual leadership
Before we go to this solution level, let's briefly describe the problem space again: What are the typical challenges of virtual remote leadership? Here is a short list of the biggest challenges:
- Communication barriersLack of non-verbal signals makes understanding and maintaining relationships more difficult
- Isolation & team spiritEmployees often feel less connected and engaged
- Building trust: Without direct interaction, mistrust or uncertainty can arise
- Productivity control: Difficult balancing act between autonomy and performance review
- Time zones & working hoursCoordination across different time zones makes coordination more difficult
- Technical challenges: Unstable connections, different tools and digital competence
I'm sure that one or two of these will sound familiar to you. So how do you meet these challenges of remote leadership? This brings us to the next section.
How do you manage a distributed team?
Unfortunately, the early 2020s have shown that many managers struggle to lead distributed teams effectively at a distance. This is often because managers are practicing outdated methods and leadership styles – regardless of whether they work in the public sector or in an innovative internet startup. See also: Classic vs. Agile guidance – 5 tips.
So do you need a seminar to learn how to manage teams in home offices or distributed locations? It probably won't do any harm, but it's not necessary either. Above all, it takes openness, experience and iteration loops within the team to find the right mode for remote work.
When leading a virtual team, managers are reliant on a high level of trust, as they cannot oversee or "control" the work on site. An increasingly agile management style is therefore essential. See also: Agile Guide and Servant Leadership – 8 Food for thought.
Even if you are not on site at work, this does not mean that you cannot still make the work results of individual employees visible. Especially in knowledge work, it is usually possible to share work progress and, if necessary, key figures at least weekly or even daily.
By making the work done transparent and through quick feedback loops regarding your own progress, you can effectively lead virtual teams – even at a distance.
Managing Virtual Teams: the most important tools for remote leaders
The quick feedback loops in remote work can be implemented in practice using the following methods and tools:
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- Pair-workingJoint work on a topic. This method is already widely used in software development as "pair programming", but is also helpful in knowledge work for urgent and particularly important topics in order to prevent waiting times in feedback loops and accelerate the exchange of knowledge.
- Asynchronous feedback...by using the comment function in your chat or work tool (e.g. Jira, Asana, Microsoft...). For topics that are not particularly time-critical, asynchronous feedback loops are often the most convenient means of communication. Everyone responds when it suits them best – you are not torn out of a concentration tunnel. Working agreements can also be defined for this purpose (e.g. comments should be answered once a day; more on: Working Agreements: 10 examples).
- Daily StandupsA short team meeting (typically 15 minutes, regardless of team size) that takes place daily or at least several times a week to discuss progress, coordinate as a team and resolve blockers.
- Team retrospectives: A team meeting in which you reflect on your collaboration as a whole every 2 weeks (more on this: What is a retrospective? Everything you need to know).
If a team is not yet used to distributed working, it can be a sensible first step to try out these team development tools once at an early stage in order to show that there is enough room for team development and informal communication even when working remotely.
Managing Virtual Teams: the most important tools for remote leaders
Virtual leaders need certain skills. An outstanding remote leader builds trust in the team by creating transparent processes and carrying out regular check-ins – both as a team and individually. This includes personal one-to-one meetings as well as team meetings (especially daily stand-ups and team retrospectives, in addition to the classic status updates).
Great remote leaders also encourage personal responsibility, support the personal development of team members and help them find a healthy work-life balance. They make targeted use of digital tools to strengthen asynchronous collaboration and ensure that meetings are moderated efficiently.
In summary, the following competencies are central to virtual leadership:
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- Clear communication: transparent expectations and regular exchanges
- Trust & personal responsibility: avoid micromanagement, results count
- Feedback culture: Open, constructive feedback in both directions
- Strengthening team cohesion: promoting virtual social interaction
- Effective time & self-management: balancing structure and flexibility
- Motivation & inspiration: supporting and developing employees
Now let's move on to the most important tips for remote leaders.
Tip 1 for remote managers: Regular check-ins
Good, personal team meetings are key to creating a team spirit. The following routine is very helpful, a simple practical example that we also practice as a leadership style at Echometer. It was originally popularized by Google:
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At the first team meeting after the weekend, everyone answers a check-in question first:
- What is your highlight of the last weekend?
Positive effects:
- Positive vibe: Everyone can start the week with a positive message.
- Relationship building: team members get to know each other better (privately), relationships are deepened.
- Conversation starter: Both you as a manager and each team member have starting points for further discussions or follow-up questions over the next few days.
Also plan bi-weekly 1-to-1 meetings with each team member to discuss progress, challenges and personal concerns. Incidentally, the weekend check-in question can be helpful here to start the meeting in a relaxed and non-binding way (e.g.: Have you been walking your dog for a long time?).
For the rest of your one-to-one meeting, here is an example template you can use for these conversations:
No small talk, no awkward pauses. 🥱 This 1:1 template simply always works.
- What achievement are you proud of that I may not have noticed?
- What small change would immediately improve your work?
- What would you like to take more time for at work?
...
You can of course conduct the 1-to-1 meeting digitally or virtually remotely, or on site. If possible, face-to-face contact is preferable, as it allows you to build a trusting relationship even faster. If you are interested in more one-to-one meeting templates, see here: 15 proven one-to-one meeting templates.
Supplement these meetings with team meetings such as daily stand-ups (see above) or retrospectives to promote exchange and collaboration within the team. If you are still unsure about retrospectives, take a look at our blog post here: 6 tips for moderating retrospectives. I have listed more information about Retros explicitly below.
Tip 2 for remote leaders: Focus on results instead of time commitment
"Is my employee Kevin even working right now?"
Typical Kevin... Okay, I am joking.
If you ask yourself the above question often, this is a warning sign. As a manager, your focus should not be on whether someone is working, but on whether the results are right.
If the results are right, it doesn't matter whether your employee takes a 20-minute nap or goes shopping in the afternoon. Working from home offers many advantages for the organization of private life and a better work-life balance. It should not be taboo to take advantage of these benefits.
Trust is key here. As long as you can trust your team to deliver the expected results, you don't have to worry about working hours.
However, it is important to communicate clear expectations and to address it directly if expectations are not met. The freedom to organize working hours flexibly is based on meeting these expectations. If there are difficulties with this, talk to the employee about it and find out together what the problem is.
Once again, it can be very useful to define joint working agreements for remote collaboration. Find out more: Working Agreements: 10 examples.
Tip 3 for leading virtual teams: practise asynchronous communication
Working asynchronously does not mean picking up the phone every time a question is asked, thereby tearing others away from their concentration phase. Instead, a manager should ensure that there are asynchronous communication channels in the team (e.g. Slack channels or team rooms). Chat rooms have the great advantage over emails that they can be viewed by everyone and notifications for individual chat rooms can be better customized.
For some scenarios, however, a chat room is not the right choice for asynchronous communication. Many tools also offer a comment function directly in a document (e.g. Google Docs or Microsoft Word). These comments are then much easier to assign in context. It is therefore important to always leave comments as close as possible to the actual work.
Discuss as a team which asynchronous communication channels you would prefer to use for the respective scenarios. Reflect on the decisions regularly in your team retrospectives.
Tip 4 for managing virtual teams: Define expectations for communication
Asynchronous communication is practical, but sometimes you need quick feedback. To avoid frustration and uncertainty, you should define clear rules or working agreements for communication within the team.
Example:
- When is it okay to call colleagues? When is something an emergency? Focus times can be marked in the calendar to minimize disruptions.
- How quickly should messages be replied to? A common rule, e.g. within 3 hours during working hours, helps both sides with planning.
If the team works in different time zones, take this into account in your agreements. Clear rules create reliability and improve collaboration. This is where working agreements can be helpful again (more on: Working Agreements): They make your expectations explicit, making them easier to discuss and improve.
Tip 5 for leading virtual teams: Agile retrospectives
It has been mentioned many times before, but here it is summarized again: Virtual Agile retrospectives are a great way to develop team spirit in virtual teams with a bit of fun and quick moments of success.
The basic idea is simple: you hold a joint team workshop online every two to four weeks, in which you reflect on a few questions. The typical questions in Retros: What went well in the last few weeks? What didn't go so well in the last few weeks? What can we do better?
You can modify these questions to have more creativity and fun with retro over time (see also: 54 fun retrospective methods). In the beginning, however, the above questions are sufficient.
Many team members can only think of very specific factual topics during team retrospectives. They find it difficult to take a broader perspective and reflect on the team as a whole. Our Echometer software can help with the introduction and improvement of retros. You can try it out for free. Here is an example template that you can also view in our remote leadership tool without logging in:
Open Feedback Questions
Keep: What should we keep?
Stop: What should we stop doing?
Start: What should we start doing?
Conclusion Leadership at a distance: Anyone can become a good remote leader!
Successful leadership in virtual teams or remote work is not magic, but the result of conscious decisions and continuous development. It's best to start today:
- Which feedback loops and communication should take place asynchronously? Which meetings have no added value for us?
- Where is there still a lack of transparency about work progress within the team?
- What mindset do I need to adopt as a manager in order to become a good remote leader?
- Do I have enough one-to-one meetings to build a trusting relationship with my direct reports?
- How often should we conduct a team retrospective?
If you are still unsure, the digital online software tool Echometer can help you to introduce the most important leadership routines such as agile retrospectives and 1-to-1 meetings with your employees. You can find out more about the Echometer app here.
If you're interested, you can also play around with one of our templates for one-on-one meetings here and try it out with one of your team members free of charge soon:
No small talk, no awkward pauses. 🥱 This 1:1 template simply always works.
- What achievement are you proud of that I may not have noticed?
- What small change would immediately improve your work?
- What would you like to take more time for at work?
...
