Five C’s for leading a team that never meets in person.
Even managers who excel in the room get frustrated by a virtual team. Building a strong dynamic among people who never meet face to face is a distinct skill — and it comes down to five practices.
Communicate (twice as much as you think), Chat (the personal stuff), Change it up (vary the tools), Cut out (give them a space without you), and Celebrate. Miss these and a remote team bonds with you but never with each other.
Communicate
Whatever your normal level of communication is, double it. Most of a message is nonverbal — but for remote teammates, your words are often all they have, so make them clear and deliver them often. Keep a standing meeting even when there’s no big news, post a shared agenda everyone can add to, and make answering messages a priority, since no one can catch you in the hallway.
Chat
Communication is professional; chat is personal — and it’s where bonding happens. Virtual teams don’t share lunches or a water cooler, so build a mechanism for it: a few minutes of catch-up before a call, a ‘virtual pizza party,’ a channel for non-work talk. It won’t happen on its own; you have to make room for it.
Change it up
Video, phone, chat, shared docs, group boards — learn what’s out there and use it all. Match the tool to the purpose: when an email thread has bounced around five times, move it to a call. And learn which people prefer which channel.
Cut out
The most-neglected piece: give the team a ‘staff room’ you can’t enter. In-person teams work through ideas without the boss all the time; remote teams need the same. Some managers find that uncomfortable — but skip it and you risk a team that’s bonded to you and not to one another.
Celebrate
You aren’t there to take someone to lunch or stop by with a thank-you — but everything you know about recognition still applies. Acknowledge wins, as a group where you can. It’s the same thinking behind how we build programs that keep a team connected between events, and it works whether people are in the room or scattered across the country.
Frequently asked questions
How is managing a virtual team different? +
The nonverbal cues that carry most of a message are largely missing, so communication has to be clearer and roughly twice as frequent, and the personal bonding that happens naturally in an office has to be created on purpose.
Why do virtual teams need a space without the manager? +
Because in-person teams develop ideas and work through issues informally when the boss isn't around. Denying a remote team that space risks a group that bonds with the manager but never with each other.
How do you build trust on a remote team? +
Communicate clearly and often, make room for personal 'chat,' vary your tools to fit people and purpose, give the team a manager-free space, and celebrate wins together. Trust follows from those habits.
Leading a team across time zones?
We’ve designed emotionally engaging virtual and hybrid experiences for years. Tell us about your remote team and we’ll build one that actually bonds them.