I have been working in hybrid or remote teams since 2008, eventually leading groups of up to 40 people. I've also been advising managers, executives, and entrepreneurs on how to better manage remote teams since 2020.
What's inside?
How to delegate effectively as a remote manager
How to foster trust and collaboration
How to run online meetings
How to onboard new team members
How to address a lack of improvement
How to communicate clearly over video calls and emails
How to coach your people to become effective remote workers
What's not inside?
Anything that could be better asked to:
a lawyer (e.g., remote employment laws),
a recruiter (e.g., where to find remote talent), or
an IT specialist (e.g., how to troubleshoot your video call software).
Some of my principles
It's not about the tools but how they are used. Project management software, team meetings, one-on-ones… any management tool can bring clarity and effectiveness in the hands of a great manager or become a nuisance in the hands of a poor manager. In this book, I won't recommend any specific tool but will rather teach you how to delegate and manage well regardless of the tool used.
If your people don't trust you, they won't work full-heartedly on the tasks you assign them, no matter how good your delegation skills are, and they will react defensively to your feedback, no matter how well given. Hence, online more than ever, it's critical to build trust as a manager. This book will teach you how.
The less clear you are during delegation, the more likely there will be a discrepancy between your people's output and the output you would have wanted them to produce. Any discussion you have after the discrepancy will be frustrating for both parties involved. But not having any discussion would also be bad, both for you and your report. The solution to prevent this lose-lose situation is to be extremely clear during delegation, before it seems necessary. This book will explain to you how.
Some quotes from the book
Clarity is not micromanagement, but lack of clarity is lack of management.
People only voice a fraction of their doubts. The rest shows up later as indecisiveness, inefficiency, and ineffectiveness.
Employees love it when their manager, while delegating a task, makes explicit what would be too little and what would be too much.
Don’t aim to be clear enough so that you can be understood, but aim to be so clear that you cannot be misunderstood. That’s superclarity.
Explain to each employee what abstract company objectives mean for them individually.
If you feel awkward while giving negative feedback to your subordinates, it’s probably because you believe the root cause of their mistake is an inadequacy of yours.
Unless you demonstrate to your subordinates that you are competent and trustworthy and have their best interests at heart, they won’t perceive your feedback as helpful, no matter how well you give it to them.
The more you reward efforts without results, the more your people will focus on efforting rather than achieving.
Every time your actions demonstrate you are a fair, helpful, and effective manager, you build trust. And every time you waste your subordinates’ time, effort, or proactiveness, you break trust.
During one-on-ones, spend at least 3 minutes discussing something more long-term: career growth, skill growth, sources of fatigue and frustration, etc