The 21 Rules for Managing Remote Teams

Want to learn the 21 most important rules for managing a remote team? Watch this detail-oriented video and hear all of the tips and tricks from Liam Martin, Time Doctor co-founder and CMO. Liam explains the importance of good and consistent communication with your remote team.

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To see another video about running a remote team, check out: "How to Hire People You Actually Like"

[RunningRemote]

Any rules that I left out? Please let me know.

[mrmaurice]

Thanks for sharing! My take-away from this video:
1: Track hours worked, attendance and other basic measures of productivity
2: Implement systems
3: Allow a degree of flexible work hours but also keep some consistency
4: Track work output
5: Organize a system of overlapping times for communicating in different time zones.
6: Do a quarterly review to see how your virtual team members are coping
7: Compensate for the fact that you are not bumping into each other
8: Have a chat room open constantly
9: Be wary of Chat and Email overload
10: Choose the right communication style
11: Use tools for quick video or visual communication
12: Use screen sharing tools
13: Video conferencing technologies
14: Set up a meeting rhythm
15: Effective collaboration on documents and spreadsheets
16: Set up a project management system, and actually use it
17: Test new employees with short-term work before hiring them full time
18: Pay virtual team members well
19: Look for people who are the right fit for virtual work
20: Create a standard on-boarding process for educating new employees about your company
21: Inspire via video
22: Meet in person
23: Nurture virtual friendships
24: Create a true “team” feeling
25: Beware of a mixed office and remote culture

[outsourceschool]

Very informative! 100% agree! What that doesn't get measured, doesn't get managed. And if you don't meet people on a set time and rhythm, people can easily get distracted and tasks often don't get done effectively.

[rikkinewman]

Some very useful points, thanks. One thing I would say is that the music is way too loud in your mix. Could barely hear you in some parts.

[MichaelAlexander]

Fantastic presentation. I didn't notice the music nor did I think about the volume until I saw other comments. I think the volume is fine. You are a gem! So many gold nuggets in your presentation. I counted 18 tips, but non the less, keep up the great work!

[divyanigam]

Thanks a lot for sharing your thoughts on rules of managing remote teams.

[kayanbsoul]

Thank you! I am starting a remote management position soon so this was a great introduction with great points to note!

[alikahaei]

We have a company that different offices in 4 European countries. I found your tips to be quite on the point and true. Especially the one about work anytime, anywhere but attend the meetings. But the more tricky and important one was meeting each other once a year at someplace. We have these annual summer parties every year where we gather for about 2 days in one country and it's amazing how effective it is. We really get to know each other more and become friends rather than plain co-workers. During the year, when we see some flaws in the other person's work, we automatically try to help and not make a big deal out of it because of the friendship that was established in the summer parties.


One thing I can add to help the organization culture is a virtual coffee break every week and a channel (like a WhatsApp group) for everyone to share jokes which adds a bit color to the organization.

[__]

Where is the indexing with timestamps linking to the chapters in the video? Like Below
0:00 INTRO
0:20 COMPENSATE FOR IN PERSON INTERACTION
1:25 CONSTANT VIRTUAL CHATROOM

[btm]

For the most part, I dislike watercooler conversations, big waste of time on pointless conversations. Thanks for the very useful tips

[jayadevmenon]

Numbering wasn't in sequence and there weren't 21 rules - many missing - I guess you were checking whether everyone is paying attention. Anyways, good info.👌👍

[TechAndStartups]

We talk quite a bit about the benefits of having Remote Teams -- it just opens the door to so much opportunity! Thanks for these tips - Subscribed!

[orroworld]

About the watercooler idea: what if people generally don't want to spend their social time online? Can you expect them to socialize online anyways?

[amirulnazhif]

Just started my company in social media and have been expanding to meet the demand. With new hired employee working remotely, it have been quite hard to manage. Thank you so much for this vid!

[jonathanvazquez]

Excellent video! Lots of great points. I watched it once from beginning to end and then a couple times pausing and taking notes. Liked and subscribed! 👍🏽
Keep the great content coming.

[eastcoast]

Question. If a group of people working for a company are remote and they have individual projects, rather than the shared projects envisioned by scrums etc, what makes them a team and gives them a sense of a shared culture and belonging? Real question honestly. Post pandemic my team of staff will really only have me, their line manager, in common as they will be primarily home based. We will only need to come together for team meeting type discussions about processes and other changes affecting us individually equally. They can give each other ideas and advice on their own work but they don't actively collaborate. I'd like to support them to have a shared sense of being. Currently all YouTube videos I've seen are on collaborating teams, would be great to hear more on this different kind of remote setup. Thanks.

[HealthandBeautyAP]

The good news is I have been doing everything you recommended. I have an issue with your suggestion for idle chat. We use Google hangouts for chat but we limit it to important communication that we need an answer for within the hour.

[microgeen]

amazing video, one note though, please lower the volume of the music, its so distracting

[wojciechkruk]

If U guys have any system to produce the videos like this U should check to remove this background noise pretending to be kind of music.
👍

[this_is_mattia]

bg music is so loud.. hard to hear you man!
But thanks was useful