Empower Your Team in a Remote World - 10 Tips for Connection and Success

This article is an update to two original ones (this and this) I published in 2019. This version is written through the lens of the L.E.A.D. framework and focuses on E - Empower Your Team. If you’re ready to UnLeash the Leader Within by improving everyone’s remote work environment, read on!

In 2019, in a pre-pandemic world, I wrote two articles listing tips for distributed teams. At the time, I was already a remote work advocate, but little did I know this would become a reality for so many people, so quickly.

Now, a few years in, and despite some companies’ return to the office mandates, a good part of the workforce is still working remotely, at least a few days per week. And while circumstances have forced us to better handle distributed teams, we could all be reminded of some tips to make the most out of these working conditions. Many of the tips I’ll share below were inspired by Invision, a company that had 700+ employees working remotely at the time I wrote the original articles. Though they were eclipsed by Figma in recent years, back in 2016 they were a big deal.

CONNECTION = COMMUNICATION

When people aren’t physically in the same place they often feel disconnected. That feeling is a result of missing out on interactions with coworkers at an alternative location. FOMO is real at work too (think about that meeting you wish you were in…)

More accurately, it is about missing out on STORIES. Research has shown that telling stories helps create community and empathy. Sharing personal experiences with coworkers adds dimension to another potentially transitional relationship between coworkers.

Depth of relationships with teammates often translates to employee satisfaction. It also often leads to more streamlined and open communication. Without this depth, people may lack the ability to speak freely when something is going wrong which can lead to missed timelines or incomplete products. Projects also seem to take longer to execute because asynchronous communication is inefficient. No one wants buggy products that take longer to build, and you definitely don’t want your shiny new office to be to blame.

There are other challenges to remote work as well, some of which were smartly discussed in an episode of the Workplace Weirdness podcast, with Maya Kadar Kovalsky and Kavita Vora. They mentioned the importance of balancing the benefits of flexibility with the risks of isolation. For younger employees or those new to the workforce, remote work can be particularly isolating, as they miss out on the opportunity to organically learn from peers and mentors in a shared office environment.

Vora also emphasized the need for structured hybrid strategies, such as "Community Days," where employees align on intentional in-office collaboration to maximize value when teams are physically together. I learned of a policy at Poolside.ai that on a quarterly basis, they brought the ENTIRE company to Paris for a coworking week, sounds cool right?

I’d love to know - what’s the coolest hybrid setup you’ve heard about?

Based on the podcast insights and the tips of my original articles, I’m listing below some ideas that I’ve seen work, but they are by no means an exhaustive list. Please send me things that have helped improve connection where you work so that I can add them to my tool belt.

1. Repeat, Repeat, Repeat

Repeat yourself, because when you have no water cooler or coffee machine to produce spontaneous conversation. You need repetition for messages to land and stick. That will mean repeating what you’ve said in different mediums (Slack, email, video calls) as well as over time emphasizing the same message over and over again to build context. Most importantly, constantly repeat your VISION.

Additionally, part of Deciding Sensibly and Swiftly (the D in LEAD) is about being sure to explain why you have made certain choices. About ensuring you outline the tradeoffs you evaluated and provide an overview of what your thought process was to come to the conclusion you did. Ideally, this is another opportunity to repeat the vision and how it guided your decisions so that teams can emulate similar logic in their own arenas.

2. Be HUMAN

We all need to make an effort to make ourselves ‘human’ to each other at a distance. Especially given how much more we are interacting with AIs, we may forget what common decency looks or sounds like.

To show off their individual workspaces, Invision used to do a ‘Cribs’ style walk-around video stream to build bonds across long distances. Amazingly, 1/3 of the company tuned in each day to see the ‘Cribs’ zoom! I’m sure there have been some very interesting things to see.

Other things I’ve done personally include having each team member present a deck on themselves (something I learned from Jason Whitman who led CS at Justworks while I was there). When I was interim CPO at GTreasury, we started all team calls with a discussion about something personal like everyone’s favorite winter activities or most memorable Valentine’s Day.

3. Coordinate Synchronous Work Time

With everyone split across different time zones, make sure you intentionally establish some overlapping moments. Having a few hours each day when everyone is online and working gives people the opportunity to do sync work when they need it. Many companies follow this principle but not enough setup a system for when it isn't possible. Try to manage expectations about how asynchronous work would happen and utilize something like a DACI framework for decision-making.

4. Create Knowledge Repositories

This is good practice independent of whether you have remote employees. Having centralized places for anyone to find information is key to any scaling company. Many companies use Confluence or internal wikis such as Sharepoint or Notion to help build corporate knowledge about their product and company history.

To make this really useful, you need to make sure everyone is making the best use of these knowledge repositories - both new employees and long-term ones. For the first group, integrate key documents into onboarding and pair them with a mentor to navigate the system. To keep existing employees engaged, encourage regular updates by making documentation part of the workflows and setting up periodic knowledge-sharing sessions.

5. More Skip Level Meetings

As a manager, one of your primary responsibilities is to support your direct reports, often done through 1:1s. For these individuals there is great value to these interactions as your team gets to learn more about how you think, and what’s valuable to the business. Why would you want to restrict who gets that information? When you don’t see the next strata of employees around the office, you have to set aside time to do so.

A skip-level meeting allows you to connect with individuals who your team manages and to keep a finger on the pulse of what’s going on on the ground floor. By definition, there will be more individuals who are managed by your team than your direct reports, so meeting with each individual only needs to happen 2-3 times a year.

That time investment is priceless though. It helps senior leaders gain unfiltered insights from employees while fostering a culture of transparency and trust. Without the casual office interactions of in-person work, these meetings create a structured way for executives to stay connected with team morale, identify challenges early, and reinforce company vision.

They also give employees a direct line to leadership, making them feel heard and valued, which can boost engagement and retention. By bridging communication gaps, skip-level meetings help prevent silos, ensuring that strategy and execution stay aligned across all levels of the organization.

6. Give Everyone Time to Talk

This seems obvious but I can’t tell you how many times I’m in a meeting where the person on the screen has to fight to be heard. When everyone is giving an update or opinion, make sure to intentionally include the virtual folks too. Similarly, pause and ask them their thoughts on topics that are being discussed. Mix things up where you ask them first instead of last so that they don’t feel like an afterthought or that everything has already been said.

7. Pretend Everyone is Remote

If you’ve ever been on a conference call with a group in a room, you know that you can’t always hear everyone clearly. That’s because they aren’t close to the microphone. If you miss parts of the conversation or story, you feel isolated. h/t to Joe Moore who taught me this while I was at Pivotal Labs.

If EVERYONE is also dialed in (from their desk) then it’s an even playing field.In remote meetings, it’s easy for in-person participants to dominate the conversation while remote attendees struggle to be heard. A simple but effective practice is to make intentional space for virtual participants to contribute. This can mean pausing after key discussion points to invite their input, or even structuring the meeting so they speak first instead of last—ensuring their ideas feel valued rather than like an afterthought.

Additionally, using facilitation techniques like round-robin updates or assigning a moderator to monitor chat responses can help balance participation. Encouraging video-on policies (when possible) also helps remote employees feel seen, not just heard, fostering a more inclusive and engaged team dynamic.

8. Hold Virtual Office Hours

One challenge of remote work is the loss of casual, unplanned interactions that help build relationships and solve problems quickly. Virtual office hours recreate this accessibility by offering dedicated times for team members to drop in and chat. These can be role-specific (e.g., product managers available for feedback) or open to general discussions and social interactions.

To make virtual office hours effective, ensure they are regularly scheduled and accessible across time zones. If multiple offices are involved, consider rotating time slots so that everyone has opportunities that fit their working hours. This informal connection time helps strengthen cross-team collaboration and reinforces a sense of community.

9. Rotate Where You Meet Up

It’s unfair if one office is always traveling back to HQ. Switch things up and visit the distributed team where they work or meet up in a neutral place where everyone can experience new things together. Each city will have a slightly different culture because the talent pools are different. By switching up the meeting location, each cultural dialect of sorts can be better felt and understood by the other offices.

Beyond visiting satellite offices, consider meeting in neutral locations that are accessible to all, such as co-working spaces or conference venues in different cities. These shared experiences help employees from different locations bond, reduce the “HQ vs. remote” divide, and promote a more unified company culture.

10. Have the Exec Team Visit the Offices

Everyone wants a little face time with the company leadership, so go out to see them. When visiting, don’t spend your entire time in meeting rooms, block off some time for your own office hours, or sit in an open area. Meet some of the team members who have joined that office, they’ll feel more connected to the company at large. Executive facetime is critical to having those employees who don’t work at the main office stay connected.

These visits should be regular and intentional, not just reactive to problems. Employees feel more invested in a company when they see that leadership cares about their experiences and perspectives, reinforcing a culture of inclusion and recognition.

BONUS! Be Flexible With Work Schedules

One of the biggest advantages of remote and distributed teams is flexibility—but that flexibility needs to be mutual. Expecting all employees to adhere to HQ’s working hours isn’t practical when teams span multiple time zones. Instead, leaders should support flexible work schedules that accommodate cross-time-zone collaboration without forcing employees into constant early-morning or late-night calls.

This last one may be the most important point I’d like to make with executives who are making policies for your companies in a post-COVID world. Though there is a value in being together and many clear benefits to being physically together, on the whole, if you are too restrictive with what is allowable, it will most certainly cause turnover.

The way we work has fundamentally shifted, and while some companies are pushing for a return to the office, remote and hybrid work are here to stay. The key to success isn’t just about allowing remote work, it’s about doing it well. Thoughtful policies, intentional communication, and a commitment to inclusion can transform distributed teams from a logistical challenge into a competitive advantage.

By implementing these best practices - giving everyone a voice, ensuring meetings are equitable, fostering connection through office hours and executive visits, and embracing flexibility - you create an environment where remote employees feel just as engaged and empowered as those in the office. The companies that get this right will retain top talent and build stronger, more connected teams that thrive regardless of location.

The actions above empower teams to feel included, respected, and connected - cornerstones of effective leadership under the L.E.A.D. framework. But, every company is different. What works for one won’t work for all. Which tactics have you tried? What others have you seen work?