Ep 4: 6 Steps to Creating a Successful Remote Work Environment

What makes remote teams successful?

So, that’s how she got to this point — her work in neuroscience, her executive coaching experience, and her personal experience working in remote set her up to solve the remote work complex. 

Overall, she’s realized that the issues don’t just involve logistics — emotional intelligence is an especially important aspect of remote teams. Overall, Shauna’s found that, increasingly, remote teams are almost too productive, leading to burnout and isolation, often creating retention problems for the employers.

But from her research and experience, she’s found a few keys that will help any remote team find success:

1. Make expectations clear

Setting expectations early on avoids huge problems later; this is perhaps even more important with remote teams, as there is no physical “office culture” to help shape behaviors. 

• Do you expect workers to login to Slack every day?
• Do you expect daily/weekly/monthly updates on projects?
• Do you want remote workers to use video so there’s a visual interaction?

2. Set boundaries 

Boundaries are incredibly important in remote work, as there is no cultural office closing time, and the digital mobile age has created an environment of nonstop connectivity. There’s no “off switch.”

Also, there’s the issue of timezones, which Shauna knows this all too well — while at Shopify, she was managing teams in 10 different time zones.

3. Employees should take responsibility for themselves

Managers can help by setting boundaries and expectations, but ultimately, it’s the worker’s responsibility to ensure they know how to set their own boundaries, take breaks when needed, spend time with their family, etc. 

4. Set an example

This one’s pretty simple: if the team leader is working 12 hours a day, but saying “don’t work 12 hours a day” at the same time … it simply won’t work. 

People follow examples more than words.

5. Fast-track trust within the hiring process

The issue of trust comes up consistently, Shauna says: employers are constantly asking, “How can I trust my employees if they aren’t in the office?” 

Your hiring process is perhaps one of the best places to invest in when trying to create that trust.

To start with, leaders must clearly define what they believe helps create trust; then, they can hire accordingly, knowing that half the battle is already won just by hiring to those qualities. 

6. Create remote-first processes

As anyone who’s worked on a remote team knows, documentation and tech stack become even more important without the traditional office environment. 

Document everything, and ensure the tools your team are using are created with a remote team in mind. 

Conclusion

Shauna left us with her personal mission statement:

Empower and transform distributed companies, by supporting founders and management teams and helping them to build emotionally healthy and high growth teams in remote environments.

A couple books Shauna mentioned that are helpful for remote teams:

• Mindset by Carol Dweck
• The Culture Map Erin Meyer