Aligning Company Goals in Remote Settings

Remote work isn't broken. The rulebook is: Most companies wrote one set of remote rules and handed it to everyone. But managers and employees need to run it differently: 1. Set core hours ↳Manager: Pick 3-4 hours the whole team is online, then stop scheduling meetings outside that window ↳Employee: Block those hours on your calendar and protect the rest of your day for deep work 2. Overcommunicate context ↳Manager: Explain the why behind a task, not just the what, so no one has to guess ↳Employee: Add a quick note to every update so your manager never has to ask "where are we" 3. Ask before you assume ↳Manager: If a message sits unanswered for an hour, check in before you jump to conclusions ↳Employee: Ask before you guess, it saves both of you a redo 4. Default to written ↳Manager: Put decisions in a doc or channel, not just a call, so nothing gets lost ↳Employee: Recap verbal conversations in writing so there's a record everyone can check 5. Trust the work ↳Manager: Judge output, not hours online, and say that out loud to the team ↳Employee: Share progress often so trust builds without anyone having to ask for it 6. Show up on camera ↳Manager: Make camera use a norm for some meetings ↳Employee: Turn your camera on for priority calls 7. Build in real connection ↳Manager: Schedule time that isn't about work, even 15 minutes, so the team stays a team ↳Employee: Show up to that time, skipping it quietly adds up to feeling cut off 8. Document everything ↳Manager: Keep one source of truth for decisions so new hires can catch up fast ↳Employee: Write down what you did and why before you log off each day 9. Ask for feedback ↳Manager: Check in at least monthly on what's working and what feels isolating ↳Employee: Speak up early if something feels off, don't wait for the review 10. Guard the boundary ↳Manager: Don't message after hours unless it's urgent, model the behavior you want ↳Employee: Set a hard stop time and actually log off when you hit it A rulebook only works if both sides read it the same way.  Most don't. Which of these feels hardest to actually follow, as a manager or as an employee? --- ♻️ Repost to help remote teams work better together. And follow me George Stern for more remote work content.

The 'Out of Sight, Out of Mind' Trap: How to Conquer the Distance Google is a global company with offices all over the world, and while this diversity is a strength, it also presents unique challenges for communication and collaboration. Especially when your key stakeholders and decision-makers are continents away! Those hallway conversations, spontaneous coffee chats, and quick desk drop-bys that teams at HQ take for granted? Yeah, those aren't happening when you're separated by oceans and time zones. And that can lead to a disconnect. Your team's amazing work might get overlooked, your challenges might go unnoticed, and your stakeholders might feel out of the loop. But fear not, fellow remote leads! Here are a few strategies I've learned along the way: ‣ Tailor your communication approach: Every leader has their preferred communication style. Some love detailed reports, others prefer concise bullet points, and some just want the TL;DR. It's your job to adapt and deliver information in the way they'll best receive it. ‣ Embrace Radical Transparency: The worst thing that can happen is your leadership feeling blindsided by a problem or a missed deadline. Over-communicate! Share updates regularly, highlight both wins and challenges, and don't be afraid to ask for help when needed. ‣ Educate Your Leads: Help them understand the unique challenges of leading a remote team in a different location. Explain why you might need more proactive communication or different approaches to stay connected and aligned. ‣ Build Relationships Beyond Email: Travel when possible. Occasional visits to the main office can be invaluable for building relationships and understanding the nuances of the company culture. ‣ Celebrate Wins: Make sure your stakeholders are aware of your team's accomplishments, both big and small. This reinforces the value of your team and keeps them top-of-mind. ‣ Iterate and Improve: What works for one lead might not work for another. Experiment with different communication styles, ask for feedback, and continuously refine your approach. Leading a local team in a remote site requires extra effort and intention. By mastering the art of communication and building strong relationships with your stakeholders, you can ensure your team's success, no matter where you are in the world! What are your favorite tips for leading remote teams across continents? Share your insights in the comments! 👇 #RemoteLeadership #Communication #TechLeadership #lifeAtGoogle

Your team isn't lazy. They're confused. You need a culture of accountability that's automatic: When accountability breaks down, it's not because people don't care. It's because your system is upside down. Most leaders think accountability means "holding people responsible." Wrong. Real accountability? Creating conditions where people hold themselves responsible. Here's your playbook: 📌 Build the Base Start with a formal meeting to identify the real issues. Don't sugarcoat. Document everything. Set a clear date when things will change. 📌 Connect to Their Pain Help your team understand the cost of weak accountability: • Stalled career growth • Broken trust between teammates • Mediocre results that hurt everyone 📌 Clarify the Mission Create a mission statement so clear that everyone can recite it. If your team can't connect their role to it in one sentence, They can't make good decisions. 📌 Set Clear Rules Establish 3-5 non-negotiable behaviors. Examples:  • We deliver what we commit to  • We surface problems early  • We help teammates succeed 📌 Point to Exits Give underperformers a no-fault, 2-week exit window. This isn't cruelty. It's clarity. 📌 Guard the Entrance Build ownership expectations into every job description. Hire people who already act like owners. 📌 Make Accountability Visible Create expectations contracts for each role. Define what excellence looks like. Get signed commitments. 📌 Make It Public Use weekly scorecards with clear metric ownership. When everyone can see who owns what. Accountability becomes peer-driven. 📌 Design Intervention Create escalation triggers: Level 1: Self-correction Level 2: Peer feedback Level 3: Manager coaching Level 4: Formal improvement plan 📌 Reward the Right Behaviors Reward people who identify problems early. (not those who create heroic rescues) 📌 Establish Rituals Conduct regular reviews, retrospectives, and quarterly deep dives. 📌 Live It Yourself Share your commitments publicly. Acknowledge your mistakes quickly. Your team watches what you do, not what you say. Remember: The goal isn't to catch people failing. It's to create conditions where:  • Failure becomes obvious  • And improvement becomes inevitable. New managers struggle most with accountability:  • Some hide and let performance drop  • Some overcompensate and micromanage We can help you build the playbook for your team. Join our last MGMT Fundamentals program for 2025 next week. Enroll today: https://lnkd.in/ewTRApB5 In an hour a day over two weeks, you'll get:  • Skills to beat the 60% failure rate  • Systems to make management sustainable  • Live coaching from leaders with 30+ years experience If this playbook was helpful... Please ♻️ repost and follow 🔔 Dave Kline for more.

🌍 Managing Remotely: Our One-Year Experiment 🌍   I often hear from corporate clients that they’re struggling to get workers back to the office. Many employees want the #flexibility of working remotely, and some are even turning down jobs that don’t offer this option. At the core of this concern from employers seems to be a belief that remote work isn’t as effective.   I wanted to test this out, so one year ago, the team and I—nearly all of whom work remotely—decided to tackle this challenge head-on. We wanted to develop a system that not only boosts #productivity but also fosters #collaboration and #community. Here’s where we landed what we are doing – we would love your feedback!   🕘 Start of Day (S.O.D.) Lists by 9:30 a.m. Each team member sends their intention/plan for the day, broken down into two parts:   - TOT (Trains on the Track): Essential, business-as-usual tasks that keep everything running smoothly.   - Projects: Work that advances key or special projects.   We cc: all team members, ensuring everyone stays in the loop on overlapping projects. This also creates a built-in #accountability system.   📝 End of Day (E.O.D.) Summary At the end of the day, each member sends a summary of their achievements based on their morning objectives: “What was completed and what—if anything—needs to be shifted to tomorrow?”   This simple daily routine has proven to have both functional and emotional benefits:   - We stay focused, productive, and structured. - It drives trust and collaboration, keeping us connected, while creating a positive team dynamic. - Emotionally, making progress against plans offers a nice dopamine hit, reduces the feeling of being overwhelmed, builds momentum, and enhances well-being.   💬 After one year of using this system, we met today to discuss how it is going. All in all, we agreed our productivity is higher than ever - and spirits seem to be high, too 😉.   I’m curious what you think… What do you see as the benefits and challenges to this arrangement? I would love to hear your thoughts!   #Leadership #RemoteWork #TeamProductivity #EmployeeEngagement #Collaboration #WorkFromHome 100 Coaches Agency Global Gurus Thinkers50

“We need more accountability” 👀 I hear this a lot. And I get it. You can’t deliver on your big ambitions if your team isn’t showing up and owning their goals. ❓But, wait, what are their goals? And who is actually accountable for what? In the early days when everyone does a bit of everything it seems to work, right? Yet, there's a common pitfall many organisations fall into as they scale: assuming that collective responsibility equates to individual accountability. If you were to ask your team members individually what they’re accountable for, would you be able to confidently predict their responses? Would it align with your vision? The answer is probably not. So here’s a quick checklist to help dial up that all-important accountability and get clear on who does what: ☑ Get SMART on your vision  Any good company has a strong vision, but a great company has one that’s specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. When everyone knows what they’re aiming for, they can tie their responsibilities directly to it. ☑ Get real about roles and responsibilities In the early days, everyone does a bit of everything. But as you grow, clarifying your team structure and defining who does what is key to driving ownership and reducing duplication. ☑ Get tangible with your values  Values need to be more than just words on a page. When you have clear, actionable behaviours you drive accountability through providing your team with clear expectations and support mechanisms for how you want each other to show up every day. ☑ Get measurable with your goals  Everything can be measured. Setting measurable targets directs people’s activities and motivates them by showing how their contributions impact the bigger vision. ☑ Get regular with your reinforcing rituals  Setting goals is one step; consistently communicating them makes them stick. Use team rituals to reinforce goals, track progress, and identify needed support. ☑ Get fearless with failure  Without psychological safety, accountability turns into anxiety. Encourage your team to take risks, try new things, and learn from what does and doesn’t work. Create a safe space for innovation and creativity. ☑ Get out of the way  You can’t expect people to be accountable if you don’t empower them. Provide systems and support, ensure decision-making happens where the information is, and show your team you trust them to get the job done. ⏰ It’s time to get accountable. When our teams are clear on the direction, how we’re going to get there, and what their contribution is, we are all more motivated, engaged, and collaborative. What have I missed? What do you do in your teams to drive accountability? Shout it out in the comments below! #Accountability #TeamSuccess #Productivity

Meetings aren’t for updates - they’re where your culture is being built… or broken. In distributed, remote, & hybrid teams, meetings are key moments where team members experience culture together. That makes every meeting a high-stakes opportunity. Yet most teams stay in default mode - using meetings for project updates instead of connection, ideation, debate, and culture-building. Fixing meeting overload isn’t just about having fewer Zooms. It’s about rewiring your communication norms: ✔️ Do we know when to communicate synchronously vs. asynchronously? ✔️ Are we using async tools that give transparency without constant live check-ins? ✔️ Have we aligned on our team values and expected behaviors? 💡 3 ways to reduce meetings and make the remaining ones count: 1️⃣ Co-create a Team Working Agreement. Before you can reinforce values, your team needs to define them. We’ve spent hundreds of hours helping teams do this - and have seen measurable gains in team effectiveness. Key components: ✔️ Shared team goals ✔️ Defining team member roles ✔️ Agreed-upon behaviors ✔️ Communication norms (sync vs. async) 2️⃣ Begin meetings with a connection moment. Relationships fuel trust and collaboration. Kick things off with a check-in like: “What gave you energy this week?” Or tailor it to the topic. In a recent meeting on decision-making norms, we asked: “Speed or certainty - which do you value more when making decisions, and why?” 3️⃣ Make team values part of the agenda. Create a ritual to recognize teammates for living into the team behaviors. Ask the question: “Where did we see our values or team agreements show up this week?” And check in on where could the team have done better. Culture doesn’t happen by accident - especially when your teams are spread across time zones, WFH setups, and multiple office sites. Your meetings can become a powerful tool to build culture with intention. Excerpt from the Work 20XX podcast with Jeff Frick

DON'T meet your teammates if you run a remote company. At least, not just for the sake of it. Remote teams don't struggle cos people are in different locations. They struggle when connection becomes accidental instead of intentional. We've been remote from early on at Ocushield. Different cities, time zones, and work rhythms... So we had to learn new things to optimise things, to help things work for us. We have to design connection... Here's what that means in practice: 1/ Remote doesn't mean distant You can build real closeness through structure. We create rituals, shared spaces, and predictable touchpoint so communication feels natural, not forced. 2/ Face-to-face time is a force multiplier When we do meet in person, it changes everything. Conversations get deeper, decisions get faster, trust compounds. One day in the same room can remove weeks of small misunderstandings. Remote keeps things efficient. In-person resets alignment. You need BOTH. 3/ Culture doesn't happen by accident In an office, culture happens in the gaps. In remote teams, you have to build the gaps on purpose. Shared activities. Moments that aren't just about tasks. Space for people to be humans and not just roles. Cos the real glue in teams is not the process... It's familiarity. The mistake I see most founders make? They choose either remote efficiency or in-person connection. The best teams design for both. Remote for focus, In-person for trust. Shared spaces, even virtual ones, for daily cohesion. You don't need an office to build a strong team. But you do need to be intentional about how people feel connected when no one shares a desk. That part doesn't happen on its own.

The remote work era demands a new approach to team leadership. With distributed work and hybrid setups becoming the norm, it’s time to re-evaluate traditional frameworks. Inspired by Patrick Lencioni’s "Five Dysfunctions of a Team," I adapted it for remote teams—because the rules have changed. 👀 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝟱 𝗗𝘆𝘀𝗳𝘂𝗻𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗥𝗲𝗺𝗼𝘁𝗲 𝗧𝗲𝗮𝗺𝘀: 1️⃣ 𝗗𝗶𝗴𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗧𝗿𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗚𝗮𝗽 Trust is essential in remote setups but harder to build without regular face-to-face time. Consistency, transparency, and empathy are critical to bridge the trust gap. 2️⃣ 𝗩𝗶𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗳𝗹𝗶𝗰𝘁 𝗔𝘃𝗼𝗶𝗱𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 In virtual settings, it’s easy to skip tough conversations. Healthy conflict is essential for innovation—encourage open channels for feedback and constructive debate. 3️⃣ 𝗟𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗼𝗳 𝗖𝗹𝗮𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆 & 𝗔𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 Misalignments are common without a shared space. Set clear goals, built upon narratives and outcomes — to ensure everyone is moving in the same direction. 4️⃣ 𝗘𝘃𝗮𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝗔𝗰𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 Remote work can blur accountability lines. Establish clear roles, responsibilities, and track progress consistently to build ownership. 5️⃣ 𝗗𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗖𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗚𝗼𝗮𝗹𝘀 Digital tools create constant distractions, making it easy to lose sight of team goals. Regularly reinforce your team’s mission, celebrate progress, and debrief setbacks. --- Ready to tackle remote dysfunctions head-on? Here are also 10 practical tips for remote leaders: 1️⃣ Visualize team goals in one shared place 2️⃣ Write weekly async updates instead of a meeting 3️⃣ Set clear ownership of outcomes upfront 4️⃣ Build a “virtual watercooler” for informal chats 5️⃣ Plan quarterly offsites (in-person or digital) 6️⃣ Share small wins weekly to boost morale 7️⃣ Run frequent feedback sessions of different scopes 8️⃣ Set clear deep work timeslots for the team 9️⃣ Create a digital playbook for team processes 🔟 Document, document, document --- What's your view on this? Does it resonate? What other tips would you suggest for remote leaders? #RemoteWork #TeamDynamics #Leadership #HighPerformance --- I'm Hugo Pereira. Co-founder of Ritmoo and fractional growth operator, I've led businesses from $1m to $100m+ while building purpose-driven, resilient teams. Follow me to master growth, leadership, and teamwork. My book, 𝘛𝘦𝘢𝘮𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘛𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘦𝘥, arrives early 2025.

Remote work challenge: How do you build a connected culture when teams are miles apart? At Bunny Studio we’ve discovered that intentional connection is the foundation of our remote culture. This means consistently reinforcing our values while creating spaces where every team member feels seen and valued. Four initiatives that have transformed our remote culture: 🔸 Weekly Town Halls where teams showcase their impact, creating visibility across departments. 🔸 Digital Recognition through our dedicated Slack “kudos” channel, celebrating wins both big and small. 🔸 Random Coffee Connections via Donut, pairing colleagues for 15-minute conversations that break down silos. 🔸 Strategic Bonding Events that pull us away from routines to build genuine connections. Beyond these programs, we’ve learned two critical lessons: 1. Hiring people who thrive in collaborative environments is non-negotiable. 2. Avoiding rigid specialization prevents isolation and encourages cross-functional thinking. The strongest organizational cultures aren’t imposed from above—they’re co-created by everyone. In a remote environment, this co-creation requires deliberate, consistent effort. 🤝 What’s working in your remote culture? I’d love to hear your strategies.

10 remote principles that actually work for us👇 Do you guess how fintech teams thrive without an office? Our team is distributed across the globe, yet we’re building a product that serves users all over the world. No offices. No endless Zoom calls. No micromanagement. Here are 10 proven principles we follow to build a remote-first, results-driven team: 1. Hire independent, smart people and trust them 2. We care about the result, not the amount of working hours 3. It's better to refuse micromanagement 4. Always ask for feedback: both from employees and clients 5. Sync up - short effective meetings on goals and results 6. We are always proud of the results, these are our victories 7. Work from anywhere in the world. The fewer restrictions during selecting candidates, the easier it is to find the best people 8. Mistakes should be learned from and this applies to all levels 9. Our team has a common goal and we need to help each other 10. A small and effective team can create huge projects We believe simplicity should start inside the company. That’s how we move fast, stay focused, and build tools people actually use.