BUILDING a Remote Team - 2 of 4

This post is part of a series (2 of 4) on constructing a fully-remote and high-performance team.

You can review the Forward (part 1) to catch up if needed.

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Thoughts on Building a Remote Team

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Creating something (product, talent, skill, etc.) that people want is only part of the battle. You will only scale so far by yourself and eventually want to build a team - one consistent with your vision and desired culture.

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Things to Do

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Start with Proven Experience

The cliché of 'building the plane while in flight' rings true for young teams or start-ups. The first employees will be executing work while creating processes and procedures others will follow. You need people who are self-motivated, driven, and able to prioritize. Tasking each employee is not practical. The early workforce should be focused and able to look ahead to create solutions to prevent routine heroics. Each employee needs to be a professional. Removing personal motivations and desires from the greater good of the company is not something everyone is able to do and should be a skill sought after and developed.

Establish Culture

Culture starts naturally and is often based on the initial workforce. This is where you need to start with diversity. A culture based on a specific demographic or region will take hold if it is allowed to persist unchecked. Realize that the first few employees will set the bar (whether or not you want them to) for the rest of the foreseeable future in work ethic, professionalism, communication style, banter topics in chat, holidays celebrated, and demeanor.

Identify Tenants

Develop tenants and keep them simple. State them frequently. The team I am currently on centered ours around transparent, candid, respectful communication. These 'rules' help set the stage for health and constructive conflict. They enable employees to address concerns and create a sense of trust when upheld.

I once had an employee “A” complain about another employee “B.” In short order, B then complained about A. I could have set up a meeting to facilitate a conversation between the two and address each concern but this isn’t the team culture I wanted. Instead, I advise each to set up a meeting with the other and start it by referencing our tenants. This worked out well and the employees were able to resolve the disagreement by themselves.

These same employees may not escalate an initial conflict in the future and instead, approach disagreements in a healthy way. We were able to strengthen the culture around addressing conflict head-on and professionally while reducing unnecessary escalations. Starting a difficult conversation as a 'tenant moment' has proven extremely useful in lowering defenses and setting the stage for healthy discourse.

Manage Media

Whatever you use, make it easy and encourage video. Depending on the study referenced, 70% to 90% of communication is non-verbal. Allowing newer employees to meet the team initially helps them understand verbal inflections, facial expressions, etc. to better understand when someone is sarcastic or using dry humor. This 'baseline' is critical to ensure communication is taking place vs people just making noise at each other.

This point was put really well by Tom Segura during Hot Ones, S6, E5 who mentioned (paraphrased to death) that comedy is an art and the message is performed. You could type up a comedy routine and most people would just find it horrific. You don’t hear the tone or know the intent.

With COVID, new team members may go a year or more without meeting teammates in person, so having video is critical to allow new employees to establish this baseline (especially with his/her/their boss).

Organize

While you may not need ‘middle management’ just yet, some staffing hierarchy is required to help prioritize and organize the work. Ideally, the team is full of people sprinting forward which means some duplication of efforts and non-use (see Things to Watch Out For) will inevitably take place. Escalation channels will be needed sooner than you think. Many choices will be made with ambiguity over who has the authority for the decision and accountability for follow-through.

Of course, a flat organization sounds great and is the aspiration of many. If you are building a team to scale though, the ideal-flat workforce will not persist - regardless of your hiring practices. Eventually, the organization will need to realize itself. Not every employee will have the same mindset and it is better to have an open culture with a firm hierarchy from the start. The adoption of structure will seem counter-culture and be more difficult if initially avoided.

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Things to Watch Out For

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Duplication or Output Not Used

The quickest path to frustration I have personally seen is someone's output not used or done in duplication. Daily stand-ups can spiral quickly when someone describes work that directly aligns or contradicts what another employee already did. Similarly, someone going the extra mile to create output that isn’t recognized or used by the rest of the team can kill motivation.

A previous coworker, Hermes Bojaxhi (amazingly smart individual), put this well. Shortly after joining the team at RSA, we saw turnover, he commented to me that some people sprint forward and some just keep up with the team. Those that just keep up, won't do so for long. Hopefully, the team is full of sprinters. However, this means the pace of output will make some duplication and non-use inevitable. Expect it and be prepared to justify the value-added in maintaining the pace with some acceptance on duplication. Be prepared to patch and managed the hit on motivation.

Marathon Sprinters

People will get close to 'burning out' and many will demand higher salaries, equity, promotions, etc. This can’t be avoided but can be mitigated to some degree by setting the stage early for salary and promotions. Be clear with prospects, let each know what to expect as far as job growth within the role.

Remote workers often get cabin fever. These feelings are compounded due to COVID reducing our socialization. This needs to be considered and work/life balance must be talked about. There are multiple resources and more qualified discussions about managing burnout. My one candid comment on this is that employees working themselves too hard or to the point of health concerns, are liabilities and not great employees.

Communicate up and down that what you are facing is a marathon. There will be times when sprinting is necessary but don't expect yourself or others to sprint the entire marathon. Managing yourself is one of the greatest skills you have for your employer and will ensure your continued contribution to the organization.

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The next post (part 3) in this series is focused on considerations Joining a remote team as a high-performer.