Building Resilience in Remote Teams

All is not well in fully-remote OR fully in-office work. While new Gallup research reveals that fully remote workers are more engaged than even hybrid workers (and fully on-site workers are the least engaged - a slap in the face of RTO), they aren't thriving the most - hybrid workers are. It's perhaps no surprise (to all but some CEO's and managers) that fully on-site workers are thriving the least. Interestingly, hybrid workers experience the most stress (just a hair more than fully remote), and disturbingly, fully remote workers are more likely to experience anger, sadness, and loneliness - by a decent margin. Gallup believes that physical distance can create mental distance and that work becomes "just work" without deeper connections with coworkers that can be more easily formed from spending time together in person. They also think that it's the autonomy that comes with remote work which can create stress and lead to the negative emotions mentioned above. I think these are very interesting findings, and I would like to believe that most companies would take the time to reflect on them and take appropriate action. Here's what I think companies can do: 1. Address the emotional well-being of remote workers with regular check-ins, mental health resources, and virtual social activities to combat isolation. 2. Optimize hybrid work environments by creating create clear boundaries between work and home life, help their workers manage workloads effectively, and ensure hybrid workers aren't overcompensating with longer hours. 3. Explore the advantages of remote work, seek to understand what drives the higher engagement and apply these lessons across all work arrangements. 4. Given that each work arrangement faces different challenges, develop tailored well-being strategies for each work type. A one-size-fits-all approach isn't the way to go. 5. Ensure that remote workers have career development opportunities, opportunities to develop meaningful social connections, and achieve work-life balance to close the thriving gap. 6. For companies that are (or are considering moving to) fully in-office work, reconsider hybrid and/or remote work for the clear benefits. I know - wishful thinking, especially for #6. Here's the full Gallup report: https://lnkd.in/ezQB4K5q #WellBeing #EmployeeEngagement #WorkLifeBalance #FutureOfWork #RTO

Last year, we rolled out an experimental company perk: Ethena employees can expense up to $100/month towards bonding activities with each other. Why? Because even though a good chunk of the workforce has gone remote, employees still crave a sense of community. And as many of us in the HR/People space have had to learn the hard way: *More* virtual happy hours and pizza parties isn't going to cut it. So what's a People professional to do? Explore new and experimental ways to provide the sense of community employees want — while keeping things sustainable for both the People team and the company budget, of course. So how did our little experiment shake out? - The response was instantaneous. All across the company, our location-based Slack channels started pinging with employees eager to organize get-togethers: Dinner, rock climbing, trips to the nail salon for a fun mani-pedi. We've even opened the perk up to virtual bonding activities, i.e. a virtual cooking class with a personal chef. - Our employees are leveraging this perk in exactly the ways we hoped they would. So far, employees all across the US and Canada have met up to: Watch a Broadway play, go out for tapas, spend a day canoeing — and more! - The sense of camaraderie and inspiration around this perk has been incredible to watch. People are sharing pictures of their meetups on Slack, getting others excited about arranging get-togethers for their own local groups, and showing us as a company the many, varied ways of building team culture and employee satisfaction. And before you ask: No, we're not overly prescriptive about it. If the money is going towards hanging out with someone (or several someones) at the company, we tell our employees to go ahead and expense it. Although this is just one of many efforts we've continued to make towards fostering a sense of community at work, it's one that has stood out for the flexibility it allows employees to connect in the ways that work best for them without requiring an incredible lift from the People team. What are your favorite ways of building community at work?

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.

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.

Managers: Your team isn't afraid of accountability. They're afraid of you. If you want to demand ownership, Make ownership safe. Here are 10 practical ways to build accountability -  Without creating fear: 1) Normalize mistakes ↳Treat errors as part of the process, not a personal failure 2) Ask before you assume ↳"Help me understand what happened" works better than "Why did you mess this up?" 3) Praise learning, not just results ↳Recognize when someone owns a mistake and applies the lesson 4) Be transparent about your own errors ↳Model what healthy accountability looks like 5) Focus on fixing, not shaming ↳Solutions, not scapegoats: ask, "What would you do differently next time?" 6) Reward ownership ↳If someone steps up, back them up 7) Clarify what success looks like ↳Vague expectations make blame more likely 8) Use feedback to build, not break ↳Your words should sharpen, not shatter 9) Protect people publicly ↳Correct in private - support in public 10) Don't overreact to small errors ↳Save the alarm for when it really matters Accountability grows in cultures of trust, not punishment. Want more ownership? Start by making it safe to own something. Which of these do you think is most important? --- ♻️ Repost to help more managers get this right. And follow me George Stern for more practical leadership content. 

The Empathy Edge: 8 Ways to Maintain Emotional Connection in a Remote World In a digital age where screens replace face-to-face interactions, empathy is the bridge that keeps teams human. Here are eight strategies to nurture emotional intelligence and foster trust, even through a monitor: 1. Send “How can I support you?” instead of “What’s the status?” ↳ Reframing demands as offers shifts the dynamic from surveillance to collaboration, reducing defensiveness and building trust. 2. Start every meeting with: “How are you really doing?” ↳ A simple check-in sets a tone of care and reminds everyone that people come before tasks. 3. Celebrate the “invisible” work publicly ↳ Highlighting silent efforts boosts morale and reinforces the value of each team member’s contribution. 4. Turn cameras ON during conflict ↳ Body language builds empathy faster than words alone, helping to de-escalate tension and foster understanding. 5. Create a “No Judgment” virtual zone ↳ A safe space for sharing struggles encourages vulnerability, strengthens bonds, and sparks innovative solutions. 6. Replace emails with “human” video chats ↳ Cameras humanize interactions, turning pixels into people and creating moments of genuine connection. 7. End every call with clarity + gratitude ↳ Closing with “Thank you for your time. Here’s our next-step plan.” combines appreciation with structure, leaving everyone feeling valued and aligned. 8. Send one unsent message this week ↳ A simple note of recognition—like “I noticed how you [specific action]. Thank you.”—can have an outsized impact on morale and engagement. Remote work doesn’t have to mean robotic work. By intentionally weaving empathy into digital habits, you build teams that feel seen, heard, and valued—no office required. 📌 Which of these strategies will you try first? Share below! ♻️ Repost to lead the empathy revolution in remote work! Follow Natan Mohart for more science-backed soft skills.

5 powerful ways to build psychological safety in remote teams: Remote work isn't just about tools, it's about TRUST. Psychological safety is the glue that holds remote teams together. Without it, team members hesitate to: - speak up - creativity suffers - and performance tanks. Here are 5 ways to build psychological safety into your remote team's DNA: 1. Make Safety a Visible Priority ↳ Leadership should emphasize psychological safety isn't optional   ↳ Start team check-ins with “How’s everyone really doing?”   ↳ Share your own mistakes to normalize vulnerability 2. Reward Questions, Not Just Answers ↳ Shift from blame to curiosity—“What can we experiment with next?”   ↳ Praise team members who ask insightful questions 3. Dare to Disagree (Respectfully) ↳ Normalize constructive debates. ↳ Disagreement isn’t disrespect—when done right, it fuels innovation. 4. Make Feedback Feel Safe ↳ Start feedback with “Here’s what’s working really well”   ↳ Frame feedback as part of a collaborative improvement process 5. Turn Failures into Case Studies ↳ Hold “What We Learned” meetings after major projects   ↳ Failure is a learning opportunity, not an endpoint Remember, silence often means fear, not agreement. Invite participation by asking questions like, “What haven’t we considered?” Psychological safety takes effort to build but unlocks your team’s potential. You'll see better ideas, stronger connections, and lasting trust. Psychological safety isn’t just a perk, it’s a superpower for teams! P.S. So what’s your #1 tip for building trust in remote teams? – ♻️ Don’t keep this post to yourself, REPOST to help your network build psychological safety in their teams! ➕ Follow Sandra Pellumbi for more.🦉

A founder DMd me and asked: how can I ensure my remote team is doing as much work as they would if we were in office? I flipped the question back on him and asked: what are you doing to set your team up for success to be productive working from home?? WHY are we looking to remote employees to intrinsically know how to optimize their time and productivity, when we've never given them a roadmap or a playbook to learn how? Here are the 3 things we discussed that he's doing with his team now: 1️⃣ Establish a "not always available" standard. Encourage team members to time block Slack engagement. First hour of the day: Slack is muted and hidden, team members focus on email replies and their biggest work hurdles. *Bonus/up-level: His team works mostly across 4 American time zones, so now they're doing a 1-hour Slack Sprint in the morning and in the afternoon. Slack stays quieter outside of those hours, everyone "congregates" for cross-team questions and engagement during those windows. 2️⃣ Build a low-lift stack of efficiency tools and bake them into onboarding. For most remote employees, a good starting point is: - a Pomodoro plug-in tool - a text expander tool - a to-do list or task + note tool - a mental reset tool (I'm obsessed with Calm right now, the daily calms are a great midday reset) 3️⃣ Schedule a few team- or company-wide coworking sessions every week. This is called "body-doubling" and is a HUGE game changer. Here's how it works: Completely optional to attend, mics stay off, cameras are optional as well. Have a volunteer moderator kick off the hour with a simple prompt: What are you working on for this session? Everyone drops their "what" in the chat, then gets to work. 30 minutes in, moderator does a 5 minute check-in. Encourage a quick stretch, ask a fun question for a mini-conversation. Then back to silent coworking for 20 minutes. Wrap up with asking everyone to drop a simple end-of-session progress check in the chat. Could be as simple as "completed" or "half way there". These virtual coworking sessions have been known to 2-3x productivity when done for just an hour each day. That's it. 3 simple approaches. None of them have to cost a dime. All of them will increase productivity and improve efficiency. And if you're a remote employee or solopreneur, you can start doing these things tomorrow for yourself. I promise it will improve your quality of life. ------ Hi, I'm Jen. I've been working remotely since 2018 and have put sweat, tears, and countless hours into researching how to level up my work from home experience. I'm launching a community that is PACKED with tools, resources, and yes, coworking opportunities for remote workers, to help you make your remote work life your very best life. Doors open in September and I would love to see you there! You can add your name to the (simple but effective, because that's what we're all about) waitlist here: https://lnkd.in/e4B3XM4Y

Yesterday afternoon we held our monthly CS Leadership Roundtable on Managing Remote Teams. During our discussion, Olha posed a question about balancing the need for alignment through meetings with remote CS teams and avoiding meeting overload and burnout and Debbie asked me to post my response here. This is an expanded version of what I was talking about during the webinar. 🤔 The Remote CS Team Meeting Paradox 🤔 Remote customer success teams face a brutal paradox: You need alignment to prevent silos, but meeting overload kills the collaboration you're trying to build. 🏁 Here's how the best CS leaders are solving it: The 50/25/15 Rule → 50% reduction in standing meetings → 25% converted to async communication → 15% reserved for true collaboration Meeting Hierarchy That Actually Works 💥 Weekly: 30-min team sync (wins, blockers, knowledge sharing) 💥 Bi-weekly: Customer portfolio reviews 💥 Monthly: Strategic planning + team building 💥 Quarterly: Deep relationship building 💥 Daily meetings? Only for crisis management. Async-First Wins ✅ Shared customer health dashboards ✅ Weekly Slack updates vs. status meetings ✅ Recorded video updates for complex situations ✅ Collaborative docs for ongoing projects The Well-being Integration: ✔️ Focus Fridays - No internal meetings ✔️ Morning protection - Deep customer work until 10 AM ✔️ Buffer time - 15-30 minutes between meetings ✔️ Energy management - Alternate heavy/light meeting days Watch for These Red Flags: Over-meeting symptoms: 🚩 Team multitasking during calls 🚩 "Quick calls" multiplying outside scheduled time 🚩 Complaints about lack of customer focus time Under-alignment symptoms: 🚩 Duplicate work across accounts 🚩 Missed expansion opportunities 🚩 Knowledge hoarding between CSMs The bottom line is that you want to create a culture where people want to collaborate because it makes their job easier and customers more successful, not because they're required to attend meetings. When alignment serves customer success, it becomes energizing rather than draining. What's your biggest meeting challenge with remote CS teams? Drop it below - let's crowdsource solutions 👇

If you run a remote team, this is worth a read. Might be the coolest thing I've seen in ages. (Not perks. Not ai.) Something that makes life a bit better  We have 100s of devs across the Philippines, LATAM - everywhere. Some hybrid. Some fully remote.  Different clients, skills, experience etc Same thing: → Working solo most of the time. Heads down. Sometimes isolated. → Even when in the office. It kept reminding me of founder peer groups like EO, YPO, Hampton - Private forums where founders can share what's going on Talk openly. Share struggles. Help each other. No judgement. But founders aren’t the only ones who need that. Devs feel it too. Everyone does. So we asked: What if our devs had peer forums? Same rules: → No managers or direct team mates → Confidential safe space → Real talk on life and work We piloted it: Small groups (max 8). Same cohort monthly. Format: Share 1 work win + 1 work challenge Share 1 personal win + 1 personal challenge The group picks / votes 2 challenges from the group to deep dive on No advice - just experience-sharing The feedback? → One of the most special things I’ve done → Raw conversations → New real friendships → A safe space to learn and share ideas  What I learned: Peer learning might be the strongest form of learning Connection doesn’t just happen in remote - it has to be intentional Create the structure. Now they run the show They’ve planned their own hike next month I love this stuff. Thought it was worth sharing I think it could work anywhere - across roles, functions, or industries V cool to catch up with the pioneer group just now Danica Julius Darwin Stephanie Trishia Nicole Patricia. We told dad jokes. 🧡 Would love to hear if anyone else is experimenting with community building ideas 👇