How to Run Remote Teams Successfully

When COVID-19 rocked businesses everywhere, executive team leaders were forced to expedite their own digital transformation simply to stay in business. No longer was “work from home” an a novel concept or a good idea worthy of testing out. For many, it was a new requirement for staying in business.

For many entrepreneurs and even seasoned, well-established business leaders, running remote teams was disastrous. Without an office to come into every day, accountability shifted from the “walk around the office to see who’s working on what” strategy to implementing systems and processes that pre-pandemic hadn’t existed. While it’s challenging enough to nurture and grow your company culture in the best of times, suddenly the global pandemic raised the stakes of what was required for companies to operate remotely in order to stay afloat. Within that, the most critical element for most companies was the question, “How do we run our remote teams successfully?”

“Never Wear Pants Again”

While many businesses were struggling with the question of how best to manage remote teams, at least one CEO had figured this out several years prior to the pandemic and was not only surviving, but thriving. So much so, that he wrote the book, Never Wear Pants Again (which is also available as a free eBook if you’re interested).

Chris Martinez is the Founder of DUDE Agency which gives digital agencies the people, processes, and education so they can take on more projects and scale profitably. Chris owned a digital agency for 3 years and then in 2015 he moved all of his web design and development to Tijuana, Mexico and it was a total game-changer for his agency.?He quickly learned that Tijuana gives agencies all the benefits of outsourcing and none of the downsides.?Today, his agency is working with digital agencies in the US and Canada and are providing an outsourcing solution. This is helping several digital agencies scale, creating new technology jobs in Latin America and Asia, and little by little, his staff are changing the way that people perceive these regions.?

In my interview with Chris Martinez, we discuss what it means to effectively run remote teams. You can watch the complete interview here:

Hire The Right Team

Right off the bat, Chris Martinez identified what he sees as one of the biggest challenges for most businesses today and that is a company’s ability to hire the right person for the job. Often, when companies are growing quickly, they neglect to have a rigorous screening and interviewing process and that negatively impacts who they hire. At his agency, Chris Martinez estimates that his team interviews as many as 60 candidates for a single position with an emphasis on proactively seeking out the yellow flags and weeding out any candidate that doesn’t exceed their minimum standard of excellence.

This rigorous process begins with a comprehensive assessment process that helps his team see precisely where a candidate is strong and where they would need support in order to be a successful and productive member of the team.

Why is this screening process so important? Every hire impacts the culture of your team. When things get challenging, your star performers rise to the occasion. Those who just barely made the cut are more likely to do their best to blend in and disappear when you need them the most. This is especially true when it comes to remote management of these team members.

Trust AND Verify

Assuming you have the right team in place, the next most important aspect is to establish well defined and easily measurable benchmarks. This may sound like common sense, but as Chris Martinez points out, many businesses lack accountability and rigger in their teams. By establishing both lead and lag indicators of success, you can easily check the progress (or lack thereof) with any team member. Only by having clear benchmarks from the start can you ensure that your projects are on track and hitting the established milestones in order to be delivered on time and within budget.

Check In Often with Daily 15-Minute Meetings

Communication with remote teams is critical and Chris Martinez discovered early on that a daily check-in can be fast, efficient and effective for identifying where the challenges are and assigning additional support from the team in order to address these challenges. While most employees would prefer not to spend their days in meetings, there is a minimum threshold whereby connecting with your colleagues ensures alignment and desired outcomes.

Chris Martinez recommends a daily 15-minute check-in meeting. If you’ve established your key milestones and core benchmarks on each project, then this meeting can be fast and efficient. Essentially, each team member is declaring that they are either “on track” or “off track” from what they have committed. If they are “off track” time is held at the end for each person to share their challenge and request support. At that time, everyone who is “on track” can simply drop the call and get back to their work, while those who remain on the call are pairing up with the person or team they need to resolve the issue they are grappling with.

Don’t Struggle, Get Help

While we’re only scratching the surface of the interview, I wanted to share the highlights so that you can stop struggling with How to Run Remote Teams Successfully. To keep going on this topic, be sure to watch the full 27 minute interview and pick up a copy of Chris Martinez’s book, Never Wear Pants Again. While you map out your company’s remote, in-office and hybrid work policies, it certainly helps to have a resident expert you can turn to for best practices and support. Rather than thrashing your way through managing your remote teams, it’s great to know that at least once successful CEO has already mapped out a path of success that you can incorporate into your own business. Thanks, Chris Martinez, for sharing your wisdom with us.