EDITOR ’ S QUESTION

EUGENIO PACE , CEO AND CO-FOUNDER , AUTH0

Communicate with your employees frequently about strategy , objectives and organisational learning .

For people managers , the transition to remote work is a particularly interesting challenge . Leading a virtual team requires trust and a philosophy of work based on results , not ‘ chair time ’. Those bosses who have to control everything won ’ t succeed in this environment . In fact , it ’ s just the opposite .

Managers must learn to trust their team and give them more freedom to work on their own terms , as long as they produce the intended results .

The best tool for building trust is communication . Communicate with your employees frequently about strategy , objectives and organisational learning . Make sure your team understands their impact by connecting their goals to corporate objectives .

When you work remotely , it ’ s easy to self-isolate and do your own thing . We need to constantly remind our teams we have the same goal .

Now , more than ever , take time to have a conversation with your employees , share what you ’ re working on and be present should they have any issues or concerns . Trust is built with communication from the bottom up and the top down .

Be explicit about your culture isn ’ t always clear to everyone . However , letting an informal culture develop on its own can lead to a lack of transparency , which breeds mistrust .

Working remotely forces you to be explicit about the culture you want to create , and when communicated frequently , employees can use these values to guide their everyday work .

Being explicit about your culture can also unite a geographically distributed and culturally diverse workforce . Whether your team works in London or Buenos Aires , you all have a code for how you behave .

This is crucial for dealing with conflict productively and creating collaborative teams that respect each other .

Don ’ t discount security

Security is a concern whenever you are accessing online systems but especially as people are logging into more services remotely .

Your IT and security teams should already be setting up multi-factor authentication as the minimum standard . As you connect new apps , they should also be educating the business about the access thirdparty providers have to their data .

As managers , we have a special role to play as evangelists . Are your teams completing their security awareness training ? If your team is using a new technology for the first time , do they have a channel for asking questions ?

Security is everyone ’ s business and it starts with leadership . In this new reality , it ’ s still possible to have a distributed team that is productive , collaborative and happy .

When you work remotely , most of your interactions are transactional – and your decision-making process

If you invest in building a culture of trust with your workers today , it will serve you well in the long-term .

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