5 ways to build trust when your teams are working from home indefinitely. How do remote managers know their people are working? And how can remote employees show their bosses that they’re getting stuff done? Here are some trust-building exercises to get through the transition to remote work.
Whenever folks transition to remote work, they often ask me about accountability. How do remote managers know their people are working? And how can remote employees show their bosses that they’re getting stuff done?
The uncertainty here can lead to two common problems: Managers end up micromanaging and employees end up overworking to prove themselves. But both of those situations are very much avoidable. The solution is, simply, trust.
If you can foster a culture of trust, your remote team will thrive. So here are some tips from me and a few of my friends in remote work on how to build trust in a remote team.
One of our core values at Zapier is “default to transparency.” It’s something every company should do, but it’s even more important in a remote work environment. With everyone working physically alone, it’s a lot easier to accidentally withhold information or not provide enough context for your teammates. By going out of your way to provide relevant information it means there are rarely surprises. And if you want to build trust, you can’t have surprises.
The main mode of communication for remote teams is usually a team chat tool—we use Slack at Zapier. Michael Pryor, cofounder of Trello, noted that, when transitioning to remote work, folks move to Slack and treat it like email, using lots of direct messages instead of posting in public channels. “Don’t do that,” he says. “The advantage of Slack is that it’s transparent.” If you keep almost all discussions in public channels, no one needs to worry that they’re being left out of important conversations. This creates a culture of trust—no one feels like things are happening behind closed doors that they’re not privy to.
Michael continues: “Of course, if you feel like there’s a miscommunication happening, escalate to Zoom since, in a public Slack channel, you’re essentially having an argument in front of the whole office. But once you’ve settled the issue, go back into Slack and relay the outcome.” That’s important: even when you do use nonpublic forms of communication, be sure to distill any meaningful takeaways and share them with the larger group.
Another thing I encourage at Zapier: Not asking questions anonymously. It’s all too easy to hide behind anonymity (if you’re using a tool that allows it). But by attaching your name to any questions and comments, you help foster a culture of transparency that ultimately helps build trust with your teammates.
The more you know people, the more you trust them. Sarah Park, president at MeetEdgar, understands this, and encourages remote teams to make socializing a priority:
The more time you can spend having a silly conversation on Slack, the easier it is when you get on a video call for the first time with folks on your team and have to start diving into work. It really does help lubricate the work itself.
At Zapier, we have over a hundred channels devoted just to socializing. All of these off-topic channels are prefixed with #fun-: There’s #fun-art, #fun-dogs, #fun-baseball. The time people spend in these channels isn’t seen as slacking off—it’s a way to get to know the people you work with, so you can trust them more when it comes time to get stuff done.
There are other ways to get to know each other, too. At Zapier, we use Donut to set up random chats with people throughout the company every week. Or, Kieran Flanagan, vice president of marketing at HubSpot, suggests turning your all-hands meetings into small group meet-ups with Zoom’s breakout feature.
Kieran also encourages people to extend this social aspect to the manager-report relationship:
Spend the first five minutes of your 1:1 meetings just asking questions about that person’s life. Because everything in remote is on scheduled time, you’re gonna generally talk about work more often than not because you don’t have those organic conversations. Try to re-create those moments where you talk about other things.
It might feel like a waste of precious meeting time, but it’s not—it’s a way to ensure that everyone still feels connected, which is crucial in building a remote culture that works.
Natalie Nagele, cofounder of Wildbit, argues that the fastest way to build trust is to create clear goals and share them. Natalie’s team doesn’t have daily check-ins, but that’s because they’ve been working remotely for years and have already built that trust. But when you’re just starting—or you’re onboarding a new employee—more consistent check-ins will ensure that everyone knows what’s expected of them.
Kieran agrees and adds that managers need to make it clear how they expect progress to be communicated. Do they want their directs to tell them what they’ve accomplished every day? Send them an end-of-week digest? Save it for 1:1s? This gives employees something concrete to work from and encourages them to tell their manager if they’re stuck on something.