10 Best Practices for Managing Remote Teams in 2025

The shift to remote and hybrid work isn't just a trend; it's a fundamental change in how we operate. Managing a team you don't see every day requires a new playbook, one built on trust, clarity, and intentional connection. Many companies struggle by defaulting to old in-office habits, such as excessive meetings and a focus on 'presence' over performance, which quickly leads to burnout and disengagement. Simply moving office culture online is not a strategy for success.

This guide moves beyond generic advice. We will provide 10 concrete and actionable best practices for managing remote teams that top remote-first companies use to build thriving, productive, and connected organizations. We'll explore how to establish asynchronous workflows that respect different time zones, foster a genuine culture that isn't dependent on physical proximity, and leverage smart tools to streamline everything from daily communication to virtual event planning.

For companies that rely on Slack and Google Calendar, optimizing these platforms is critical for engagement. This is where tools like Be There become exceptionally handy, simplifying event reminders and RSVP workflows directly within Slack to boost participation. It's an indispensable tool for companies using both platforms, as it bridges the gap and automates the manual work of coordinating events. For a deeper dive into the evolving landscape of remote leadership, exploring more actionable remote team management tips can offer further guidance.

Consider this your blueprint for not just managing, but leading a successful remote team. Forget the old rules; it's time to build a system that works for how we work now. Let's dive into the practices that will help you get there.

1. Establish Clear Communication Protocols

One of the most foundational best practices for managing remote teams is creating standardized guidelines for how, when, and where team members communicate. Without the shared context of a physical office, deliberate communication protocols are essential to prevent misunderstandings, reduce digital noise, and ensure information flows efficiently. This means clearly defining which tools to use for different types of conversations and setting clear expectations for response times.

When you codify these rules, you eliminate guesswork for your team. This structure helps maintain focus and productivity by minimizing unnecessary interruptions while ensuring urgent matters are addressed promptly.

✦How to Implement Clear Communication Protocols

Creating a "communication playbook" is a practical first step. This document, accessible to everyone, outlines the purpose of each communication channel.

• Synchronous vs. Asynchronous: Define which tools are for immediate conversation (synchronous) versus those that don't require an instant reply (asynchronous). For example, use Slack for quick, real-time questions and Microsoft Teams or email for formal announcements or less urgent updates.
• Response Time Expectations: Set clear, reasonable expectations. For instance, specify that Slack DMs should be answered within three business hours, while emails can have a 24-hour response window. This prevents anxiety and promotes work-life balance.
• Meeting and Event Norms: Establish rules for virtual meetings. This includes requiring an agenda, encouraging "cameras on" to boost engagement, and standardizing how meetings are scheduled and communicated.

✦Putting It Into Practice

Many successful remote-first companies model this behavior. GitLab, for instance, champions an "asynchronous-first" mindset, documenting everything in its public handbook. Similarly, Automattic uses internal blogs called P2s for project discussions, creating a searchable, transparent record of decisions.

For companies that use Slack for communication and Google Calendar for scheduling, managing event communication is a perfect example of where protocols break down. This is where a tool like Be There becomes invaluable. By seamlessly integrating Google Calendar with Slack, it automates event reminders and simplifies RSVPs directly where your team is talking. This ensures important team events don't get lost in channel noise, making it an incredibly useful tool for any company living in both platforms. To explore this topic further, discover more ways to improve workplace communication.

2. Set Clear Expectations and Goals (OKRs/SMART Goals)

For remote teams to thrive, every member must have a clear understanding of what they are working towards and what success looks like. Without the daily alignment that happens in a physical office, structured goal-setting frameworks like OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) or SMART goals are critical. These systems provide clarity, create alignment, and ensure individual contributions directly support larger company objectives.

When goals are well-defined and transparent, it empowers remote employees with the autonomy to make decisions and prioritize tasks effectively. This practice is one of the most important best practices for managing remote teams because it shifts the focus from hours worked to tangible outcomes, fostering a culture of trust and accountability.

✦How to Implement Clear Goals and Expectations

Adopting a goal-setting framework requires a systematic approach. The key is to make goals visible, measurable, and relevant to everyone's role.

• Choose a Framework: Decide between OKRs, which are great for ambitious, aspirational goals (popularized by Google and Intel), or SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound), which are ideal for concrete, project-based targets.
• Promote Transparency: Use a centralized platform like Lattice, 15Five, or even a shared document to make all individual and team goals public. This transparency helps everyone see how their work connects to the bigger picture.
• Establish a Review Cadence: Goals should not be "set and forget." Schedule regular check-ins, such as bi-weekly or monthly, to review progress, address roadblocks, and adjust priorities as needed. This creates a rhythm of accountability.

✦Putting It Into Practice

Many leading remote companies build their entire operating model around clear, transparent goals. Atlassian uses OKRs to keep its globally distributed teams aligned across different time zones, ensuring everyone is pushing in the same direction. Microsoft also famously shifted to an OKR-based model to drive cultural change and focus its massive workforce on shared priorities.

A crucial part of achieving goals is ensuring high attendance at key meetings like project kick-offs and quarterly reviews. For companies relying on Slack and Google Calendar, coordinating these critical events can be a logistical headache. This is where a tool like Be There is extremely handy. It automates reminders and simplifies RSVPs directly within Slack, ensuring high participation in the meetings that keep your team's goals on track. By streamlining the logistics between these two essential platforms, it reinforces the accountability needed for success.

3. Implement Robust Onboarding and Documentation

A structured onboarding process is one of the most critical best practices for managing remote teams, as it sets the foundation for a new hire’s success. In a remote environment, you can't rely on spontaneous office interactions for learning. Instead, robust onboarding and comprehensive documentation empower new employees to become productive and self-sufficient quickly, without constant hand-holding.

This approach creates a single source of truth for operations, processes, and company culture. It ensures that every team member, new or tenured, has access to the information they need to perform their role effectively and aligns with the company's "way of doing things."

✦How to Implement Robust Onboarding and Documentation

The goal is to create a self-guided yet supportive experience. This means building a centralized knowledge base and a clear, step-by-step plan for the first few weeks.

• Create Role-Specific Onboarding Paths: Avoid a one-size-fits-all checklist. Tailor the onboarding journey with specific tasks, training materials, and introductory meetings relevant to the new hire's role and department.
• Leverage Asynchronous Resources: Record video walkthroughs of key processes and software tools. These can be rewatched anytime and are far more efficient than repeated live training sessions.
• Centralize Your Documentation: Use a wiki tool like Notion, Confluence, or Slite to create a central hub for all company information. This should include everything from HR policies and system access guides to project workflows and team charters.
• Schedule Cross-Functional Introductions: Set up brief 1:1 meetings with key people from other departments during the first week. This helps new hires build their internal network and understand how different teams collaborate.

✦Putting It Into Practice

Remote-first leaders like GitLab have built their entire operations on a "handbook-first" principle, making their documentation public. Similarly, Zapier maintains extensive internal guides that allow their distributed team to operate autonomously. Beyond initial training, establishing robust systems for capturing and managing institutional knowledge is crucial for long-term team success and continuity, so understanding institutional knowledge is a key competency for remote managers.

A powerful tactic is to have new hires update documentation as they go. If they find a process confusing or outdated, they are in the perfect position to improve it for the next person. This not only keeps your resources fresh but also empowers the new employee from day one.

4. Foster Team Connection and Culture

In a remote setting, the organic social interactions of an office don't happen automatically. Fostering team connection and a vibrant culture is one of the most critical best practices for managing remote teams, requiring deliberate effort to build camaraderie and a sense of belonging. This involves creating intentional spaces and rituals for non-work interactions, celebrating successes, and reinforcing shared values.

When team members feel a genuine connection to their colleagues, they are more engaged, collaborative, and motivated. A strong culture becomes the connective tissue that holds a distributed team together, improving retention and overall well-being.

✦How to Foster Team Connection and Culture

Building culture remotely means creating structured and unstructured opportunities for connection. The goal is to replicate the positive aspects of in-office social life in a digital-first way.

• Create Social Spaces: Designate specific Slack or Teams channels for non-work topics. Channels like #random, #pets, or #book-club give team members a place to share their personalities and interests.
• Schedule Informal Gatherings: Host optional virtual events with no agenda, such as coffee chats, happy hours, or team lunches. Use breakout rooms during larger meetings to facilitate more intimate small-group conversations.
• Recognize and Celebrate: Establish a formal process for celebrating wins, work anniversaries, and personal milestones. A dedicated #wins or #shoutouts channel makes recognition a visible and regular part of the culture.

✦Putting It Into Practice

Leading remote companies like GitLab and Zapier excel at this. GitLab encourages virtual coffee chats, while Automattic famously hosts an annual "Grand Meetup" to bring its entire global team together in person. These companies understand that investing in connection pays dividends in productivity and loyalty.

For teams managing these cultural events across Slack and Google Calendar, coordination is a major challenge. A tool like Be There is incredibly useful here, as it integrates seamlessly with both platforms. You can schedule a virtual trivia night in Google Calendar, and Be There will automate the announcements, reminders, and RSVPs directly in Slack. This makes cultural initiatives feel effortless and ensures high participation, making it a very handy tool for building remote culture.

5. Embrace Asynchronous Work and Reduce Meeting Overload

One of the most impactful best practices for managing remote teams is to intentionally design workflows around asynchronous work. This approach prioritizes written communication and collaborative documents over constant real-time meetings, creating an environment that respects different time zones, protects focus time, and empowers team members to contribute thoughtfully on their own schedules. By defaulting to asynchronous methods, you reduce calendar clutter and prevent "Zoom fatigue."

This shift doesn't mean eliminating meetings entirely. Instead, it reframes them as a tool for specific, high-value interactions like brainstorming or complex problem-solving, rather than for simple status updates. This mindful approach allows for deeper, more focused work and gives employees greater autonomy over their workday.

✦How to Implement an Asynchronous-First Culture

Building an async-first model requires deliberate changes to team habits and a commitment to documentation. The goal is to make information accessible and decision-making transparent without requiring everyone to be online simultaneously.

• Default to Written Communication: Encourage the use of collaborative documents, project management tools, and detailed Slack threads for discussions and decisions. Use tools like Loom for asynchronous video walkthroughs to explain complex topics without a meeting.
• Establish "No-Meeting Days": Designate one or two days a week as meeting-free to guarantee uninterrupted blocks for deep work. This protects your team's most productive time.
• Use Meetings as an Exception: Reserve synchronous meetings for kickoffs, urgent problem-solving, or team-building activities. Every meeting should have a clear purpose that cannot be achieved asynchronously. For guidance, learn how to run effective meetings that justify taking up synchronous time.

✦Putting It Into Practice

Leading remote companies have built their success on this principle. GitLab's "handbook-first" approach ensures that nearly all information is documented and publicly accessible, reducing the need for knowledge-transfer meetings. Similarly, Basecamp famously operates with minimal meetings, relying on detailed written "pitches" and discussions within their platform.

For the essential meetings that do happen, managing attendance between Google Calendar and Slack can be clunky. Tools like Be There make this process incredibly smooth. By integrating the two, it automates reminders and RSVP tracking in Slack, ensuring that when you do need to meet, the process is efficient. This is very useful for companies that want to protect asynchronous time but need synchronous meetings to be highly effective.

6. Practice Trust-Based Management Over Surveillance

A core principle for successful remote work is shifting from monitoring activity to measuring impact. Trust-based management prioritizes outcomes over hours logged, treating employees as professionals who are empowered to manage their own time and productivity. This philosophy moves away from surveillance tools and focuses instead on clear goals, transparent communication, and mutual respect, which is crucial for building a healthy and high-performing remote culture.

When you lead with trust, you foster autonomy, increase job satisfaction, and boost morale. This approach signals that you value your team's contributions, not their constant presence, making it one of the most effective best practices for managing remote teams in the long term.

✦How to Implement Trust-Based Management

Building a culture of trust requires intentional actions from leadership. It starts with providing your team the clarity they need to succeed and the freedom to determine how they achieve their goals.

• Focus on Outcomes, Not Activity: Define clear, measurable goals and KPIs for each role and project. Shift performance conversations from "what did you do?" to "what did you achieve?". This respects employees' work styles and schedules.
• Ditch the Surveillance: Avoid invasive tools like keystroke loggers, constant screen monitoring, or mandatory "camera-on" policies outside of collaborative meetings. These tools erode trust and create a culture of anxiety.
• Promote Transparency: Be open about company decisions, performance metrics, and challenges. When employees understand the bigger picture, they feel more connected and trusted as key contributors.

✦Putting It Into Practice

Many pioneering remote companies have built their success on this foundation. GitLab, for instance, famously operates on a principle of transparency and trust, making its company handbook public. Similarly, companies like Buffer and Zapier empower their teams with high levels of autonomy, trusting them to deliver great work without micromanagement.

This trust extends to how teams connect. Instead of forcing engagement, create opt-in opportunities for team building. For companies using Slack and Google Calendar, managing these events requires a non-intrusive approach. A handy tool like Be There helps by integrating event management directly into Slack. You can schedule events, send automated reminders, and track RSVPs without adding administrative burden, trusting your team to participate in the events that matter most to them.

7. Conduct Effective One-on-One Meetings

In a remote setting, the spontaneous check-ins and casual desk-side chats that build rapport and uncover roadblocks simply don't exist. This makes structured, intentional one-on-one meetings one of the most critical best practices for managing remote teams. These recurring sessions are dedicated opportunities for managers and direct reports to connect on feedback, career growth, personal well-being, and removing obstacles.

Unlike status updates, these meetings are employee-centric. They serve as a primary channel for building psychological safety and trust, ensuring every team member feels heard, supported, and aligned with team goals, no matter where they are located.

✦How to Implement Effective One-on-One Meetings

A consistent and predictable structure ensures these meetings are productive rather than aimless. The key is to create a shared space for open dialogue that prioritizes the employee's agenda.

• Maintain a Shared Agenda: Use a shared document (like a Google Doc or Notion page) where both manager and employee can add talking points throughout the week. This ensures the conversation is focused and all important topics are covered.
• Prioritize the Employee's Topics: Start the meeting by addressing the items your team member added to the agenda first. This reinforces that the meeting is for them. Begin with a genuine "How are you doing?" before diving into work-related topics.
• Ask Powerful, Open-Ended Questions: Go beyond "What are you working on?" and ask questions that uncover deeper insights, such as "What's blocking your progress?" or "What do you need from me to be more successful?"
• Focus on Growth: Dedicate time regularly, perhaps quarterly, to discuss long-term career aspirations, development opportunities, and skill-building goals.

✦Putting It Into Practice

Many influential companies and leaders champion this practice. Google's Project Oxygen research identified "has regular one-on-ones" as a key behavior of its best managers. Similarly, Kim Scott's Radical Candor framework positions one-on-one meetings as the essential forum for giving and receiving direct, caring feedback. Companies like Buffer and HubSpot formalize this by providing managers with structured templates and training.

To make these meetings a consistent habit, scheduling is key. For teams that use Slack and Google Calendar, a tool like Be There can be very useful for setting up recurring 1:1 events. By automating the scheduling and reminder process directly in Slack, its Google Calendar integration ensures these crucial conversations never slip through the cracks, fostering a culture of continuous support and connection.

8. Invest in Mental Health and Well-being Programs

Prioritizing employee mental health is one of the most crucial best practices for managing remote teams. The lines between professional and personal life often blur in a remote setting, increasing the risk of burnout and stress. A deliberate investment in well-being programs demonstrates a company's commitment to its people as individuals, not just as employees, which in turn fosters loyalty, engagement, and sustainable productivity.

Building a culture that normalizes conversations around mental health is essential. When leadership actively supports and models healthy work-life boundaries, it empowers the entire team to prioritize their well-being without fear of judgment. This creates a psychologically safe environment where employees feel supported and valued.

✦How to Implement Mental Health and Well-being Programs

A structured approach ensures that well-being initiatives are accessible, meaningful, and effective. The goal is to embed these practices into your company's operational fabric.

• Provide Tangible Resources: Offer an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) with confidential counseling services. Consider providing a monthly wellness stipend ($100-$300) that employees can use for gym memberships, therapy sessions, meditation apps, or other health-related activities.
• Establish Clear Boundaries: Implement and enforce policies that protect personal time, such as a "no after-hours Slack" rule. Normalize mental health days and encourage managers to proactively check for signs of burnout during one-on-one meetings.
• Lead by Example: Company leaders should be open about taking time off and prioritizing their own mental health. This top-down modeling is powerful and gives employees permission to do the same.

✦Putting It Into Practice

Many forward-thinking companies have made well-being a core part of their culture. Shopify provides its employees with comprehensive mental health support and a generous wellness stipend. Similarly, GitLab openly acknowledges burnout as a significant risk and has clear policies to help prevent it. Basecamp famously offers paid sabbaticals to long-term employees, giving them a chance to fully disconnect and recharge.

A simple way to encourage well-being is by organizing optional virtual events, like guided meditation sessions. For companies on Slack and Google Calendar, a tool like Be There is very handy for managing the entire event lifecycle. It automates RSVPs and reminders in Slack, making it easy for team members to participate in well-being initiatives and take a much-needed break. For more ideas, you can explore these workplace wellness program examples.

9. Create Opportunities for Visibility and Recognition

One of the most critical best practices for managing remote teams is creating deliberate systems for employee visibility and recognition. In a physical office, praise often happens organically in hallways or during team lunches. Remote work removes these informal moments, making it easy for valuable contributions to go unnoticed and leaving employees feeling invisible, which can fuel imposter syndrome and decrease motivation.

By intentionally building platforms for celebrating achievements, you make work visible across the organization. This not only reinforces positive behaviors and boosts morale but also fosters a culture where everyone feels seen, valued, and connected to the company's success.

✦How to Implement Visibility and Recognition

A structured recognition program ensures that praise is consistent and equitable. The goal is to create multiple avenues for both peer-to-peer and manager-led acknowledgment that celebrate big and small wins equally.

• Create Dedicated 'Wins' Channels: Establish a specific Slack or Teams channel, like #kudos or #shoutouts, where anyone can publicly praise a colleague for their help or accomplishments. This creates a living record of positive contributions.
• Host "Show and Tell" Meetings: Dedicate a portion of monthly all-hands or team meetings for employees to share their current projects and recent successes. This gives individuals direct visibility with leadership and cross-functional teams.
• Implement a Peer Recognition Program: Formalize peer-to-peer praise with a system that might include small rewards, like gift cards or extra PTO. This empowers team members to recognize each other, strengthening team bonds.

✦Putting It Into Practice

Many leading remote companies have mastered this. Zapier famously uses dedicated Slack channels to announce company wins, while HubSpot encourages peer shoutouts. Google often dedicates time in its all-hands meetings to celebrate employee achievements, ensuring that individual contributions are recognized on a company-wide scale.

A simple yet powerful way to create visibility is by celebrating personal milestones like work anniversaries and birthdays. For teams on Slack and Google Calendar, managing these celebrations can be disorganized. A tool like Be There is incredibly useful for automating these moments. It creates events, sends reminders, and tracks RSVPs in Slack, ensuring the whole team celebrates important milestones together and makes every employee feel seen.

10. Establish Core Collaboration Hours and Time Zone Flexibility

One of the key best practices for managing remote teams distributed across time zones is finding the right balance between synchronous collaboration and individual autonomy. Establishing "core collaboration hours" provides a structured solution. This involves defining a specific block of time each day when everyone is expected to be online and available for real-time communication, meetings, and collaborative work.

This approach respects individual work styles and personal schedules while guaranteeing sufficient overlap for critical team discussions. It prevents the frustration of waiting hours for a simple answer and ensures that teamwork doesn't grind to a halt due to misaligned schedules.

✦How to Implement Core Collaboration Hours

Creating an effective core hours policy requires thoughtful planning, not a one-size-fits-all rule. It should be based on your team's specific geographical distribution and collaborative needs.

• Analyze Time Zone Overlap: Map out where your team members are located to identify a 3-4 hour window with the most overlap. This window becomes your core collaboration time.
• Document and Communicate Clearly: Formalize the core hours in your team handbook and discuss them during onboarding. Make it clear that these are for high-bandwidth, synchronous work.
• Protect Flexible Time: Emphasize that work outside of core hours can and should be done asynchronously. This empowers team members to structure their days in a way that maximizes their productivity and well-being.
• Rotate Meeting Burdens: If some team members must occasionally meet outside their normal hours, rotate the schedule so the inconvenience is shared equally and not always borne by the same individuals.

✦Putting It Into Practice

Leading remote companies have successfully implemented this model. Stripe defines core collaboration hours to ensure its distributed teams can connect effectively, while GitLab encourages timezone overlap for immediate team members without mandating a company-wide schedule. This allows for both focused individual work and necessary team synergy.

Scheduling critical meetings during these core hours is essential. For companies that live in Slack and Google Calendar, a tool like Be There helps reinforce this practice. You can schedule important workshops in the designated window, and it will automate reminders and manage RSVPs within Slack. This is very useful for ensuring maximum participation during the time everyone has agreed to be available, preventing scheduling conflicts and making crucial events a priority.

10-Point Comparison of Remote Team Management Best Practices

Practice	Implementation Complexity 🔄	Resource Requirements ⚡	Expected Outcomes 📊⭐	Ideal Use Cases 💡	Key Advantages ⭐
Establish Clear Communication Protocols	🔄🔄	⚡⚡	📊 Reduced miscommunication; ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐	Distributed teams, multi-timezone work	Predictable channels, searchable decisions
Set Clear Expectations and Goals (OKRs/SMART)	🔄🔄🔄	⚡⚡	📊 Aligned priorities and measurable outcomes; ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐	Scaling orgs, performance-driven teams	Clarity, accountability, goal alignment
Implement Robust Onboarding and Documentation	🔄🔄🔄	⚡⚡⚡	📊 Faster ramp-up; ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐	Rapid hiring, remote-first companies	Scalable hiring, single source of truth
Foster Team Connection and Culture	🔄🔄	⚡⚡	📊 Higher engagement and retention; ⭐️⭐⭐	Remote teams needing cohesion	Builds trust, sense of belonging
Embrace Asynchronous Work & Reduce Meetings	🔄🔄	⚡⚡	📊 More deep work and less fatigue; ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐	Global teams, knowledge work	Flexible schedules, documented decisions
Practice Trust-Based Management Over Surveillance	🔄🔄	⚡	📊 Increased autonomy and retention; ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐	Mature/knowledge teams	Higher morale, attracts talent
Conduct Effective One-on-One Meetings	🔄🔄	⚡⚡	📊 Early issue detection and growth; ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐	Coaching-heavy teams, managers	Personalized feedback, stronger relationships
Invest in Mental Health & Well-being Programs	🔄🔄	⚡⚡⚡	📊 Reduced burnout and better retention; ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐	High-stress or large distributed orgs	Improved well-being, long-term savings
Create Opportunities for Visibility & Recognition	🔄	⚡	📊 Increased motivation and visibility; ⭐️⭐⭐	Remote contributors, cross-functional teams	Boosts morale, aids career advancement
Establish Core Collaboration Hours & Flexibility	🔄🔄	⚡	📊 Smoother scheduling and overlap; ⭐️⭐⭐	Multi-timezone teams needing overlap	Predictable collaboration, respects flexibility

Build a Thriving Remote Team by Design, Not by Default

Successfully managing a remote team in today's work landscape is no longer an experiment; it's a core leadership competency. The transition from managing by presence to managing by performance requires a deliberate and thoughtful approach. The ten best practices we've explored provide a comprehensive roadmap, moving you from reactive problem-solving to proactive, intentional team-building. It's about designing an environment where your team doesn't just survive, but thrives.

The journey begins with laying a solid foundation of clarity and trust. This means moving beyond assumptions and establishing crystal-clear communication protocols, setting transparent expectations with frameworks like OKRs, and building robust documentation that empowers team members to work asynchronously. When you prioritize these fundamentals, you replace uncertainty with autonomy, allowing your team to focus on impactful work instead of navigating ambiguity.

✦From Good Practices to a Great Culture

Implementing these strategies is about more than just boosting productivity; it's about cultivating a sustainable and supportive remote culture. The shift from constant meetings to embracing asynchronous work respects your team's focus time and diverse schedules. Similarly, practicing trust-based management over digital surveillance sends a powerful message: you hire great people and trust them to do great work, no matter where they are.

This trust is reinforced through consistent, meaningful connection. Regular one-on-one meetings, dedicated well-being initiatives, and public recognition are not just nice-to-haves; they are the very mechanisms that keep a distributed team connected and engaged. These actions build psychological safety and ensure that every team member feels seen, valued, and supported.

Key Takeaway: The most effective remote leaders understand that culture is not something that just happens. It is the sum of intentional actions, consistent rituals, and the right supporting technology.

✦Your Actionable Path Forward

The path to mastering the art of managing remote teams is an ongoing process of implementation and refinement. Don't feel overwhelmed by the need to implement everything at once. Instead, start with small, high-impact changes.

Here are your immediate next steps:

1. Audit Your Communication: Start by defining your team's communication charter this week. Clarify which channels are used for what types of conversations (e.g., Slack for urgent updates, email for formal announcements, project management tools for task-specific discussions).

2. Schedule Your Connection Points: Go into your calendar right now and block out time for consistent one-on-ones and a fun, low-pressure virtual team event for next month. This simple act of scheduling makes your commitment to connection real.

3. Leverage Technology to Automate Engagement: For companies operating within Slack and Google Calendar, the logistical challenge of organizing events can stifle cultural initiatives. Manually tracking RSVPs, sending reminders, and updating calendars is tedious and inefficient. This is precisely where a specialized tool becomes a game-changer.

A tool like Be There is incredibly useful because it integrates directly into this workflow, turning the chaos of planning into a seamless, automated process. It handles event creation, RSVP tracking, automated reminders, and calendar synchronization directly between Google Calendar and Slack. This is very handy as it allows you to focus on the purpose of the event, not the administrative overhead, ensuring your plans for virtual coffee chats or hybrid meetings actually happen with high participation.

By systematically applying these best practices for managing remote teams, you are not just ticking boxes. You are architecting a resilient, high-performing, and deeply connected organization built for the future of work.

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