3 Core Tenants of Remote Team Communication

Communication is a perishable skill.

What does perishable mean in this context? Think of skills you learn, but when you do not practice them, they degrade or disappear entirely. For instance, consider a foreign language you learned in high school. You could introduce yourself and maybe even order lunch–but fast forward ten years, and you’ve forgotten it all. It was perishable. If you don’t use it, you lose it.

Communication with your team acts the same way. As leaders and business owners, we must practice, hone, and perfect our communication DAILY. That means keeping our edge sharp with how we write our emails, speak with the team, sell our products, and portray our body language to others. It’s a skill! Yes, others have that natural gift for gab, but are they also great at written communication? Can they also be super clear with their vision and guidance?

The truth is that this is harder than you think, which is why we need to practice it every day. This matters even more for remote work because your teammates are not in person to catch your body language and tone, nor can they ‘read the room’ —that subconscious phenomenon when you can feel the energy or tension of a group discussion. That means we must be even more diligent at clearly expressing our thoughts and guidance to remote employees. Remote team communication has its unique challenges, such as the lack of non-verbal cues and the potential for misinterpretation, and it’s important to be aware of them and find ways to overcome them.

Like any skill, when you practice and practice, you eventually improve! With remote teams, communication may be the single most important skill to work on, as it is critical to establishing the trust you want to build.

In this blog, we will cover:

1. Communication strategies for remote teams
2. Building trust with remote teams
3. Overcoming common remote communication challenges

Let’s jump in.

Communication Strategies for Remote Teams

Clear communication is necessary for any work situation, but even more so with your remote workers. Remember, they cannot see your body language and mannerisms in person. Fret not, though. There are several techniques to keep that perishable skill fresh and highly effective, starting with the 3 Core Tenants of Remote Team Communication:

1. Be clear in your communication
2. Set a consistent cadence
3. Use effective communication tools

Clarity

Being clear is more challenging than you might think, but we run into it every day. The person taking your order doesn’t understand what you want, and your spouse is confused by your question. Most often, this occurs because we were not clear. We use filler words that reduce our authority, such as “If you wouldn’t mind” and “I’m thinking about.” Those sound innocent, but they are clarity killers.

” If you wouldn’t mind, could you get that report done this week?” Sounds like, well, if I mind or am busy, then no, I’m not getting the report done. Versus – “Please return the report by 1200 pm on Friday so we can update our executives. Let me know if any blockers are preventing you from getting this done.” The task is direct and clear – it specifies what is needed, when, why, and what to do if you can’t get it done.

Clear and concise.

We rush when we type emails. I’m guilty of this. I should have added more words, but I got lazy and wrote back, “Yeah, sometime this week is fine.” Stop, take 10 seconds, and check if your email, text, or message is clear and concise. Can the person execute the task you are assigning? If not, adjust your words.

Cadence

I am such a huge fan of communication cadence that I could write an entire book about it. Communication cadence is really your communication plan. It’s about how often and in what manner you and your team will communicate. It’s about setting a rhythm and a structure for your communication. You describe when you and the team will communicate, how the communication will be done, how frequently it will be done, the inputs and outputs expected, and who should participate. It sounds like a lot…., but it does not have to be and is quite simple.

Setting a cadence is critical to keeping your remote team in a rhythm. It prevents them from feeling like they are on an island because they know they will have regularly scheduled meetings or updates with you and the team. Make it happen – they deserve it. First, let’s unpack good communication cadence techniques and habits:

➡️ Cadence Meeting: The Daily Stand-up

Daily??

“I don’t have time for a daily meeting. There is too much to do, and that wastes people’s time.”

I will prove to you how it saves you time, but first, let’s discuss this. You do not need an actual meeting, although a verbal one is good. The reason a Daily Stand-Up meeting is so effective is that it gets the entire team to participate quickly with three simple questions

• What did you accomplish yesterday?
• What are you accomplishing today?
• Do you have any blockers that will prevent your work?

In the software world, the meetings happen daily, lasting ONLY 15 Minutes. Anything over 15 minutes, and you’re letting other agenda items take over. Here are the amazing benefits from this type of meeting:

• Accountability – Each team member knows they must report what they did and what they plan to do. This daily check-in keeps everyone on track and fosters a sense of responsibility and commitment. Did you have a lazy day and not get it done? Now you have to face the music. That includes you as the business owner!
• Faster issue resolution—Issues don’t fester. You learn of the team challenges every day, especially the ones you need to unblock for them. Do this enough times, and the team will completely trust you to help, which will dramatically increase transparency and trust in your team.
• Knowledge sharing – When team members report on their work, the others may have ideas to help. They may have dealt with a customer with the same issue and have a quick way to resolve it. The results – more teamwork and faster production

I have seen teams in multiple time zones forgo the phone/video meeting but still accomplish the Daily Stand-Up in a chat thread. My team did this exact thing in a single chat thread. We all would jump on when we started the day, answer the three questions above, and the entire team knew what was happening. Plus, the managers had written references to help resolve the issues. There is no need to take notes; the team members already did it. This version is HIGHLY effective. If you do nothing else with your remote team, do this one thing.

➡️ Cadence Meeting: Bi-Weekly Progress Review

Don’t worry. I don’t mean presenting a PowerPoint with everyone multitasking on their phones. This meeting happens every two weeks—at the same time and place. The purpose is to get a quick pulse on the team’s progress toward the month’s goals. Using a real-time dashboard tool is a force multiplier for you and the team and will greatly reduce the need for meeting preparation.

• Purpose – Review the goals for the month and the team’s progress against those goals
• Inputs – the team should be using your tools that feed into that dashboard. For example, if you track your sales progress via a CRM like SalesForce or ClickUp, this is an excellent forcing function to get your team to actively use the tools daily. If they don’t, the dashboards don’t tell the truth, and you definitely don’t want to be the guy who didn’t do their work.
• Outputs – You vector-check the team to meet the goals or keep things on course. You may be lagging slightly behind on your sales numbers, but you can figure out that your sales team members must add ten daily calls to make it happen.
• Key points –  Use this meeting to prevent surprises for your monthly goals. Keep the meeting under an hour. A fair warning: Attempts to do this meeting weekly or even more frequently will have the opposite effect. It will take more time away from your team, and you may quickly fall into the trap of being “managed by meetings.”

➡️ Cadence Meeting: Monthly Team Chat about Non-Work

This is worth it and will pay huge dividends. So yes, sorry introverts, you will need to chat with your team about fun stuff, too. Call it a Coffee Chat. Call it a Virtual Happy Hour. Call it what you will, but the premise is to give your team a mental break and a chance to bond about non-work items. They are people with dreams, hopes, interests, and challenges, just like you. You might be surprised what you find out. The outcome is that the team gets to know each other better!!

Communication Tools

Nowadays, there is no shortage of ways to communicate: Text, email, calls, video calls, emails with voicemails attached, gifs, emojis, social media, and just plain talking with each other. Yet, with all of the options available, has communication really improved? Has it become clearer? The short answer is no. You might have eight lawnmowers, but someone still has to actually mow the lawn. Referring back to our perishable skill story, communication is an art you can practice daily, and with the right tools, it can be powerful.

Which tools do you choose to use then? With remote employees, email, chat, and video calls are the three fastest and simplest ways to keep in touch and communicate. Texting is fine, but be careful here – most people have personal phones, and using text to communicate is a quick way to violate work/life boundaries for you and the employee. When someone works remotely, they will inherently feel like they should always be connected. This is a fast lane to burnout. Do the right thing – avoid texting your remote employees at 7 pm when they are having family dinner. The same goes for email – do you really need to do a brain dump on Friday afternoon, thereby causing havoc for your employees? They will fret all weekend without a way to resolve it. Has that ever happened to you? It’s infuriating.

Our tools can cause havoc and actually hinder our progress. So what do we do??

First, let’s start with the communication plan. We set our cadence for communicating (the when). We set what tools we will use to do it (the how). We set who will participate (the who). We put what we intend to communicate (the what). I know that sounds like effort, and it is, but it is worth a short few hours of thinking it through. Creating a communication plan for your business can be simple. Keep it simple, to the point, and very clear.

Communication Tool Recommendations

I recommend using chat more than anything. Why email when you can type a simple question in a Teams or Slack chat? This is the fastest and most efficient way to communicate with your remote team. Phone calls are great, but how much time do you waste with the pleasantries at the front and back of the call – minutes wasted? Use your video call software for meetings – Teams, Zoom, or Google Meet. If you use a CRM system, this is the following tool you should leverage entirely with the team. This is the lifeblood of your operations and the location where everyone knows what is happening. Make it a priority and expectation that the team document their work in your CRM.

Last on the list? Email. Only email if necessary, but sometimes it is required. Our typical communication with clients is via email, so if we need to have a team discussion, those emails typically turn into team email threads, and that’s okay. We should avoid email when we send each other internal one-line questions. Put those in a chat thread.

Key takeaways

1. Clear Communication: Be specific and concise in your messages to avoid misunderstandings.
2. Consistent Cadence: Establish a regular communication plan with daily, weekly, and monthly check-ins.
3. Effective Tools: Use chat platforms like Slack or Teams for quick communication, Zoom for meetings, and CRM systems for tracking tasks.
4. Trust-Building Practices: To build transparency and trust, conduct daily tag-ups, weekly planning reviews, and monthly/quarterly reflections.
5. Overcome Isolation: Schedule regular team activities, like virtual coffee chats or happy hours, to keep remote workers connected.
6. Ensure Inclusivity: Make sure all team members have a voice in meetings and their contributions are valued.
7. Manage Miscommunications: Encourage a culture of asking clarifying questions and providing feedback to the team to ensure everyone is on the same page.

Conclusion

Effective communication and trust-building are the cornerstones of successful remote teams. Remember the three tenets: Be clear, set a cadence, and use the right tools.  Doing so can significantly increase your communication and trust with your remote team.