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Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the shift to remote work, posing new challenges for managers around communication, collaboration, and employee engagement. However, some managers were able to thrive in this new environment, inspiring high productivity and morale from their remote teams. This article explores the distinct practices of highly effective remote managers, offering practical recommendations for application in organizational contexts. Key success factors include frequent and high-quality communication, focus on outputs over inputs, building community and camaraderie, cultivating psychological safety and trust, empowering through delegation and decision-making, providing frequent and meaningful feedback, and aligning teams through clear communication of vision and values. With intentional effort, managers can leverage these insights to facilitate thriving, purpose-driven teams across geographical boundaries.
The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the transition to remote work, posing new challenges for managers around communication, collaboration, and employee engagement. While the shift was challenging for many, some managers thrived, inspiring high productivity and morale from their remote teams.
Today we will explore the distinct practices of highly effective remote managers and offers practical recommendations for application in organizational contexts.
Communication is Key
One of the most common challenges cited by remote workers and managers alike is maintaining open communication in the absence of in-person interaction (Gajendran & Harrison, 2007). Research indicates that the frequency and quality of communication is critical for building trust, accountability, and cohesion in distributed teams (Zakaria, 2017). According to a study of over 200 remote leaders, "great communicators" check in more often with direct reports and provide clear expectations, feedback, and recognition (Gallup, 2021).
At Anthropic, an AI safety startup with a fully remote workforce, frequent communication has been key to maintaining a collaborative culture. According to the company's Head of Remote Christy talaga, "We have all-company video calls twice a week where everyone shares what they've been working on. We also use messaging apps like Slack for real-time questions and discussion" (personal communication, May 11, 2022). Regular opportunities for information sharing and rapport building help foster connections in the absence of an in-person office.
Focus on Outputs, not Inputs
Traditional ways of measuring employee performance like facetime and activity levels are less relevant for remote work. Effective remote managers shift their focus to outputs and results. At GitLab, an all-remote software development company, managers emphasize clear goals, delivery dates, and continuous feedback rather than micromanaging how employees spend their time (GitLab, 2022). This allows for flexibility and autonomy while still ensuring accountability.
Similarly, the manager of a remote customer service team at Anthropic emphasizes outcomes over process. She notes, "As long as my reports are meeting their targets for calls, emails, and satisfaction scores each week, I don't worry about exactly when or where they work. This gives them freedom while still meeting business needs" (personal communication, May 11, 2022). Output-based management is ideal for knowledge work that can be performed asynchronously from any location.
Build Community and Camaraderie
While remote work promotes flexible schedules and work-life balance, it can also lead to social isolation without intentional effort. Research shows that feeling connected to coworkers is just as important for remote employee engagement and retention as it is for in-office workers (Brynjolfsson et al., 2020). Leading online community-building is thus a core function of effective remote managers.
At Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com, managers organize frequent virtual social events like virtual coffee meetups, video game tournaments, and remote office drinks and snacks (Pentland, 2014). Group video calls also incorporate fun icebreakers and casual discussions beyond just work updates. These efforts help satisfy human needs for social bonding and mitigate the disconnectedness of working alone. According to a manager at Automattic, "Fostering camaraderie among my reports makes the work more pleasurable and the inevitable frustrations more bearable when we're remote" (personal communication, May 11, 2022). Intentional community-building is a distinctive strength of outstanding remote leadership.
Create Psychological Safety and Trust
Related to community is cultivating an environment where employees feel comfortable sharing ideas, mistakes, and feedback without fear of judgment. Research shows that psychological safety is critical for learning, innovation, and open communication, especially in remote contexts lacking in-person rapport (Edmondson, 1999). Highly successful remote managers therefore prioritize building trust and an inclusive culture.
At GitLab, managers make a point to be very transparent about their own weaknesses and encourage the same from reports through regular "post-mortems" following project failures or missed deadlines (GitLab, 2022). The leader of a productivity software startup discussed maintaining an "open-door remote policy" and scheduling regular one-on-ones to address concerns privately (personal communication, May 11, 2022). These practices help ensure employees feel empowered rather than isolated when working independently. Strong remote leadership fosters the safety that allows for vulnerability, learning, and growth without risks to reputation or career.
Empower Through Delegation and Decision-Making
Closely tied to psychological safety is effective delegation of responsibility and authority. Remote work necessitates high levels of independence, focus, and proactivity from individual contributors (Gajendran & Harrison, 2007). Successful remote managers recognize this and purposefully distribute decision rights and leadership opportunities to allow teams to self-organize when leadership is remote or unavailable.
At Anthropic, the head of remote operations discusses how rotating responsibilities like meeting facilitation and project leads among team members builds shared ownership over outcomes. Managers provide coaching and oversight rather than micromanaging details (personal communication, May 11, 2022). Similarly, in their “management 3.0” model, GitLab managers push almost all decision-making to self-organized, cross-functional teams accountable for entire initiatives from concept to launch (GitLab, 2022). This level of empowerment is motivating for knowledge workers and channels distributed expertise into the organization. Remote management succeeds through trust and autonomy more than directive control.
Provide Feedback Frequently and Meaningfully
While productivity can be challenging to directly observe at a distance, remote managers compensate through proactive performance management. Research indicates that frequent, candid, and constructive feedback is even more important for maintaining accountability, development, and motivation in virtual contexts (Choi, 2021). Model remote leaders therefore schedule check-ins frequently and qualitatively, not just on standardized intervals.
A manager at Anthropic pioneered a “continuous feedback model” where reports are expected to solicit input on an ongoing basis through brief weekly surveys and video catchups in addition to formal reviews (personal communication, May 11, 2022). Feedback is guided by behavior-based discussion of strengths, opportunities for growth, and next steps rather than vague compliments or criticisms. Similarly, GitLab adopted a “continuous performance management” system to provide immediate feedback on measurable outcomes with brevity and positivity. High quality feedback allows remote managers to foster clarity, growth mindsets, and ongoing coaching despite physical distance.
Align Through Clear Communication of Vision and Values
Finally, strong remote leadership ensures coordination through well-articulated strategic direction and a cohesive company culture. Research indicates that remote teams require greater alignment around shared goals and norms due to lack of serendipitous water-cooler interactions (Gajendran & Harrison, 2007). Outstanding remote managers therefore focus intently on communicating an inspiring vision and reinforcing core company values to maintain cohesion across distributed teams.
At Anthropic, transparency and connection are core cultural values. The CEO holds regular all-hands talks discussing both technical progress and "why we do what we do" to maintain purpose and enthusiasm (personal communication, May 11, 2022). Similarly, GitLab's leader enacted a clear distributed "Work Anywhere" mindset and set of behavioral principles emphasizing autonomy, ownership, and transparency before expanding globally and to remote work. Prioritizing strategic communication and cultural reinforcement is essential for establishing psychological contracts in virtual environments lacking physical proximity. Vision and values can replace the "glue" of colocation.
Conclusion
While remote work poses distinct challenges, the most impactful managers demonstrate that distributed teams can achieve even greater performance, engagement, and potential through adapted leadership approaches. Focusing intently on communication quality, outcome-based accountability, community-building, psychological safety, delegation, feedback, and cultural alignment are defining strengths of outstanding virtual leadership. With intentional effort, managers of any organizational context can harness learnings from model remote companies to facilitate thriving, purpose-driven teams across geographic boundaries. Remote work succeeds when guided by enlightened management rather than in spite of it.
References
Gajendran, R. S., & Harrison, D. A. (2007). The good, the bad, and the unknown about telecommuting: Meta-analysis of psychological mediators and individual consequences. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92(6), 1524–1541.
Zakaria, N. (2017). Emergent patterns of switching behaviors in electronic meetings. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 68(4), 944–959.
Gallup. (2021). State of the global workplace.
Brynjolfsson, E., Horton, J. J., Ozimek, A., Rock, D., Sharma, G., & TuYe, H.-Y. (2020). COVID-19 and remote work: An early look at US data. National Bureau of Economic Research.
Edmondson, A. (1999). Psychological safety and learning behavior in work teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44(2), 350–383.
Pentland, A. (2014). Social physics: How good ideas spread—The lessons from a new science. Penguin.
Choi, S. (2021). Feedback frequency, feedback quality, and task performance: Roles of perceived feedback accuracy and feedback self-efficacy. Human Resource Management, 60(2), 147–163.
Jonathan H. Westover, PhD is Chief Academic & Learning Officer (HCI Academy); Chair/Professor, Organizational Leadership (UVU); OD Consultant (Human Capital Innovations). Read Jonathan Westover's executive profile here.
Suggested Citation: Westover, J. H. (2025). Unlocking Success: The Key Traits of Great Remote Managers. Human Capital Leadership Review, 17(4). doi.org/10.70175/hclreview.2020.17.4.5
