3 crucial things managers must do to lead successful remote teams, especially during a crisis, according to 2 startup founders who've been doing it for years

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• The COVID-19 outbreak has altered the way the world operates, including causing employees to work from home.
• If you're new to leading a remote team, there are three crucial things you must do to ensure employee happiness and productivity — especially during a time of crisis.
• Communication is key, so make sure you're relaying company goals and be transparent about changes.
• Also reduce the number of meetings you have while upping interpersonal contact with workers.
• BI spoke with Nate Quigley, the CEO and cofounder of Chatbooks, and Deidre Paknad, the CEO and cofounder of WorkBoard, for the first episode of our Business Insider Spotlight Digital Live Event series.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The novel coronavirus pandemic has forced many companies to operate remotely. But even if working from home is new to your team, remote workforces are not a new concept. 

And for many seasoned managers, running their businesses with diffuse teams is the norm. Deidre Paknad, CEO and cofounder of workflow-management-tool-maker WorkBoard, Inc., leads a team of 150 people distributed across 15 locations in the US and India; Nate Quigley, cofounder and CEO of photo-book-designer Chatbooks, manages 70 employees working mostly remotely across 12 states of his 150 person team.

Business Insider interviewed Paknad and Quigley about the best ways to lead successful workers who are scattered across the globe. These were their three main tips to making sure your newly-remote team stayed productive and healthy amid a crisis. 

1. Be transparent about goals and plans

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With coronavirus uncertainty spiking anxiety, one thing managers do have control over is being completely clear on company goals and guidelines. Keep Slack an open space to discuss issues and be honest with employees about what's going on in the management level. Make goals and make them apparent, and workers will step up to the plate.

"I think in this situation versus other crises is people want to be of service and they want to step up," Paknad said. "So leaders, whether you're leading the whole order of the team, set objectives and key results and this quarter for what you're going to do in the next 90 days and communicate those broadly and consistently. People want to know how they contribute."

And repeating those goals can be beneficial, Quigley added. Chatbooks has four cornerstone principles that the CEO has been hammering in weekly town halls for years, and he doesn't plan on stopping soon because they help keep employees focused.

"Maybe it's starting to get through if I'm totally sick of saying that, if people are probably picking up on it now," he said.

 

2. Check in frequently, but minimize meetings

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The lack of face time with employees may make it seem like bulking up on meeting times is they way to check in on employees, but actually the time spent in exhaustive video calls can detract from getting work done.

"Stop the meeting media, it's going to have to go down over the next few weeks not up," Paknad said. "And that means use transparency, use alignment to reduce the number of meetings you need to get."

There are other ways to reach employees at mass scale without time suck meetings. Chatbooks has a Slack channel dedicated to sharing customer experiences which aims to inspire workers.

"Some of our customer support team will often drop an interaction they're having with their customer into that channel where you can really see that the work that we're doing is making a difference in someone's lives or in their family life," Quigley added. 

3. Make time for interpersonal communication

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Being present and assuring is key to keeping employees calm and productive. Quigley makes sure he is readily available to answer pressing questions and inform employees that things will all be alright.

"Just in general, I'm more present on Slack on our Slack general channel then than I was a month ago, and I feel like the team is waiting to hear my take on the day's news or what I think the most recent results that we're seeing mean for what we ought to do next month," he said.

Saving space for fun is equally important, Paknad added. Even if you cut the water cooler chat, you can build strong relationships virtually by saving space for life updates in group calls and check-ins. Have virtual happy hours. Make meetings "walking and talking" time. Encourage employees to take breaks. Not only does this boost collaboration, it quells employee anxiety.

"We on our all hands have a best outfit contest," she said. "So we have the first five minutes of the all hands are actually just people cracking up."

See Also:

• Here are the best sources of emergency funding available right now for small businesses hurt by the coronavirus
• The best way to onboard a new employee virtually, according to 7 seasoned leaders who've managed remote teams for years
• The coronavirus outbreak has led to a massive shortage of face masks. From scientists in Prague to fashion designers in Venezuela, these photos show an underground economy of people making their own masks.

SEE ALSO: BUSINESS INSIDER SPOTLIGHT: Coronavirus is mandating that managers learn to lead from home. CEOs Deidre Paknad and Nate Quigley have helmed distributed startups for years, and they gave us proven techniques for navigating remote teams in a time of crisis. Here's the full transcript.

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