Managing Hybrid and Remote Teams

I have been working in hybrid or remote teams since 2008, eventually leading groups of up to 40 people. I've also been advising managers, executives, and entrepreneurs on how to better manage remote teams since 2020.

Here is a book that will teach you that. Let the reviews speak for themselves:

The reviews above are for my "Managing Remote Teams" online course. The eBook you find here is directly derived from the course curriculum.

What's inside?

• How to delegate effectively as a remote manager
• How to foster trust and collaboration
• How to run online meetings
• How to onboard new team members
• How to address a lack of improvement
• How to communicate clearly over video calls and emails
• How to coach your people to become effective remote workers
• Printable delegation checklists (new!)

What's not inside?

Anything that could be better asked to:

• a lawyer (e.g., remote employment laws),
• a recruiter (e.g., where to find remote talent), or
• an IT specialist (e.g., how to troubleshoot your video call software).

Some of my principles

• It's not about the tools but how they are used. Project management software, team meetings, one-on-ones… any management tool can bring clarity and effectiveness in the hands of a great manager or become a nuisance in the hands of a poor manager. In this book, I won't recommend any specific tool but will instead teach you how to delegate and manage well regardless of the tool used.
• If your people don't trust you, they won't work full-heartedly on the tasks you assign them, no matter how good your delegation skills are, and they will react defensively to your feedback, no matter how well given. Hence, online more than ever, it's critical to build trust as a manager. This book will teach you how.
• The less clear you are during delegation, the more likely there will be a discrepancy between your people's output and the output you would have wanted them to produce. Any discussion you have after the discrepancy will be frustrating for both parties involved.  But not having any discussion would also be bad, both for you and your report. The solution to prevent this lose-lose situation is to be extremely clear during delegation, before it seems necessary. This book will explain to you how.
  

Some quotes from the book

• Clarity is not micromanagement, but lack of clarity is lack of management.
• People only voice a fraction of their doubts. The rest shows up later as indecisiveness, inefficiency, and ineffectiveness. 
• Employees love it when their manager, while delegating a task, makes explicit what would be too little and what would be too much. 
• Don’t aim to be clear enough so that you can be understood, but aim to be so clear that you cannot be misunderstood. That’s superclarity.
• Explain to each employee what abstract company objectives mean for them individually. 
• If you feel awkward while giving negative feedback to your subordinates, it’s probably because you believe the root cause of their mistake is an inadequacy of yours. 
• Unless you demonstrate to your subordinates that you are competent and trustworthy and have their best interests at heart, they won’t perceive your feedback as helpful, no matter how well you give it to them. 
• If you spot any signs of paralysis, lack of confidence, or other negative responses, make your feedback smaller, more specific, and, in general, provide a small, clear, explicit first step for them to take that they feel they can take. 
• How good is a soccer coach who never attends his team’s games and training sessions, only meets the players in his office, and only evaluates their performance by looking at their report cards? He would be a terrible soccer coach. And yet, that’s how too many managers do their job.
• The more you reward efforts without results, the more your people will focus on efforting rather than achieving.
• Every time your actions demonstrate you are a fair, helpful, and effective manager, you build trust. And every time you waste your subordinates’ time, effort, or proactiveness, you break trust.
• Meetings are not inherently wasteful; it’s that their attendees are not good at meetings. It’s your job as a manager to teach your subordinates how to be effective participants in meetings. You must coach your people.
• Keep high standards for online meetings. They can and should be engaging and effective. 
• Personal judgment cannot be taught with procedures and trainings, because it is what happens outside of procedures and trainings.
• During one-on-ones, spend at least 3 minutes discussing something more long-term: career growth, skill growth, sources of fatigue and frustration, etc.

What you will get

By purchasing this book, you will receive all of the following:

• PDF version
• .ePub version (compatible with Apple Books & other eBook readers)
• .mobi version (Kindle)

Note: if you have a Kindle device, you can send the files above via email to your Kindle to read the book on it.

Add the audiobook

The audiobook is narrated using a high-quality AI voice. You can listen to a sample here.

As an Italian author, I cannot use Audible yet, hence why I'm making the audiobook available here. By purchasing the "eBook + audiobook" bundle, in addition to the eBook files, you also get a .mp3 file of the full book and a .zip folder containing one .mp3 file per chapter.

Add the video course

You will get a video course version of the book, comprised of
41 lessons and 2.5 hours of video content.

Add a one-hour call

If you purchase this option, you will get the opportunity to schedule at your convenience a one-hour video call with Luca, to ask him any question related to managing a hybrid or remote team.

(This option is presented here at a steep discount from Luca's hourly rate, as a one-off complement to the eBook.)

The second edition

After the success of the first edition, I created a second edition, with two additions:

– A deep-dive on building engagement. The five needs of employees and how to fulfill them. (A significant part of this chapter's content is extracted from my eBook, "The Employee Engagement Handbook," 2023).

– Some downloadable and printable delegation checklists.

A full guarantee

I've spent years researching and practicing the content for this book. Therefore, I'm confident to offer the following guarantee: unless you LOVE this book, you have 30 days from the day you receive it to send me an email (Luca at Luca-dellanna.com) to let me know that you opened the book but it wasn't what you expected. I will 100% refund you – I will even eat credit card fees.