Leading remote teams presents unique emotional challenges. Employees may feel alone and isolated.

Establishing a positive team culture can help address feelings of disconnection between staff members. Engaging in regular one-on-one calls and holding regular team meetings will keep productivity high and ensure maximum employee involvement.

Keep this in mind to effectively manage remote teams: A team must go through four distinct stages - formation, storming, norming, and performance. Here are some best practices that can assist with remote team management.

1. Build a strong team culture

As the leader, it is your duty to foster an atmosphere conducive to team success by cultivating and upholding an ideal work culture within your team. This may involve encouraging remote work as well as making sure all team members possess all of the tools necessary for success.

One effective way of doing this is by cultivating an environment of open communication and opening channels for discussion. You can do this through group chat software, regular meetings and encouraging one-on-one dialogues.

As your team members each have unique personal lives and schedules, it's also essential that the boundaries between work and home remain clear and are respected by each person on your team. To maintain productivity within your workplace environment, set boundaries that respect everyone's needs while remaining fair to everyone involved.

Set clear and realistic expectations for your remote team to avoid miscommunication and confusion. Make sure that everyone knows which communications channels you prefer and use them regularly; schedule specific times for meetings; communicate any changes in plans or scheduling as soon as they arise; be consistent in your expectations and lead by example!

2. Set clear expectations

Communicate clearly with your team on how and when they should work so they can plan their schedules without being caught off-guard when deadlines arise. Tools like project management software, team calendars and shared folders can assist with keeping an eye on everyone's tasks.

Meetings are an integral component of managing remote teams. Regular brief meetings provide your team with a sense of routine while giving you an opportunity to communicate performance information, discuss new projects and share other administrative items. Encourage written channels as an alternative way of sharing housekeeping items as these may provide more effective responses than virtual face-to-face conversations.

Your remote team needs the opportunity to socialize, so make sure there are regular virtual hangouts, an asynchronous gaming channel or group projects they can complete on their own time. Set aside time during team meetings for members to share experiences outside work or engage in informal conversation.

3. Be flexible

Representing and leading an international team can be difficult. By keeping your focus on work rather than process, however, you can ensure they remain happy with you as an employer and leader.

If an employee suggests a better approach to accomplish an upcoming task, be sure to let them know and encourage them to share it with the rest of their team. They are more likely to feel supported and appreciated when their contributions are recognized.

Make sure your remote employees understand they are being acknowledged for their hard work even when you can't see them directly. Make a point of mentioning an employee's efforts during meetings and individual discussions; create an online water cooler where team members can express appreciation to one another - this is a fun way to strengthen team unity while inspiring positive behaviors across your workforce and ultimately creating a stronger work culture overall.

4. Make meetings a priority

Team members in one room make it easier to monitor each worker's progress; this is more challenging when working remotely and may result in some people becoming disengaged from what is expected of them and becoming frustrated due to lack of visibility into what's expected of them.

Conducting regular but brief one-on-one meetings is an invaluable way to support remote team members' growth. Encourage your remote employees to express any worries, questions or ideas in an open and supportive manner; offer feedback or celebrate successes; this can boost morale while keeping everyone on task - but be wary of micromanaging! Over-managing may stifle collaboration and demoralize employees.

Establishing teams takes time. To help facilitate their development, try following Bruce Tuckman's model: Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing. Weekly team meetings can help keep everyone on the right track; address ongoing project issues or provide housekeeping information as they arise; use tools such as Blink that offer social-media-style feeds, instant messaging capabilities and cloud document storage to streamline communication and reduce confusion.

5. Use technology

Managers need to use creativity and innovation when managing remote teams, which fortunately is assisted by modern tech tools that connect team members seamlessly and effectively. But ultimately it remains up to managers to foster and promote strong team spirit and build cohesive bonds within their remote teams.

Work processes should be transparent so each employee understands how their efforts contribute to the overall success of projects or the company as a whole. That requires setting clear expectations at kickoff meetings and then reinforcing them in weekly and monthly meetings; additionally, organizing remote collaborative sessions where employees can share ideas or troubleshoot together can also be very useful.

Last but not least, it's essential that we acknowledge high performance and those who embrace your company values. You won't see every employee every day to remind yourself to do this, so make it a conscious effort during team and individual meetings to acknowledge their achievements and offer various communication channels for less urgent or complex inquiries so they feel like there's always someone available when needed.