Leadership Tools for Remote Employers

Remote and hybrid work are now the norm for many organizations. However, leading distributed teams requires more than just attempting to replicate the in-office experience online — it calls for intentional systems; clear communication; and leadership tools that support employee performance, connection and well-being.

This guide gives employers a practical overview of leadership concepts and tools to support remote work today.

Status of Remote Work Today

Recent surveys from Gallup, Intuit and Robert Half show that hybrid arrangements now dominate the workplace landscape, with remote-capable employees strongly preferring flexibility.

Intuit’s “Hybrid vs. Remote Work: Which Model Is Right for Your Organization?” blog article explains the differences between these related terms:

Remote work typically refers to full-time employment outside a traditional office. Remote teams may be distributed within a city, across the country or around the world.
Hybrid work refers to employment that combines in-office and remote work. Many hybrid employees spend a certain amount of time per week in the office (for example, two or three days) and the rest working from home.

Today, most employees prefer hybrid work arrangements; they value the flexibility that allows for in-office interaction as well as remote work. Gallup’s U.S. surveys on hybrid work as of 2025 found the following:

Exclusively remote work arrangements make up only 26% of all work arrangements, whereas hybrid work arrangements make up 52%.
Around 50% of full-time employees are in remote-capable roles.
Around 60% of remote-capable employees say they prefer working in a hybrid work arrangement over all other work arrangements. Only 33% prefer fully remote work over all other work arrangements.
The top benefits of hybrid work, according to employees surveyed in 2023, included improved work-life balance (76%), more efficient use of time throughout the day or week (64%) and less burnout or fatigue (61%).
The biggest challenges of hybrid work, according to employees surveyed in 2023, included reduced access to work resources and equipment (31%), a diminished sense of connection to the organization’s culture (28%) and decreased collaboration with the team (24%).

Hybrid work is common in U.S. workplaces, but fully hybrid work arrangements — in which all employees do hybrid work — are actually rare. In a survey of over 500 human resources (HR) managers, Robert Half found that 88% of employers provide some hybrid work options, but only 25% offer hybrid work to all employees in 2025.

Core Principles of Effective Remote Leadership

Before selecting leadership tools, remote employers should use leadership principles that apply to remote work contexts as their anchor. Effective remote leadership is grounded in a few core principles that help teams stay aligned, psychologically safe and connected despite distance.

Dame Leadership, “The Shift From ‘Line of Sight’ to ‘Outcome-Based’ Leadership”: Remote workers can’t be managed through direct, in-person supervision (so-called “line of sight” leadership), so remote employers should default to trust, share context and make decisions transparent. This source explains how to shift to outcome-based management with a focus on results, not online status. It argues that remote employers should use goals and deliverables, not surveillance, to gauge employee performance.
Psychology Today, “Remote Work Helps Some to Feel Psychologically Safe”: This source emphasizes that psychological safety is essential in remote settings, where issues may surface more slowly without in-person cues. Practical recommendations include regular check-ins, structured opportunities to raise concerns and deliberate outreach to ensure that employees feel safe speaking up — even when they’re not physically present.
Todoist, “How to Build Trust in the Remote ‘Workplace’”: This source gives concrete examples of how earning trust through transparency can foster creativity, autonomy and knowledge-sharing among employees in remote workplaces. It also offers suggestions for repair when trust has been broken and needs to be rebuilt.
Twist, “Leading Distributed: The Remote Guide to Management”: This source provides advice for establishing clear and effective communication norms in remote work environments. Practical advice includes deciding in advance what belongs in chat versus email, deciding when to use asynchronous versus synchronous communication, and establishing and respecting expected response times.

Communication and Collaboration Tools

Clear and effective communication is essential to all workplaces, and leadership tools can help address the unique challenges of remote and hybrid environments.

Synchronous Communication

Synchronous communication tools support live, real-time conversations, such as meetings, workshops, brief team check-ins (so-called “stand-ups”) and quick decision-making discussions. These platforms help remote leaders maintain clarity and connection when teams need to communicate simultaneously.

Zoom: A platform for video meetings, chat, webinars and virtual events; now integrated into Zoom Workplace collaboration platform
Google Meet: A platform for secure video meetings; tightly integrated into Google Workspace, including Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Docs
Microsoft Teams: A platform that combines team chat, video meetings, file storage and Microsoft Office 365 integration in one hub
Slack Huddles: A platform feature that enables synchronous videoconferencing
Samepage: A platform for team chat, videoconferencing, screen sharing, task management, file sharing and real-time document collaboration

Leadership tips for synchronous meetings:

Use agendas and time blocks (timeboxes). Post the agenda in both the calendar invite and meeting chat to keep participants informed about start and end times.
Assign explicit meeting roles, such as facilitator, notetaker and timekeeper. This practice keeps employees engaged and expectations clear.
Record key meetings and store notes in a shared knowledge base (for example, Notion, Confluence) for easy future reference.
Rotate meeting times across regions to ensure fairness.

Real-Time Collaboration

Real-time collaboration tools allow multiple employees to work together in the same space — coediting documents and project plans and collaborating on whiteboards and knowledge bases — without requiring a meeting. These platforms support synchronous work, even when synchronous conversation isn’t needed.

Confluence: Confluence is a web-based collaboration and knowledge management software developed by Atlassian that allows teams to create, organize and share content in a central hub. It functions as a virtual workspace where teams can store and collaborate on documents, whiteboards and project plans in real-time.
Notion: Notion is primarily a workspace and documentation tool, not a communication platform, with integrated live video calling. However, Notion integrates with popular videoconferencing services such as Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams and can be used to record synchronous meeting notes.

Asynchronous Communication

Asynchronous communication tools support messaging, updates and information sharing that don’t require everyone to be online at the same time. These tools reduce meeting overload and help distributed teams work effectively across time zones.

Slack: A cloud-based team messaging platform with channels, threads and integrations; widely used for real-time and asynchronous collaboration
Microsoft Teams: A chat platform with channels integrated into the Microsoft ecosystem
Google Chat: A messaging platform integrated into the Google Workspace
Loom: A platform for recording quick asynchronous video messages and screen shares to explain context-rich topics without a meeting

Asynchronous communication norms that remote employers can adopt to improve digital communication and foster collaboration include the following:

Use channels (for example, #team-marketing, #product) instead of direct messages for work topics to keep information discoverable.
Standardize subject prefixes or tags (for example, [INFO], [ACTION NEEDED BY FRI]) for easy future reference.
Set response time expectations (for example, “Slack messages: 24 business hours; email: 48 hours”) to promote both timely responses and employee work-life balance.
Encourage employees to use screen recording tools for complex walk-throughs instead of long walls of text.

Project and Task Management Tools

These tools help teams track who’s responsible for each task and the deadline.

Asana: A project and task management platform for cross-functional work, with timelines and workload views
Trello: A Kanban-style board platform ideal for visualizing workflows and smaller teams
Monday.com: A flexible work management platform with automations, dashboards and project templates

Recommendations for setting up effective project and task management systems for remote work include the following:

Maintain a board as the single “source of truth” for priorities.
Use templates for recurring project types (for example, launches, hiring, campaigns).
Review progress in weekly stand-ups and asynchronous status threads.

Performance Management Tools and Practices

Remote teams thrive when they have unambiguous expectations, and remote-friendly leadership tools can help reinforce clarity and alignment. Leaders can use objectives and key results ( OKRs, as described by Atlassian) or similar frameworks to align goals, document role responsibilities, determine decision rights (for example, the responsible, accountable, consulted and informed, or RACI, matrix, as described by CIO), and track success metrics in shared documents.

Digital Tools for Performance Management

To operationalize these practices in remote environments, many organizations use digital platforms designed to support goal tracking, feedback and structured performance conversations.

Lattice: A people management platform for performance reviews, one-on-one meetings, goals/OKRs and engagement surveys
15Five: A platform for stand-ups, objectives tracking and performance reviews
Culture Amp: An employee experience platform focused on engagement, performance tracking and employee feedback

Feedback and Evaluation

For remote workers, silence can make them feel underappreciated. To lead well, remote leaders ought to systematize feedback.

The following are six best practices for giving employee feedback and evaluation in remote work contexts:

When establishing success metrics, focus on value metrics over participation metrics. Value metrics track value delivered (for example, milestones, customer impact), unlike participation metrics — such as hours spent online — which measure employee behavior regardless of outcomes. UXCam explains value metrics and how to set and measure them in remote settings instead of obsessing over participation metrics.
Avoid invasive monitoring tools (for example, screenshot monitoring, keystroke logging), which erode trust and morale. In its “How to Track Employee Productivity Without Keystroke or Screen Monitoring” guide, Worklytics explains how employers can measure and keep track of employee productivity without resorting to invasive, demoralizing surveillance systems.
Standardize one-on-one meeting practices. Ninety’s guide to one-on-one meetings offers advice for small business owners and employers looking to support remote workers; the guide offers one-on-one meeting templates and checklists for leaders grounded in best practices, such as cocreating an agenda for each meeting and recording meeting notes.
Establish quarterly or biannual review cycles. Regular review cycles are important for providing employees with opportunities for growth, improvement and promotion.
According to Betterworks, there are seven key stages of the performance review cycle: preparation, self-assessment, manager assessment, performance review meeting, feedback and development, ongoing performance support, and performance recognition and rewards. Because performance reviews aren’t just annual, employees may need different tools and support systems at different stages of the performance review cycle.
Encourage peer and upward feedback through surveys and structured prompts. ThriveSparrow’s “6 Essential Components of Remote Performance Management” article includes advice for using feedback as an effective coaching tool and creating employee self-evaluation surveys.

Culture Building Tools

Hybrid and remote employees may feel disconnected from their organization’s culture, according to Gallup polling. Remote’s “How to Build a Strong Culture With a Remote Team” article suggests creating a remote-first work culture in which remote employees are empowered to do their best work. Remote suggests that remote-first work cultures:

Allow employees to work with minimal distractions during their most productive hours (for example, those with more energy in the mornings may be empowered to work during morning hours)
Prioritize inclusion and recognition so that employees’ successes are celebrated and highlighted across the organization
Provide intentional team-building activities for remote teams to boost morale and creativity

There are many ways to encourage social connection and team building among remote and hybrid teams. The tools for connecting online include the following:

Donut (for Slack or Microsoft Teams): A tool for automating introductions, coffee chats, mentorship matching and celebrations; integrated into Slack or Microsoft Teams
Gather: A virtual office/space where avatars move around and meet in groups
Kahoot: An online trivia and game platform for social sessions
Jackbox Games: A collection of party video games that can be played from one’s phone

Bringing Remote Leadership Tools and Practices Together

Remote and hybrid work continue to reshape how teams collaborate, communicate and stay connected. By grounding leadership in trust, clarity and psychological safety — and by selecting leadership tools that support those principles — employers can build remote environments where employees are aligned, supported and able to do their best work. The right combination of thoughtful leadership practices and well-chosen digital tools helps distributed teams stay productive, engaged and connected over the long term.

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