From A Distance Book Cover on a Kindle

The Book

From A Distance – A Practical Guide To Remote Leadership

The future of work is remote. That means we need more remote leaders. Empowering employees to work from home requires strong, clear leadership, for it to become a viable and sustainable option for more companies, across all industries. Remote culture needs leaders who are comfortable and confident leading their teams from a distance. And while it’s easy to find resources about remote work and location independent jobs, effective remote leadership is often left to chance – with companies instead blaming the failure of remote working on the fact that it’s remote rather than a failure of leadership.

Get the Kindle or the print version on Amazon.

"From A Distance" is a practical book about how to create and lead a successful support team in a remote environment.

I interviewed remote leaders at ZapierHelpscoutPagerDutyGeckoboardMeetEdgar, AutomatticRoomiapp, Support Driven and more, to learn how they organize, structure and lead their remote teams.

Enjoy 60+ pages full of knowledge, ideas and tools to successfully lead your remote team from wherever you are. Whether you are already a seasoned remote leader, or you are just starting out creating (or inheriting) your first location-independent team, this guide will help you to hit the ground running.

The book is written with mainly support organizations in mind, but readers of the pre-release version have pointed out that many of the ideas and tools are equally valid for other location independent teams.

Scott, The Art of Working Remotely

particularly enjoyed reading From a Distance! You’ve done a great job capturing a lot of fantastic talking points about remote management. As I read, I couldn’t help but think (which I already knew) that Automattic really has their stuff together. I’ve interacted with Automattic support several times in the past year: all timely, effective, satisfying encounters. Sounds like a fantastic place to work, especially with the context from your position as a remote manager.

The quote that stood out for me most was “If you don’t believe in 1:1s and regular updates, remote work is not for you.” So true. As an avid skier, your comment about split days with a lengthy ski-filled lunch break made me smile. It’ll be winter soon!

Thank you for publishing this and for making it so freely available!

Martin Kõiva, Klaus (formerly Qualitista)

Valentina’s experience at Automattic (probably the best-known fully remote company) shines through in her writing. It’s clear that she has been operating in an environment that supports progressive ideas in terms of leadership and work culture. She has been able to try out all her creative ideas when it comes to managing a remote support team.

As a result of the above, it makes for some very convincing reading. Most of these tips and recommendations are not just the result of some afternoon googling, but battle-tested with some of the most successful teams in the industry.

I really wish I had been able to read this five years ago. That was when I was first presented with some professional challenges that were related to a) customer support, b) remote colleagues and c) leadership of both.

“From a Distance” is worth reading if you have to tackle one of the three. It’s definitely worth reading if you are involved with two of three.

…but if you need handle all of the above, then it is most likely the only book in the world that covers the topic.

Highly recommended!

Table of Contents

  • Foreword
  • Remote work in customer support
    • The nature of customer support
    • What is remote work?
    • The reason why remote work won’t work for your company
    • The future is remote
  • A team that (almost) never meets
    • Plan your remote team as a feature, not a bug
    • The blueprint: planning a team in advance
      • Team size
      • Time zones
      • Work hours and schedule
      • Work days and holiday
      • Benefits
      • Immediate and future requirements
      • What to look for when hiring for a remote position
  • Knowledge transfer: onboarding and training
    • Onboarding
    • Remote training
      • Product/company knowledge
      • Communication standards
      • Social support network
    • Ongoing training
  • Building and creating the team
    • Team building
      • Do we really need a team meeting?
    • Team maintenance
    • Change management
      • Team changes
  • Lead – team member relationship
    • The art of creating long-distance relationships
    • Should you have regular 1:1s
    • Coping with intercultural differences (a.k.a your prejudices)
    • Coaching your support agents
      • So, what does a career in support look like for individual contributors?
      • Seriously, IS there a career to be made in support?
    • Managing remote performance
      • A word on quality assurance
    • Lead solidarity, frontline support and alternatives
  • Information management
    • Communication beyond your direct reports
    • Bottom-up communication: being the link from the frontline to management
      • Direct input from your team
      • Interaction reviews
      • Cross team work groups
    • Top-down communication: from management to individual contributors
      • Representing support
      • Working with the product team
      • Helping marketing/sales with knowledge about existing customers
      • Strategic support feedback for leadership
  • Tools
    • Team building – in real life and remotely
      • IRL activity: the one question
      • IRL activity: headhunting your colleague
      • IRL activity: appreciation exercise
      • Remote activity: no-work meeting
      • Remote activity: Two truth and a lie
    • A note on communication tools
    • Performance management: trust but verify
      • 1:1 templates and processes
      • Blogs and websites with more insights

Whether you prefer the office or you don't, relying on the availability of a location for your success is not a future-proof plan. Ready to go remote-first?

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