If I cannot see them, how can I lead them?

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide leaders with a clear understanding of some key issues they face when leading remote workers and to provide practical suggestions on how to deal with those issues. Design/methodology/approach – The main method of research for this paper is data from participants in workshops over a ten‐year period. Participants included all levels of management, as well as non‐managers in a variety of large organizations across industries. Industries include high‐tech, food, consumer products, energy, entertainment and manufacturing. Participants included those with global teams, teams within a country and teams with work‐at‐home members. Findings – The key finding is that remote leadership requires the same good management and leadership skills that co‐located leadership requires. However, in the remote environment, leaders must be more deliberate and planful about building relationships and trust and in communicating. Practical implications – Leaders can implement specific techniques, several of which are presented in the paper, to increase their effectiveness of leading remote employees and teams. Originality/value – While remote leaders often struggle as they try to work effectively with their employees, they do not often identify that it is specifically the remote factor that is causing much of the challenge. This paper provides practical techniques for anyone trying to get work accomplished with remote employees.