DistantJob Podcast

In this powerful podcast episode, Stefan shares the importance of creating empathy in teams, listening to their struggles, opening up, and boosting every team member to become a better version. And although in a virtual setting, developing empathy is challenging, it's still possible.  He also reveals how remote work changed Crescendo in ways he never imagined.

On this podcast episode, our guest, Christopher Snyder, shares powerful tips for sales teams to thrive while working remotely. He also offers strategies for better organization and better management, emphasizing that leaders have a crucial role during the pandemic in guiding their teams towards achievable goals – no matter the challenges their organization is facing.

In this episode, Darren Murph reveals why some businesses are failing in their attempt to work remotely. He also shares his insights into the meaning of culture and how GitLab, having approximately 1200 remote workers, has a culture that all their employees connect and relate with.

In this podcast episode, Stefan Palios discussed what actually means to be a remote worker, and it has nothing to do with just working from home. He also shared his insights about how the future of work does not necessarily mean working remotely.

In this podcast episode, our guest Kieran Flanagan discusses some of the critical aspects of managing remote marketing teams, highlighting the importance of flexibility and creativity. He shares his insights on the benefits of virtual teams to achieve work/life balance. 

In this episode, Leo Mindel shares his key strategies to maintain efficient communication in distributed teams. He talks about his experience transitioning from an onsite company to a fully remote company and the right tools he has gathered along the way.   

In this podcast episode, Tom Willmot shares his experience in building a remote company from the bottom to the top. He shares some of the difficulties co-located companies might be experiencing when transitioning to remote due COVID-19. And his optimistic belief of the remote business model.

In this inspiring podcast episode, Andy shares what remote work has done to his life and how he has managed to connect with his clients virtually. And the importance of being conscious with the time you have, spending it wisely doing the things you love. 

In this episode, Dianne Crampton shares her experience in building remote cultures and reveals the tringle for business success: Roles, Goals, and Relationships. She explains why having the ability to work with companies and people all around the world is necessary during these times.

In this DistantJob’s episode, our guest Alexandre Thauron takes us on a journey to understand more about the life of digital nomads. The challenges and benefits he faces while working and traveling around the globe. And how he built his business while living in different countries and learning about diverse cultures.

In this episode, we have the chance to listen to Mario Peshev and his experiences in hiring and building strong teams. He shares the advantages of having remote employees and the importance of hiring people that understands your company’s culture but also to understand the culture of the people you hire 

Thinking about gathering your remote team? Anne-Marie Jentsch shares her experiences in organizing group experiences for both onsite and remote teams in different parts of the world.

In this episode, Stacy Henry tells us her experience of working in the BNR company for almost 10 years. How they started being just 15 employees and grew to over 100 employees, managing hybrid teams and remote employees.

In this podcast episode, Alberto Cañigueral talks about the social impact digital platforms are having on the labor market, how they are transforming economies, and the way people work. He shares his experience in organizing projects and events with freelancers and people from his community working as a distributed team.

Serial entrepreneurs, Stephanie Smolders and Peter Beukering, are the founders of BeeHavesocial and Touristexclusive. Consultants on business and marketing, they help mission-driven entrepreneurs scale their business with an aligned foundation and marketing strategy that works for them.

In this special podcast episode, Luis, the host of DistantJob podcast, is interviewing Peter Beukering and Stephanie Smolders, a full-time travel couple who adopted the location independent lifestyle and worked from 34 different countries ( and counting). They share their story on how they built and grew their remote business while traveling and how remote work it's the core of their successful business.

Mike Soldan is the Chief Experience Officer at Shmoop, a digital publishing company that provides comprehensive test prep resources and certified online courses.Before Shmoop, he was formerly the VP of Pluralsight's Professional Services & Solutions Architect teams, and prior to that, he was a founding member and product leader for one of Verizon Communications' largest product and new business innovation arms. He has a background with the focus on enhancing education and training programs, and on building high performing and innovative teams.

As more and more companies adopt flexible work practices, developing a successful remote work strategy is necessary to operate remotely efficiently and effectively.

In this podcast episode, Mike Sultan offers strategies and best practices on how to manage the challenges that may come up along the way in a remote setting and how to help set up your remote team for success. 

Teresa Gandy is the owner of Clarity CX, helping business and training providers to add extra client value by managing feedback, assessments, and reports. Her prior working experience in corporate- land HR and her knowledge with customer feedback ensures collecting clear, quick, and actionable feedback from customers and employees.

After working more than a decade in an office setting, Teresa explains how transitioning to remote work, positively impacted her personal and professional life.

Based on her remote working experience, Teresa Gandy is sharing her knowledge on collecting remote feedback effectively. She believes it is essential to have honesty in your feedback. Otherwise, it is useless.

In this podcast episode, we have a returning guest, Shauna Moran. Over the last couple of years she did extensive research on remote teams and qualified as an executive leadership coach. She is now focusing more on the holistic side of managing remote teams.

Shauna Moran is an accredited coach and emotional intelligence practitioner. Founder of Operate Remote, a consultancy and coaching business, helps leaders in a remote company to create, manage, and scale high-performing distributed teams.

She is sharing with us everything she is learned from her experience and academic background in leading and scaling remote teams. From the challenges you face in a remote team and how to overcome them to the importance of emotional intelligence and how it counts for 25-40% of work base performance.

In this episode, Andy Bedwell covers in detail, the list of advantages offered by coworking spaces, including innovation and networking opportunities, in a relaxed and supportive environment.

Andy Bedwell is a property investor and developer that has a growing network of managed office spaces in the UK. Owner of Perch Co- Working, his aim is to cultivate a thriving community of workers, enabling people to come together and create great things.

Coworking is a fast-growing global trend, mostly embraced by startups, small companies, entrepreneurs, and freelancers, but remote workers are starting to welcoming it too due to its benefits. While working from home can be an excellent option for some remote workers, others are having trouble focusing in a home office, so they prefer to work in a coworking location where they can feel like being part of a community, thus avoiding loneliness. Not only that, but there is an educational and networking component to it.

Successful serial-entrepreneur, with over 40 years of experience, Tom Mabey is the CEO and key founder of ECLIPSE, which provides tailored big data solutions as a service. Previously he founded Sahara, Inc. (regional construction service provider), The Consortium (civil engineering consulting business) and he is Member of the Board of Directors of Nano Stone, Inc. an international provider of natural stone. A professional engineer, his focus is on building and leading teams to solve problems in a collaborative and productive environment.

According to Tom Mabey, a component key for a distributed organization is to build a culture and to maintain cultural consistency as the company expands in a geographical sense and becomes more diverse.

Maintaining control of the culture and the values of the company can be challenging, especially in a distributed organization. In this episode, Tom Mabey, provides a guide on how you can bring your distributed team together in a way that can boost their productivity, efficiency, and collaboration. From constant communication and team building activities to finding top talent and optimizing your hiring process, Tom covers important steps you need to take so that you and your team can be successful.

Arthur Woods, is the the Co-Founder of Mathison, a talent marketplace focusing purely on connecting underrepresented population to employers all over the world. Being a serial entrepreneur, and having built his business virtually, he sustain the remote workforce.

Even though the benefits of a remote workforce have been shown over and over again, there are still a lot of common misconceptions about virtual work and Arthur dives into them and explains how to overcome them.

Remote work is really the key to drive diversity and inclusion in the workplace. And to get workplace diversity and inclusion right, you need to build a culture. On this episode, Arthur Woods is sharing his strategy on how to ensure a culture inclusion on a remote setting.

He believes the power of remote workforce is in having a lot of intentionality and building systems that reinforce strong culture.

Graham is the Co-Founder and Advisor at Global Success Advisors, a 100% remote company with workers in NY, Boston and Connecticut. He's worked with teams all around the world and has figured out how to deal with timezones.

In this podcast episode, Graham Gill shares his experience working as a remote leader and what he's done to manage and build a successful remote team. He tries to find people with different skills when looking for people to join their team but the one skill that they all have to have in common is good communication.

In this podcast episode, Luis and Mickael talk about the tools they use and processes that they take to manage a remote team effectively. Mickael believes you need to trust the people you hire to be able to do the work and show employees you care about their wellbeing. He's really focused on the mental health of his employees, he's a sports and travel advocate and enjoys doing outdoor activities.

Helen Joy is the Director at ANPR Consulting helping businesses grow by focusing on getting the best from their people. She's been involved in learning and development for over 18 years and she's particularly passionate about helping future leaders improve their careers. In this episode, Helen explains how focusing on your people, motivating them and enabling them to develop critical skills, you allow your business to grow beyond your own expectations and limitations.

Sophia Bernazzani is the Head of Content Marketing at Owl Labs. In this podcast episode, Sophia shares some statistics that show how remote work is meant to be the future of employment culture. Don’t miss her recommendations and also a peek of her experience as a remote worker herself.

Max Klau explains the possibilities of teaching critical thinking in order to develop leadership skills through remote education platforms. Our guest talks about the program “Answering the Call”, which recruits and trains military veterans and national service alumni who consider politics as a way to continue serving their country. “Answering the Call” has both local and virtual offers, giving the opportunity of remote leadership education to hundreds of people in America.

Kevin Claus is a coach and consultant with a focus on leadership development and employee engagement. Kevin started managing remote teams 12 years ago, helping them reach their highest potential.

Communication is the main ingredient that makes remote work possible. Taking that into consideration, Coach Kevin Claus provides a very complete guide on how to make virtual networking better: from face to face conference calls and employee resource groups to virtual shadowing and interactive training in virtual classrooms, Kevin shares some basic to do's to achieve success as a remote team manager.

Want to know how to get social at work even if you're in a remote team? Mary L Gray explains how the human workforce is in the middle of a software centered work culture and how remote workers can find a purpose in what they do.

In this episode, Mary explains how our capitalist system dictates the productivity rhythm of job growth, the introduction and transition to new work models such as remote work. She also shares how these new work models have an impact in economy and society.

Ismail Aly and Ranya Barakat are Co-Founders of the IDS Agency, an inbound marketing and sales shop located in Santiago, Chile. Their company is 82% remote, with team members spread across 6 different countries. In this episode, our guests and Luis share some insights about managing a marketing agency remotely and how the remote work model has allowed them to hire talent that fits their company culture, even if that means that their team is distributed in six different countries.

Is there a difference between leading a team remotely or in person? Our guest Louise Puddifoot, Founder & Director of Willow & Puddifoot, shares her experience managing remote teams. In this episode, Louise Puddifoot, a self-defined people developer, takes us through the differences between being a remote team manager and a local team manager, as well as the difficulties that managing remote or hybrid teams represent. Luis and Louise share some insights on how to choose ideal team managers.

Listen to Louise share advice on how to train and motivate your remote employees, as well as some tips to create a collaborative environment regardless of your location.

Think about taking your company remote? Stefania Chiorboli shares some insights to help your company transition to a remote or hybrid environment without losing part of your culture.

Stefania is the founder at The Hoxby Collective, a consulting business helping people and companies build and manage remote teams.

In this podcast episode, Luis and Stefania talk about how remote work can make the world a better place, not only because it's materially and financially appealing but also because it opens a space for a more diverse workforce, and it allows every remote worker to have the work-life balance that they choose in a way that is meaningful for them and allows them to give their best without being tied to an office.

Kimberly Harden is the Founder and CEO of Harden Consulting Group and an Instructor at Seattle University. She's taught Communication Studies at the Seattle Central College, the Highline College, and the Regis University College for Professional Studies. She founded and directed JAGWILL, a company to help people improve their communication skills. She also advocates for diversity in educational institutions.

Clodagh Higgins is an Agency Coach and Consultant at the Growit Group, she's a Performance Coach at Valor Performance, author of the book "A Happy and Healthy Digital Agency". She's also a Powerlifting World Record Holder and host of her own podcast "Agency Life."

After traveling and working in big cities, she returned to her hometown in the west coast of Ireland and has been coaching marketing agencies remotely from the comfort of her cottage for about the past couple of years. Clodagh leads a team of three remote colleagues and is a very organized multitasker. Lifting weights or walking at the beach is something you might find her doing after handling coaching sessions with clients from all around the world. 

In this episode, Clodagh takes us through a glance of her book "A Happy and Healthy Digital Agency" and her self-developed methodology to manage digital marketing agencies, which allows her to successfully coach marketing entrepreneurs. Learn how optimizing your time with proper scheduling and the right tools will allow you to effectively juggle your personal and professional life as a remote worker.

In this episode, Luis talks to Mentor  Coach Steve Hamilton, CEO & Founder of the 18th Camel.

Steve shares some of his key points to create an appropriate climate when you meet someone online for the first time and what you can do to bond effectively. He believes some of the key aspects to bonding with someone come from creating trust and empathy.

They also share some strategies to be more productive when working from home, such as keeping a focus and being mindful of how you spend your time.

Ken Weary balances his life between being the VP of Operations at Hotjar (a product that reveals the online behavior and voice of a website’s users) and being a father and husband in a digital nomad family. Six years ago, he took a sabbatical which really changed his perspective about how we wanted to live his life and decided to start working remotely, house sitting for people around the world. Currently, he is house sitting and working out of Scotland, and while he tackles the tasks of a VPO, his wife "world-schools" their kids.

Todd Werth is the CEO and Co-Founder of Infinite Red, a remote design and creative studio creating beautiful and functional mobile apps and websites. Todd has been creating software for 20 years and has founded three companies. He still codes and designs but not as often as he'd like.

In this podcast episode, Todd shares his experience leading a remote company and explains how big decisions are made when working remotely. He believes remote has nothing to do with how you work or when you work, it's only about where you're located.

We've all heard about the numerous benefits of company retreats. But, how can your company make the most of it? Elisa Rueda, host and founder of The CoWork Experience shares some insights and advice for leaders looking to take their team on a retreat.

There's a difference between a cowork experience retreat and a cowork experience vacation. When you take a large group out the goal is to celebrate, but a retreat is more focused on development, growth and nurturing the skills of the team members.

Before going on a retreat, Elisa shares it's important to identify the problem you're looking to solve so your time is focused on finding a solution to that specific problem. Don't just send your employees away to have a good time as you'll probably come back the same way.

What makes a good company retreat? How do people break the ice when they meet and get to know each other for the first time? Listen to this podcast episode and find out.

A big part of building a successful remote team relies on effective leadership management. In this episode, Luis talks to Sabina Nawaz about one of the many benefits of working remotely. She mentions how managing a remote team really broadens your perspective and helps you become a more comprehensive leader. Having a diverse team helps you have a global point of view in your virtual office.

Sabina shares leadership tips for CEOs looking to boost their business. Some of them include having active 1-on-1 sessions with employees and showcasing their achievements properly.

Angelique believes your company's culture should really reflect your purpose and values but how do you establish and implement that?

Writing down where you want to be or where you are right now, might be a good place to start. This could help you have a clear vision of your company.

There are different ways to build your company's culture but is always important to remember that as a founder, you have the obligation to build something that makes you happy.

There will be times where you'll have to make decisions or sacrifices to follow your culture; letting go of clients might be one of them, if they don't follow your vision or if their values are not aligned to yours.

Listen to learn how you can implement a good working environment whether you're working in an office or with a remote team.

3dar is a creative hybrid team, their core people are on-site but they also work with artists from Brazil, Chile and other parts of South America. As part of their vision, the team at 3dar knew from the beginning that they wanted to work with creative people in Latin America but offer their services in Europe and the US.

In this podcast episode, German shares how working remotely with artists has naturally pushed them to be more structured as a company and almost perfect the art of creating briefs so that all requests are met.

In this podcast episode, Bhagyashree shares how she's able to successfully manage a hybrid team across different time zones and shares the basics of equality in remote hiring practices. One step her company decided to implement was to pay their remote employees equally, regardless of their country of residence. Whether they're in India, Hawai or Portugal, their employees' salary is calculated on the base San Francisco salary for that position. The reason? Everyone is doing quality work and putting the extra effort.

She advises all remote companies to hire based on skills, experience and expertise; try to avoid stereotypes when looking to fill a specific role.

There are a bunch of reasons why managers are reluctant to work remotely and June Bolneo surely knows about them. In this chapter, we go deep into learning the ins and outs of remote work and how your company can (or should) make the leap. 

She's found that most of the problems that arise when working remotely are very psychological and rely around social barriers. So, what can we do about it? Listen to this podcast and find out.

A lot of people talk about communication being a challenging factor in successfully running a remote team, but Matteo Grassi explains how one of the main issues they've encountered as a remote company is managing projects. In this podcast episode, he shares how they have built their processes, improved them and made sure the whole company is following them.

They've implemented a goal-oriented strategy at Eli Z Group that focuses on short and long term goals rather than day-to-day activities. Wanna know how this has helped the business? Have a listen. 

Ingrid Odegaard is the Co-founder & CPTO (formerly CEO) of Appear.in, a tool to bring your team and clients together with flexible video meetings so you can have a more productive remote team collaboration.

In this episode, we talk about the benefits of remote teams and the importance of trust and work-life balance to achieve a good company's culture. 

Ingrid explains how transitioning to a fully remote team has helped them develop more empathy for their users as now they understand better what problems they're facing and can offer better solutions to keep improving their product. 

Sharon Koifman believes every company, from the biggest enterprise to the newly-launched garage startup, should have access to the world’s top talent. That’s why he used over 10 years of experience in tech industry recruitment & HR to create DistantJob. 
This episode is all about explaining how having a Virtual Assistant impacted Sharon’s work and life, allowing him to get more things done while achieving better work-life balance. He might not be living the 4-hour workweek dream, but he’s never been happier - and he’s bullish about taking on any perceived or real challenges about having a person from another country take care of your schedule and accounts. Luís puts him to the test - how did he fare? You decide!

Shauna Moran is the Founder at Operate Remote, a consulting firm where she helps individuals and organizations overcome the challenges when it comes to remote working.

Her remote journey started about 6 years ago when she started working remotely for Shopify, an e-commerce platform for online stores. She got so passionate about remote working and decided to go back to school to get her Ph.D in Innovation Management where she focused on understanding what actually allowed remote teams to be successful.

In this episode, Shauna shares her experience managing remote teams and gives some tips on how to do it effectively, according to research. 

Craig Brown is a veteran of software product development that has experience leading and managing global software product development teams spanning four continents, 8 cities and hundreds of team members. His new baby is the Everest Engineering team, a modern software product development consultancy that delivers innovation capability out of India to the Australian tech industry.

In this episode, we talk about a wide variety of topics, but fundamentally: leadership. What should cultural and language differences mean for leaders of distributed teams? Once you get down to it, what are the Agile and Scrum principles that really matter? What should your remote team do when they have a crisis on their hands? And why and how should leaders ask stupid questions? And teach others to do the same!

Is the remote work world biased against older and more experienced professionals? Or is it a problem with startup culture? DistantJob founder Sharon Koifman and podcast host Luis discuss how to fight ageism and embrace the wisdom that comes with experience in this special episode.

Sharon Koifman believes every company, from the biggest enterprise to the newly-launched garage startup, should have access to world’s top talent. That’s why he used over 10 years of experience in tech industry recruitment & HR to create DistantJob. 

This episode is a free-flowing conversation where Luis and Sharon discuss the age barriers that new companies erect and what they should change to avoid missing out on some seriously talented older professionals. We talk about lessons from Sharon’s father, and we finish with Sharon dispensing some leadership advice to his younger self, that little whippersnapper!

In this episode, we talk about how he works from home while managing several facets of a tech company spread across three countries and timezones while simultaneously dealing with US clients. We explore the importance of getting FaceTime when hiring and why it’s important to find a time in the day for the whole company to sync, even if only briefly. And, among other things, we speculate on how AI could help us verify the experience and skill set of potential hires.

Maya MiddleMiss is the CEO of BlockSparks, a startup focused on creating creative communications for the blockchain world . She's also a freelance writer and creator, obsessed with crypto, blockchain, and technology. She gets fascinated with the technological changes influencing our society and impacting our future. 

In this episode, Maya shares how she got started in the world of cryptocurrencies and what we can do to use technology to our advantage. She believes those who are afraid of learning and trying something new, haven't realized how easy it is to connect with people who will literally give you a step-by-step guide on how to do the thing(s) you're afraid of. 

Jamon Holmgren is the Co-Founder and CTO at Infinite Red, a consultancy where they design, develop, launch, and support mobile and web apps. He's a software developer, husband, and father of four. His life-long obsession with coding has taken him from running large excavation equipment to framing houses to 3D CAD design, until he eventually landed on a career in software. 

In this episode, we talk about a wide variety of topics, but fundamentally: leading a fully remote team. What is it like to lead remotely? What are the downsides? How do you manage your time efficiently? And, how do you measure your team's performance?

Welcome to StaffITRight, a Podcast by DistantJob!

This Podcast aims to be a treasure trove of tools and resources for people who are on the quest to learn about how to build and manage remote teams. That’s right, this podcast is about people working together on great projects, through the magic of the internet – no office required.

Here, we interview people who’ve built and managed remote teams and even full companies – and found great success!

On the second episode StaffITRight, the official podcast of DistantJob we interview Trevor Longino, le enfant terrible of the marketing world. 

In this edition of the StaffITRight podcast, presented by Distantjob.com , we talk to Ana Guerra, who was responsible for Social Media Marketing and Partnerships at Xbox. 

During her stay at Microsoft Portugal, Ana found herself interacting with on-site colleagues, but doing the bulk of her work remotely, with a team that was physically located in another country. Here we talk about how she managed that situation and her advice to managers who want to integrate a remote superstar into their local teams!

In this episode of the StaffITRight podcast, we talk to Radical Inclusion’s Stephan Dohrn. Stephan has been helping remote teams do their best work for over a decade, and his experience has led him to focus on each individual as the building blocks of a top-performing remote team.

In our conversation, we talk about building trust, connection, responsibility, and accountability, among many other things. All without ever stepping foot in the office.

In this episode of the StaffITRight podcast, we talk to our very own Jennifer Kostel. Jenn is a multitalented individual who has a portfolio that ranges from teaching languages and yoga to acting and managing accounts – but the common denominator in all her endeavors was the ability to build rapport with the people she dealt with. And now that she’s focusing on remote work, this skill proves to be more crucial than ever!

We go into detail on Jenn’s previous remote work experiences, how to avoid remote work burnout, the importance of owning your mistakes, and much more – listen and prepare to be blown away!

In this episode of the StaffITRight podcast, we talk to Laurel Farrer. Laurel is a remote work strategist and advocate who works with companies to strengthen communication and develop long-distance management strategies. She has written about remote work for several publications and education platforms and has advised US governments, business conferences, and industry leaders on the topic of remote work. 

We cover a wide range of topics during our conversation, including good stand-ups and bad stand-ups, how to be a leader instead of a boss, how to figure out if the remote approach is working for your business and specific conversation scripts that you can use to make clear to your remote employees what are your expectations of their work.

In this episode of the DistantJob podcast, we talk to Joel Martinez. Joel Martinez is a Senior Developer at Microsoft, a prolific writer, and a huge advocate for remote work.

During our conversation, we talk about how to stimulate focus on a team, how to know if a team is ready or not to work remotely, what can remote employees do to be proactive in showcasing their work, and much more – Joel is a true practical expert in the field.

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Among many other things, we talk about how Buffer’s focus on transparency allows their teams to generate unprecedented value; why empowering people only works when it’s in service to generating said value; and how you need to be creative when adapting leadership lessons to remote teams.

This episode touches on how the importance of treating remote employees just as if they were regular, co-located employees; how negative emotional states can be more prevalent during online communication and how to manage them; and on the best formula to get honest, actionable feedback from your team members. But that’s not all, of course – this is one of the wider-ranging DistantJob podcasts ever!

Victoria talks to us (among many, many other things!) about what top performers come looking for when they consider joining your company; the importance of virtualising small workplace rituals; and how to build and benefit from a company with a network structure, as opposed to flat or hierarchical. (DJ Podcast drinking game: have a drink whenever Luis mispronounces “hierarchical”! Such is life.)

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Todays’ guest, Marcello Bonatto, leads Re:Coded, a non-profit that helps people from war-torn countries learn the craft of IT and work remotely with Western enterprises, bringing value into their lives and communities.

But don’t be fooled into thinking that we’re going all touchy-feely about how remote work is helping to turn the world into a better place. There’s plenty of that, but there’s also some very practical advice about how to invest in your employees education, and how to account for cultural differences when hiring and managing remote workers. As usual, the podcast goes into a lot of different subjects, so start listening and find out what can YOU apply to your business, today.

Todays’ guest is Gonçalo Silva, CTO of Doist. Obviously, we dig into the importance of checklists and process in managing remote teams, but we also talk about a lot of other things, including, but not limited to: how to test potential employees for remote skills; what are some good ways to document decisions in a way to have a single source of truth; and what an 80-year-old book can still teach us about management, even when it comes to the Future of Work.

Todays’ guest is Christian McCarrick, VP of Engineering at Auth0 and host of the SimpleLeadership Podcast. Christian has been a technology leader for almost two decades, and through his Simple Leadership Podcast, has learned from dozens of the best in the industry. 

We dive into topics as varied as how to make sure to hear the opinions of introverts in your team, how to write like a leader and beat the Slack “rumour mill,” what’s the difference between brainstorming for discussion and brainstorming for decision, and much more!

Today’s guest is Lisette Sutherland, remote work advocate extraordinaire and the driving force behind Collaboration Superpowers. Lisette’s superpower is the ability to give multiple options to tackle the most grievous of remote work challenges, and she has compiled them all on her excellent book – “Work Together Anywhere.”

Our conversation with Lisette goes from hiring to onboarding to how to get experience in the remote work arena, even veering at times into the weird and wonderful world of video-gaming and virtual reality. All of this with her book as the background.

Judy Rees, our guest today, has helped dozens of trainers, coaches, and facilitators through live online training. As a news editor and a media executive, she has extensive experience managing large remote teams. She is the co-author of Clean Language: Revealing Metaphors And Opening Minds, and a regular keynote speaker at Agile and other events around the world.

In this episode, we talk about the power of clean language and how it can provide us with the tools and frameworks to develop a deeper relationship with (and better understanding of) our teams. Judy provides the listeners with specific techniques for giving and receiving feedback (actual useful, step-by-step ones, not your usual management blog post snake-oil) and engaging in deep communication with the people working with you.

We also discuss topics such as the challenges of video communication, cultural norms, and degrees of separation, as well as some strategies on how to build psychological safety in the team.

Is it possible to have your team members work visibly and still respect their own individual processes? Pilar Orti says “yes” - but only if you are willing to have some hard conversations - and ask the right questions! Join us for a diverse conversation with the co-author of Thinking Remote, the latest book that should be part of every remote leader’s library.

In this episode, we discuss topics such as how the concept of “Visible Teamwork” beats “Working Out Loud,” how to coach incredible employees that are having trouble adapting to the remote work-style, and the value of understanding that no tool was made specifically for you, so you shouldn’t be committed to letting them dictate your processes. And we also ask the taboo question: how can remote work go terribly wrong?

Peter Lee is an Agile Coach based in Sydney. He is a prolific writer, sharing his Agile strategies and facilitation philosophy, and is currently hard at work building Video Facilitator, the next generation of video software to use in distributed teams.

In this episode, we talk about why he feels that something is missing to allow for true online collaboration, and how Peter believes that Video Facilitator is the missing link that will let us have really effective online meetings. That’s just the beginning though – we then go on to discuss the dangers of siloing and creating filter bubbles in a team, how to build real empathy among distributed employees, and how developing a culture code is the key to reframing and acting upon your company’s values.

Mark Kilby is a seasoned agile coach, and co-founder of several North-American Agile communities. Johanna Rothman is a prolific author, management expert, and teacher of best management practices. Both are experienced software engineers, and by their powers combined, they are the co-authors of the newest book about remote agile: “From Chaos to Successful Distributed Agile Teams.”

In this episode, we go through their experience with writing the book, and take a long, hard look at the common pitfalls that remote teams face – and where adopting Agile principles might help. We discuss how to promote cross-functionality; how to “sell” management and employees on Agile practices; how to preserve the health and sanity of remote managers; the importance of timezone overlap; and much, much more!

Sharon Koifman believes every company, from the biggest enterprise to the newly-launched garage startup, should have access to world’s top talent. That’s why he used over 10 years of experience in tech industry recruitment & HR to create DistantJob. 

This episode is a free-flowing conversation where Luis and Sharon explore their growth as managers over the past few years, as they expanded DistantJob into a much bigger operation and tried to apply the big lessons they learned from the best leaders in the remote work space – many of whom have been interviewed in this very podcast!

In this episode, we talk about a wide variety of topics with our founder Sharon Koifman, but fundamentally: finding the right people for your team. 

Sharon is a big advocate for remote work and one of his core beliefs is that if you treat your team like family, it will pay off in the long run. However, there is one key quality that his team needs to have in order to be able to work remotely.

Welcome to the DistantJob Podcast, a show where we interview the most successful remote leaders, picking their brains on how to build and lead remote teams who win.
Jo Palmer is the Founder of Pointer Remote, a platform to connect professionals in Australia who are physically isolated from roles in which they are qualified, or may have held in the past to roles that can be filled remotely. She loves witnessing the amazing things that happen when people are connected to each other.
In this episode, we talk about a wide variety of topics, but fundamentally: hiring and managing the best global talent. What does it take to run a global team? What are the challenges? What should we look for when hiring a remote candidate? And, which tools can we use to make our remote team work more efficiently.
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Want to continue the conversation with Jo? 
LinkedIn: Jo Palmer
Twitter: @pointerremote
Facebook: Pointer Remote
Business: Pointer Remote  (pointerremoteroles.com.au/ )
Book Recommendations:
Remote: Office Not Required (by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier) www.amazon.com/Remote-Office-Not-Required/dp/0804137501
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Need that one incredible employee to bolster your team?  Get in touch at  https://distantjob.com/contact/ and we’ll find you who you need.