The Training Gap: Why Your Teams Are Struggling
The problems isn't that “hybrid is hard." It’s that leading distributed teams is hard – and distributed is now the norm.
Here's a stat that should make every executive pause: only 25% of managers have received training to lead remote teams. Yet the majority of teams in organizations today are distributed across locations, time zones, and functions.
The reality is that this isn’t about leading remote teams, or that “hybrid is hard” – it’s that leading distributed teams is hard. And distributed teams are now the norm in many organizations.
We're essentially asking people to navigate complex cross-functional collaboration without a roadmap – and then wondering why productivity and engagement suffer.
I recently invited Sacha Connor, who has trained thousands of managers on distributed team leadership, to share what she’s learned with the Work Forward Forum. Her insights reveal why most organizations are stuck, and more importantly, how to move forward.
Sacha Connor, photo courtesy Plugged In by Tulsa Remote
The Real Challenge Isn't Remote Work—It's Distributed Work
"Leading distributed teams equals remote teams," Connor explains. "It's not about the office—it's about digital being primary, and time zones matter more than physical proximity." This distinction is crucial because even companies with hybrid policies often have teams scattered across regions, making traditional in-person management approaches obsolete.
The numbers back this up. In any mid-sized or greater organization most teams are already distributed (ex., Microsoft went from from 61% of teams co-located pre-pandemic to only 27% by 2023). Cross-functional project teams are almost always distributed – and require more training and support.
Connor's work shows the gap between statements like “I know our goals” and the reality: in one case, 87% of team members believed they understood their goals, but when asked to actually state those goals, responses vary wildly. In one cross-functional team she studied, the business unit that created the goals had only 63% understanding and agreement among their own members.
"You can't just assume because everybody says they know the goals that they actually do."
This disconnect becomes even more pronounced when you layer in the complexity of distributed collaboration.
The Cross-Functional Collaboration Crisis
The challenge intensifies when teams must work across silos—which, let's face it, describes most important work today. As Corina Kolbe of Zillow shared in our conversation,
"Teams default to working in silos and that's not going to work. When trying to build integrated solutions for the customer, teams need to learn to work across functions. Working horizontally is just as important as vertically to serve the needs of the customer."
Connor has seen this pattern repeatedly: "What I'm seeing a lot is that teams need this critical shift in their mindset—moving from cross-functional individuals transacting to one team collaborating from anywhere." The difference is profound. When people see their functional role as their primary identity, collaboration becomes transactional. When they see the cross-functional outcome as their shared mission, magic happens.
Connor worked with an enterprise cross-functional team struggling with exactly this dynamic.
"There were many tense Zoom meetings, with too many attendees, some with cameras on, some not. The team was experiencing lots of mistrust, missed deadlines, and low responsiveness."
After implementing structured team agreements and collaboration training, the team didn't just improve—they won a corporate award for collaboration 18 months later.
The Team Agreement Solution
The breakthrough comes through Connor’s application of “team working agreements"—but not the superficial kind focused solely on logistics.
"If you only try to define 'our ways of working' but you don't know what it's in service of, or you haven't created team connection, you start to get cyclical conversations."
Effective team agreements address three key areas:
Purpose and Roles: Clear team goals, defined roles, and decision-making authority. Connor has experienced that even when 100% of team members think they understand goals, managers of those team members often don't—in one case only 33% had personal metrics tied to the team's success.
Behaviors and Culture: Operationalizing company values into specific team behaviors. "Many times teams don't know what the company values are or how to actually operationalize them," Connor observes.
Communication and Workflow: How the team actually collaborates across time zones, tools, and schedules—including an often-overlooked question: "What's the role of AI on our team?"
The Virtual Work Insider team working agreement framework
The Manager Training Gap
The statistics on manager preparation are sobering. Beyond the 25% training figure, only 26% of teams have established norms for how they work together. Yet we expect these under-prepared managers to drive accountability, build connections, and coach effectively across distances. Connor’s work tackles what BCG identifies as the critical fourth step of making flexible work work: investing in key enablers like manager upskilling and team norming.
BCG’s “Hybrid 5,” courtesy Debbie Lovich and Rosie Sargeant: Making Flexible Working Models Work
Connor's solution through the Invested Leader Program focuses on three core capabilities for people managers identified through research done by University of Michigan and The Conference Board: creating connection through emotional intelligence, developing coaching skills for distributed environments, and building inclusive experiences regardless of location.
Based on nearly 3,000 program participants,
"One of the largest improvements we saw was in having methods to analyze team work priorities and detect burnout. When you can't observe physical progress because you're not co-located, you need different tools for managing accountability."
Just because they’re present doesn’t mean the work is progressing; and distance doesn’t make that need any different.
Building Influence Across Distance
Perhaps most critically, Connor addresses a challenge many don't even recognize: how individuals build visibility and influence when they can't rely on hallway conversations and office presence.
"That was one of the most important things I had to learn back when I went fully remote in 2010 as a business leader at The Clorox Company — the strategies and tactics to raise visibility across distance on a day-in, day-out basis."
Her five-step program helps people map their stakeholder networks, identify key relationships, and create systematic approaches to building "weak ties"—those broader organizational connections that research shows are crucial for innovation and career advancement but weaken significantly in distributed environments.
Interested? Join the waitlist for the “Build Your Network and Influence Workshop.”
The Path Forward
The good news? Organizations that invest in these capabilities see dramatic results. Connor's team agreement processes consistently improve trust, communication, and collaboration. Her manager training shows measurable improvements in strategies to retain top talent, accountability management, and the successful flow of information.
But success requires commitment to three principles I've seen work across organizations:
Systematic Skill Building: This isn't about one-off training sessions but ongoing capability development with application and coaching.
Team-Level Focus: While individual skills matter, the breakthrough comes when entire teams develop shared norms and practices.
Leadership Investment: As Connor puts it, "Most organizations get stuck" at the enablement stage because leaders underestimate the coordination complexity that flexibility creates.
Four Actions You Can Take This Week
Here’s how to get started:
Audit Your Management Training: What percentage of your managers have received specific training on leading distributed teams? If it's below 50%, you've found your priority.
Test Goal Alignment: Pick one cross-functional team and ask members individually to write down the team's goals. Compare responses—you might be surprised.
Map Your Distributed Reality: Have teams create a visual map of where members are located, what time zones they work in, and when they're available. Basic, but Connor finds most teams haven't had this conversation. She even has a handy tool for you to use.
Start with One Team Agreement: Pilot Connor's framework with one high-stakes cross-functional team. Focus on purpose, behaviors, and ways of working—not just meeting schedules.
The future belongs to organizations that can coordinate complex work across distance. The question isn't whether your teams are distributed—they already are. The question is whether you're giving them the tools to succeed in that reality.
Want to dive deeper? Read more about Sacha Connor's custom training programs and the Invested Leader Program offered through the Udemy Business Leadership Academy or contact her at sacha@virtualworkinsider.com
Are your managers trained to lead distributed teams?
One More Thing…
The Flex Index “State of Flex” webinar is back! Join me, Stanford’s Nick Bloom, BCG’s Debbie Lovich and Rob Sadow next week for fresh data on what's actually happening with workplace flexibility.
What you'll get:
🏢 Latest Flex Index trends from 8,500+ US companies - including how employees are really responding to shifting RTO policies
💻 Stanford University economist Nick Bloom will dig into "AI and WFH: parallels or substitutes?" Spicy! 🌶️
🎯 BCG senior partner Debbie Lovich on why Radical Employee Centricity unlocks both performance AND AI adoption.
💪 Rob Sadow and I will get into the past, present and future of the Flex Index -- the "Consumer Reports" of workplace flexibility!
Live Q&A: Bring your questions, it's our favorite part!
📅 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗻: Wednesday, June 4th 9-10am PT / noon-1pm ET
The point that “distributed collaboration isn't the same as remote work” was so well made. Especially that shift from space to time being the more important factor.When you were shaping your team agreements, were there any cultural differences or work habits that were particularly hard to align? I’d love to hear how you approached breaking that down