Course description

Managing a team you can't see all at once is a different job. Some people are in the office on Tuesdays, some are at home every day, some work part-time or compressed hours, and news that's shared over a desk can take days to reach everyone else. This course shows you how to lead a hybrid or remote team fairly and well: building trust without watching people, agreeing how the team works, communicating so that everyone hears things at the same time, and judging results rather than presence.

It's a full course, not a quick tour. There are 10 sections and 50 written lessons, and every lesson ends with a practical task for your own team. You follow Ketevan, a new manager of a home insurance claims team in Preston with colleagues working from Inverness, Belfast, Swansea and Norwich, through her first nine months: a team health check, a working agreement, a meeting reset, a colleague who goes quiet, a new starter whose login isn't ready, a flexible working request, a tense chat thread and a review with her own manager. Every section has a worksheet, model answers, a cheat sheet and ready-made templates and spreadsheets.

What you'll learn

• Managing at a distance: what changes when a team works apart, the language of working patterns, the UK rules every hybrid manager should know and a simple team health check.
• Trust and fairness: how trust works when you can't see people, managing by outcomes, proximity bias, psychological safety on screen and repairing trust.
• How the team works: a team working agreement, office days with a purpose, core hours and response times, a channel guide and a team handbook.
• Communication and meetings: async working, clear writing, a weekly team update, sharing news fairly, cutting the noise, meeting audits, inclusive hybrid meetings and team days.
• People and results: remote one-to-ones, noticing how people are, feedback on screen and in writing, development, recognition, workload, slipping performance and fair reviews.
• Wellbeing and the rules: homeworking health and safety, working hours and the always-on problem, isolation, adjustments, and looking after yourself.
• Requests and change: statutory flexible working requests and trial periods, remote onboarding, leading change and handling conflict in a distributed team.

Who it's for

Managers and team leaders of hybrid, remote or distributed teams in the UK, in any sector. It's the next step after Leadership for New Managers, so it doesn't repeat the basics of feedback, coaching and goal setting. It covers the UK rules that matter for hybrid managers, with notes on Northern Ireland and the changes planned under the Employment Rights Act 2025. The course gives practical, general guidance, not legal advice, and works with whatever video call and chat tools your organisation uses. It ends with a final project: diagnosing a fictional bookings team, writing its working agreement and communication plan, and building your own 90-day plan.

What will I learn?

• Explain what changes when a team works apart, and diagnose your own team with a simple health check
• Build trust at a distance by managing outcomes, not presence, and spot and counter proximity bias
• Write a team working agreement with anchor days, core hours, response times and a channel guide
• Communicate so that everyone hears news at the same time, using async updates and clear writing
• Audit your meetings and run hybrid and online meetings where everyone can take part fully
• Hold remote one-to-ones, give feedback on screen and in writing, and make sure remote colleagues get development and recognition
• Track progress without surveillance, balance workload fairly and run fair performance reviews
• Meet your duties on homeworking health and safety, working hours and adjustments, and handle flexible working requests, onboarding, change and conflict

Frequently asked questions