Working in an office you are always visible to your co-workers. From when you come in in the morning and being able to greet everyone in person. Converging at the coffeemaker and chatting about last night's sports. Having an impromptu meeting by the whiteboard to discuss a certain technical issue. Just looking out in the office, you can immediately see who’s in and who’s not.
When you work remote the immediacy is not the same but you can still achieve closeness with your team by The Power of Communication.
In X-Team we use Slack as our real-time communication tool. It is both versatile and user-friendly and has been the centre of activities for years. We have a multitude of different channels ranging from team-specific, discussions on a variety of technologies and for a number of special interest across X-Team. The level of formality varies from channel to channel but in general good-spirited and engaging. As this is our “virtual office” it is important to participate in the communication.
When you communicate you are visible and available which helps your team to know not only what you are doing but also that you are there to help. When you “drop off the radar screen” by not communicating you make those you work with afraid or confused.
Admittedly, it is not easy to master but with some techniques you can learn how to improve your communication and collaborate in a distributed team.