Want to scale your remote team? Foster accountability.
Build a team structure that grows with you and keeps work moving (without unnecessary management layers).
Scaling a remote team is hard—but it doesn’t have to break your business.
If you’re constantly firefighting, chasing updates, or struggling with bottlenecks, the issue isn’t just workload—it’s structure.
I’ve spent the past 18 months refining how we hire, organise, and scale a remote team at an agency where I lead growth marketing. And after a lot of trial and error, here’s what I’ve learned:
🚩 Hiring more people doesn’t solve inefficiencies. It often makes them worse.
🚩 A lack of structure leads to overworked managers and constant follow-ups.
🚩 The real unlock is accountability. When people own their work, scaling becomes easier.
Here’s what you’ll get from this post:
The hiring dilemma: How to scale without breaking your team
Hidden struggles: Red flags that signal your team is struggling
Accountability that sticks: How to build a culture your team buys into instantly
4 ways to build a self-managing team and free up leadership time
How we solved the hiring dilemma
At our agency, we needed a structure that could handle fluctuating workloads. One that could stretch when needed without breaking, but also avoid the trap of “more work = more hires.”
(Because budget.)
We landed on a pod model: small, focused teams working collaboratively. I know this isn’t rocket science, but when budget allows, it’s a scalable way to structure a team without overloading managers.
We tested different structures before landing on pods, and here’s what we learned:
🚫 All-in-one hires don’t scale. You’re looking for a unicorn 🦄 every time. (At one point, we even joked, “We need another you!” Turns out, cloning people isn’t an option.
🚫 A single manager with an assistant still doesn’t scale. Too much bottlenecking.
🚫 Strategist + assistant + AI? Generic, uninspired GPT-generated copy and loads of back-and-forth.
✅ Marketing Manager + Specialists + Assistant + AI? A solid pod—but limited in how many clients it can handle.
✅ The winning structure: Head of Dept (deep expertise) + Managing Lead (strategy, processes) + Multiple pods.
Why pods work: Small, focused teams that collaborate effectively. I know this isn’t rocket science, but when budget allows, it’s a scalable way to structure a team without overloading managers.
The hidden costs of scaling without structure
Scaling from a scrappy small team to a structured group changes how work gets done. Without the right systems, fast growth leads to:
Overworked leaders stretched too thin
A reactive, firefighting approach instead of strategic scaling 🧯
A reliance on high performers to pick up the slack for others
At first, it might seem like the answer is hiring more specialists. But spotting leadership potential early sets the team up for success and takes pressure off managers.
Hire people who naturally take ownership, manage projects, and have the drive for upward growth.
(Even if they haven’t managed teams before, their ability to lead their own work and think ahead makes all the difference.)
Remote teams run on accountability, not micromanagement
Instead of just bringing in skilled people, hire accountable people. But before looking outward, start by setting clear expectations internally:
Give high performers space to excel without burning out
Create a culture where everyone owns their responsibilities
If constant follow-ups are needed, ask:
❓ Are team members taking full ownership of their tasks?
❓ Are they proactively moving work forward or just waiting for instructions?
❓ Is the management structure enabling efficiency or creating bottlenecks?
When deadlines matter and every task contributes to the bigger picture, no one wants to be the bottleneck. It’s about keeping momentum.
High-performing teams don’t wait for their turn—they keep everything in motion, so nothing regularly falls through the cracks. 🤹♀️
When people understand how their work fits into the larger system, they take it seriously. They have a purpose. They see their impact.
One small but powerful way to encourage this: publicly celebrating team wins.
A simple #showcase Slack channel works wonders. No shoutout is too small to deserve praise.
Another small but effective change:
Setting a default public rule in Slack.
🚫 No DMs for client work.
✅ Everything happens in shared Slack channels.
This simple rule helps:
✔️ Identify workflow issues and fix them faster
✔️ Smooth out team communication so nothing is siloed
✔️ Reduce bottlenecks—anyone can jump in and help
✔️ Free up mental space so no one is drowning in scattered updates
✔️ Build a shared knowledge base so we’re not answering the same questions repeatedly
It’s like basic training for avoiding survival mode. 🏃👟
When everyone stays accountable for their quality of work and meets their own deadlines, work moves faster, morale improves, and leadership can focus on growing the business.
4 ways to build a self-managing team
A team that runs itself doesn’t need more check-ins, more approvals, or more layers of management. It needs ownership, problem-solving, and initiative. Here are 4 ways to make that happen:
1. Hire for ownership, not just tasks
Hire those who think holistically about their work. You want people who:
✔️ See beyond their to-do list and understand the bigger picture
✔️ Anticipate roadblocks and take the next step without being told
✔️ Deliver work that’s ready to go—not half-done and needing fixes
This applies to most roles: team leads, designers, copywriters, assistants, and marketing specialists.
When people take real ownership of their work, managers aren’t constantly following up or nudging things forward.
Instead of relying on management to keep things moving, the team drives projects as a unit, freeing up leadership to focus on strategy, not micromanaging.
2. ‘McDonalds-ise’ your processes 🍟
Systemise everything.
McDonald’s doesn’t rely on individuals figuring things out from scratch. It has repeatable systems that anyone can step into and execute.
A self-serve model looks like:
✔️ Documenting tasks—clear subtasks, due dates, priorities (a Kanban board like Asana works well)
✔️ Creating templates—pre-built workflows for recurring projects
✔️ Standardising communication—team members start threads instead of relying on DMs
A systemised approach means fewer blockers, fewer questions, fewer delays—so work moves forward without constant check-ins.
3. Build ownership into check-ins and performance reviews
Refining processes over time creates clear expectations, and every time you do this you empower your team to set a new benchmark for themselves.
A structured approach to check-ins helps keep the team engaged and accountable without adding unnecessary meetings:
Biweekly 1:1s focus on short-term progress, blockers, and immediate support. These are a chance to check in on workload and how they’re doing.
90-day deep dives track long-term performance against both individual goals and cultural fit. Instead of just reviewing output, team members assess how they perceive their own performance against company values, accountability, and ownership.
Regular check-ins make the team an active player in their own growth and the company’s success. They provide space to reflect, adjust, and refine how they work. And the time to action them.
Get team members to own part of their process by maintaining a key task or template. When people take responsibility for refining workflows, they naturally improve efficiency while making the work their own.
4. Protect the overachievers 🧘♀️
Focus time is crucial, especially in remote teams, where constant notifications and pings can interrupt deep work.
If small distractions pile up, they eat away at productivity. It takes 20 minutes for the brain to regain focus after a distraction.
Are people constantly getting pulled into things?
Do they feel like they need to be instantly available?
Encourage intentional breaks from notifications. It’s okay to pause Slack when working on deep-focus tasks.
Turn daily work into leadership training
Leadership isn’t only a role. It’s a habit.
And small habits add up.
When someone submits a half-baked deliverable, don’t fix it. Instead, ask:
“Have you reviewed this?”
Those four words can quickly put responsibility back where it belongs. In the short term, not giving away all the answers will slow things down. In the long term, it’ll save you so much more time.
High-performing teams don’t wait to be told what to do. They anticipate, remove blockers, and keep things moving by taking the first incremental step to move it forward.
Often, it’s as simple as @ mentioning in a doc.
What to tell your team:
If a task comes before or after yours, reach out.
If something is blocking you, unblock it. Don’t sleep on it overnight.
It’s like passing the baton in a relay race.
Less batons dropped.
Faster execution.
Thanks for reading Remotely Led! If this resonated, hit reply! I’d love to hear your thoughts. See you next Wednesday.