Author: David Horsager
_David Horsager_
Reading time: 19 minutes
Synopsis
Trust at a Distance (2025) shows leaders how to build and keep trust with teams that work from different places. This includes working from home, a mix of home and office, or in other cities. It uses studies and real examples. The book gives six clear ways to make communication, teamwork, responsibility, knowing what to expect, feeling connected, and support stronger. This helps employees who work apart to feel involved, sure of themselves, and do good work.
What’s in it for me? Build trust and lead remote teams with clarity and confidence.
Working from home is not just a short test anymore. Your team might be in different cities or time zones. But you still need to reach goals, keep your team interested, and make smart choices. There are good things about it: you can hire people from more places, people travel less, there is more freedom, and decisions are written down more clearly. If done well, this work style can make companies stronger and welcome more people than an office building ever could.
The hard part is trust. Strong arguments about working from home, tough rules to come back to the office, and worries about who is “really working” show that trust is weak when people are far apart. You and your team have fewer body language signs, fewer quick chats. This means more chances to guess and imagine bad things. When trust is missing, everything slows down.
This Blink gives six ways to fix this. You will learn how to change doubts into clear understanding. You will also learn how to make connections stronger even when you are not together. And you will learn to lead teams that work far apart or in a mix of ways. This will make things fair, kind, and reliable for everyone.
Blink 1 – Make communication stronger to fix the lack of trust when people work far apart
Imagine you lead a charity where everyone works from home. You really care about your team. You tell them they can talk to you anytime. But you rarely start talks, you reply to messages late, and you don’t like to use new tools. Team meetings are awkward. There are long silences, and one person talks just to fill the quiet. People share their true feelings later in private chats and video calls without you. When it’s quiet like this, your team starts to wonder: ‘Is there a problem? Am I safe here? Should I find another job?’
In a team that works far apart, trust depends on how carefully you talk to people. If you stay quiet or send unclear messages, your team will start to worry and try to protect themselves. You need to talk in a way that is planned, often, and clear. That is the main idea of strategy 1: make communication stronger.
This idea has six main parts. Understanding means you give more details and explain both facts and feelings. Don’t expect people to understand how urgent or important something is from just one word, like “ASAP.” Respect is about how you sound online: how fast you reply, how carefully you choose your words, and if you reply at all. These things show how much you care about someone.
Information means you share important news with everyone, not just your close group. This stops remote teams from becoming separate. Alignment means having clear shared rules. For example, which tools to use for different tasks, how fast to reply, and the kind of language you expect.
Curiosity asks you to see first impressions as ideas to test. You should ask questions to find the real facts. And Grace asks you to stop before you react. Remember that you often don’t know the whole story. Choose to trust your colleagues first. When you do these six things, you change hidden doubts into steady communication that builds trust.
Blink 2 – Make the goals clear so everyone knows what is important
A large group across the country helped new business leaders meet older, experienced people in money and business. But this group had problems. Their goal sounded good, but people working there felt confused. No one was sure what their job was. Many leaders gave orders. Staff did not know who was the boss or who could hire or fire people.
Then the main boss suddenly left. The team members, who worked far apart and hardly knew each other, wanted to leave. A temporary CEO took over. She visited important volunteer groups. She kept the online team updated. Then, she brought everyone together in person. They worked to create a shared plan, make roles and reporting clear, agree on what was most important, and have regular times for questions. When things became clearer and people felt more connected, trust grew. People stopped looking for new jobs.
Employees cannot see leaders in hallways or hear what is important by chance. So, they work alone and guess what is important. If you only explain goals once and then stop, people will make up their own ideas. You need to show how daily work helps a larger goal. You also need to explain which results are important right now. This is strategy 2: make the goals clear.
One way to make things clearer is to use your MVPs – your mission, values, and priorities. Mission is the “why” – the lasting reason why your company is here. Values are the “way” – the common rules that help you decide and act, even when no one sees you. And priorities are the “how right now” – the main things to focus on right now. These should guide how people use their time and energy this week or quarter, especially when working far apart.
To make your MVPs real, use four tested ways to build trust: conversations, repetition, stories, and goal alignment. Talk about your MVPs every day. Do this when you look at ideas, celebrate successes, and decide what to do first. Say important messages again and again in meetings, messages, and updates until everyone remembers them. Tell stories about people who follow the mission and values. This shows others what success looks like. And connect team goals and personal goals directly to your MVPs. Then no one has to guess why their work is important. When you can, bring people into the same room to create or update the shared plan together. This gives remote staff a clear feeling of where everyone is going.
Blink 3 – Create regular ways of working your team can trust
Think back to a time when everything in your workday was new. You had to think hard about every email, every request, every unwritten rule. By the end of the day, you were very tired. This unsure feeling can tire remote employees a lot. This happens if you don’t give them routines they can trust. That is why strategy 3 asks you to create things people can expect.
In a team that works far apart, not knowing what to expect is more than just annoying. It takes away energy and self-belief. People cannot quietly watch how others behave. So they miss the small signs that show what is truly important. Instead, working from home can feel like walking through a field of hidden bombs. A joke that goes wrong, a message that forgets someone’s job title, or a fun emoji used at the wrong time can all cause problems you didn’t expect. Without clear rules for what to expect, your team moves carefully. They doubt themselves. This makes them worried and lowers trust.
To make that problem smaller, you need a simple, very important tool: consistent check-ins. If people don’t have regular times to ask questions, they keep things to themselves and think they are alone. Leaders sometimes think, ‘figure it out for yourself,’ and believe they are giving freedom. But for employees, it can feel like being alone. The same thing happens with the idea of an ‘always-open door.’ In an online world, there is no door to look at. So people will usually think you are too busy. Unless you reach out first, many team members will only talk when a problem has become very big.
Teams with high trust make check-ins a fixed habit, based on three things: time, consistency, and structure. You set aside regular time, even if it’s short. You keep those meeting times. Don’t cancel them when you are busy. And you give each talk a simple plan so it stays on topic and helps everyone. If you can do more, you can add regular routines. For example, fast team meetings at the start of the week or short updates at the end of the day. When people know when they will hear from you and what those moments will feel like, they relax. They share worries sooner. And they start to trust that they are not dealing with problems by themselves.
Blink 4 – Change how we think about responsibility with true freedom and good results
When COVID-19 suddenly made many companies work from home or a mix of home and office, many leaders asked themselves: Can I really trust people I cannot see? Do I need more control? Stories were told about bosses saying teams were “pretending to work.” And about staff secretly doing two full-time jobs from home. That fight between trust and control is a key part of working from home.
Many companies answer these questions by watching people online. They track mouse moves, record what people type, take random screen pictures, or watch webcams. This is to prove people are at their desks. This seems to offer certainty. But it really sends a clear message: we do not trust you. When people feel watched instead of trusted, they stop caring. They find ways around the rules, and new ideas become fewer. But strategy 4, change how we think about responsibility, shows another way.
Accountable autonomy changes the idea. You don’t just blindly trust or strictly control. Instead, you link freedom with responsibility. People get a real say in how they plan their day and do their jobs. At the same time, their results and promises remain clear to see. That extra space can bring out the best in people. When no one is watching closely, many people are more ready to share ideas, take clever risks, and say when something is not working. People are motivated not because “my boss is watching,” but because “I want to do this well.” This gives them more energy and helps them do better.
The key is balance. Not every job can offer the same freedom. And not everyone is ready for it in the same way. Keep asking who is ready for more freedom. Give more freedom little by little as people show they can be trusted. This also means you, as a manager, must let go a bit. Leaders who were always watched closely often start by tracking hours and what people do. Letting go means focusing on what people achieve, not how they do it.
To build strong responsibility without going back to being too controlling, focus on four habits: open ways to measure work that look at results, not how long people are on their computer. Clear rules so no one has to guess what “good” means. Regular feedback so you can talk about how people are doing right away. And fair results when people often fail to do what they promised. In a team that works far apart, this mix lets you set high standards. And you still treat adults like adults.
Blink 5 – Create good connections that keep remote workers feeling well
During an online training call in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, the author David Horsager saw a screen with mostly black boxes. A group of nurses he was meeting with were very tired. They were clearly not ready for a normal business talk. So he stopped his usual introduction. He asked them to take a piece of paper and draw how they felt. When the cameras finally came on, the screen showed simple drawings of tired faces, sad tears, and words like “empty” and “angry.” No one spoke for a moment, but something changed. The nurses were not just in a meeting; they felt noticed, and some trust came back.
That moment shows the big danger in working from home: feeling alone. People have felt more isolated for years. Studies now link long-term loneliness to serious health problems. This is especially true for people who work away from colleagues all day.
Our fifth strategy, creating connections, means seeing connection as part of work, not just an extra nice thing. It starts by truly listening. Remote employees often think their manager is too busy for them. This is true especially when managers do many things at once in meetings, end calls suddenly, or leave messages unanswered. But when their manager is fully present, listens to what is not said, and replies with full attention, people feel respected instead of ignored.
Next comes sharing. You don’t need to share everything. But letting your team see a bit of your real life and your less-than-perfect moments makes you seem more human. Sharing carefully about yourself makes people feel safe to be themselves. The third part in creating connections is building a community: making small, regular chances to laugh, share stories, and solve problems together.
But watch the balance. If you never let people chat, learn about each other’s small habits, and solve problems together, your team might seem fast. But they will break easily when things get tough. On the other hand, if small groups, rumors, or hidden bullying start in chats and private calls, that same feeling of being together becomes bad. So deal with the problem right away. Mix people from different groups. And make clear what is okay and not okay.
Finally, if you see employees working all day, every day, show clear work hours yourself. And tell people to take real breaks. This helps make sure working from home doesn’t lead to always being tired.
Blink 6 – Give your team what they need to learn and do well when working far apart
Jake joined a large tech company just as it started working a mix of home and office. His resume showed he was perfect: strong skills, great past work, and a good interview. A few months later, his manager saw a different story. Jake met deadlines but rarely did more than what was asked. He sat in meetings and hardly spoke. When asked how things were going, he finally said he was doing “okay.” But he didn’t know what doing “great” meant in this company. Working from home, he had missed the casual learning that shows new staff how the best workers do things.
That problem between what is expected and what support is given is key to strategy 6: give your people what they need. When people work far apart, skills don’t grow just by being near others. You need to give your team what they need in three ways: clear training, real chances to grow their careers, and tools that truly help. When people feel ready instead of having to guess, they stop being okay with “good enough” and try for better.
Training starts with basic skills for working from afar: how to use video calls well, shared work apps, team chat, and basic online safety. It also teaches how to manage time, stay focused, communicate online, and lead from a distance. Because there’s less chance to learn by watching others, use live online classes, mentors (guides), and easy guides. This lets people ask questions right away.
Growing in their career is as important as training. Remote staff often worry if leaders notice them. This is true when people in the office seem to get promoted more often. Here, “social capital” is important. This means the connections that help people get information, opportunities, and move forward. You can help people build it in four ways: Connect them with people outside their team. Give them jobs where their work can be seen. Make space for them to speak in mixed online and in-person meetings. And support them with mentors and sponsors. These people will guide them and speak for them when jobs or projects are chosen.
Tools then make support real every day. Good software for managing projects can make clear who is doing what. It can also show how each task helps the main goal. But updating it should not take more work than the task itself. Video calls can connect people but also tire them out. So make sure meetings have a clear purpose. And leave breaks between calls. Chat groups can help quickly and build friendly feelings. But without clear goals and rules, they quickly become noisy chats where important things get lost.
Finally, computers and equipment are important. A remote teammate trying to work from a bed with an old laptop gets a clear message: no one plans to help you. A normal setup – a good computer, headphones, camera, and a good place to work – tells people something very different. It says: you want great work, and you will spend money to help them do it.
Final summary
In this Blink to Trust at a Distance by David Horsager & Peggy Kendall, you have learned that working from home or in a mix of ways will continue. Trust is what makes working far apart either work well or be very tiring.
Six strategies can help you build that trust: make communication stronger, make goals clear, create routines people can expect, make good connections, change how we think about responsibility, and give your people what they need. Together, these help you change separate efforts into clear rules, constant help, and real ownership. This helps your team, who work far apart, to do their best with confidence.
Okay, that’s it for this Blink. We hope you enjoyed it. We’d really appreciate a quick rating – your feedback helps us keep improving. Thanks for listening, and see you soon.
Source: https://www.blinkist.com/https://www.blinkist.com/en/books/trust-at-a-distance-en