While I was working in Shanghai, a manager who led a global team shared their strategy for being more personable and building relationships with distance teams.

When the team first came together, she dedicated a meeting to get to know people. Each person had a 5-minute slot to deliver a presentation about themselves personally, including photos of them, family, pets and anything that they were willing to share. They were only allowed to talk for 30 seconds on their professional life.

The leader’s intention was to help people to get to know each other personally.

When a new team member joined the team, there was a dedicated agenda spot allocated to them in the next meeting and, subsequent to that, each team member reached out to the new person one on one, where they shared their personal information. Of course, people found lots in common and to this day they stay in touch via social media despite, in most cases, never having met face-to-face.