[yankeehue]

I'm in a similar boat: remote team lead on a government project living in FL :)

Was the rest of the team local to each other? That can be difficult because the team may be accustom to conducting all communication verbally, where you need it to be electronic. I was a new-comer to the team when I became the remote lead, and one of the things I did was focus on getting folks to communicate electronically. Luckily for me, they were in individual offices spread around the building and two were in other buildings, so they were already using IM, chat, and email. I just needed to reinforce it.

Also from the beginning, I've focused on team cohesion and team communication. The team was in a bad state when I joined, so again lucky for me, it was something I knew needed extra attention. As a team lead, it's an important factor that you need to pay attention to, but perhaps don't have to spend a lot of time on when everyone is local. As a remote team lead, you need to spend a non-trivial amount of time on it.

And face time is still important. I travel twice a month for a day or two and try to meet with everyone during that time. I also conduct a daily standup where the rest of the team is in the room and I'm on the phone. It can be difficult to follow the conversations in the room from the phone, but really the goal is to make sure the team is talking to each other, and isn't about my control of the conversation or of the team.

Where in FL are you?

[virmundi]

I'm in the lovely town of Palatka.

My team was entirely new. It was built around a core of two people: myself and a systems admin. We directed the bulk of the technical decisions.

Looking back, the problem was a cult of personality driven by both of us. We were the go-to guys for everything. The rest of the team didn't get, or expect much say in the overarching design. I tried to ease myself out of the cult leader into more of a director when I moved.

That easing didn't work. People just kinda drifted off. Things got done, but details were over looked.

We had stand ups everyday, but most people wouldn't give granular enough responses to figure out the burn down, etc. As a tech lead I didn't have much pull on trying to get them to be more scrum-y.

The ethos of the team seems to be more like the Mangalores from 5th Element. Without a tangible head, fiefdoms arose.

[jmccree]

Have you tried doing a daily standup where everyone calls in individually from their office? In my experience things work the best when everyone is operating remotely with the same "communication handicap".

[yankeehue]

Yes I've tried both. It seems like a trade-off to me. Everyone now is completely into using electronic, asynchronous communication, following up verbal discussions with a quick email or IM listing highlights/decisions, etc. Imposing that handicap can help, but don't need to work on it so much anymore. Whereas getting everybody in the room for a quick status, a few jokes and good laughs, and some ranting about the customer seems to keep morale high. That non-trivial amount of time includes continuously assessing what is and isn't working.