Stop Counting Clicks: How to Know if Your Remote Team is Really Working

I talk to a lot of managers these days, and they all have the same secret fear. They see the green dots lit up on Slack, the busy calendars, the flurry of emails. They see activity. But in the quiet moments, they wonder, is anyone actually getting anything done?

Stop Counting Clicks: How to Know if Your Remote Team is Really Working

This is the trap of remote leadership. We've been conditioned to measure presence, but now presence is just a pixel on a screen. Trying to manage this new world with old rules—by tracking hours or monitoring activity—is a recipe for disaster. It leads to micromanagement, destroys trust, and pushes your best people to look for an exit.

The hard truth is this: you have to stop managing activity and start measuring impact. It requires a shift in focus, but it’s the only way to know what’s really going on.

This isn’t about more surveillance. It's about more clarity. Based on the principles we teach in our Remote Team Leadership & Management (RTLM) programme, here’s how to make that shift.

Define What 'Done' Looks Like, Together

The most common reason for remote teams feeling disconnected is ambiguity. If your team isn't 100% sure what the priority is, they'll fill their time with "busy work" to look productive. The solution is to be relentlessly clear about outcomes.

This means shifting your focus from inputs (like hours worked) to outputs (like work completed). For your marketing team, stop asking how many social media posts they wrote and start measuring the number of qualified leads those posts generated. For your sales team, the number of calls made is far less important than the value of deals moved to the next stage in the pipeline.

This also means setting targets that have meaning. Don’t just throw a number at your team. Show them how it connects to the bigger picture. For instance, when setting a sales target, you could say, "The company needs to hit SGD 1 million in new business this quarter to fund our expansion. We've analysed the market potential, and for our region, that means a target of SGD 250,000. Your part of that is SGD 50,000. Hitting that number is what helps us all grow." Suddenly, it’s not just a target; it's a shared mission.

Turn Feedback into a Tool, Not a Report Card

In an office, feedback can be a casual, ongoing conversation. Remotely, it can feel like a formal, nerve-wracking judgment day. If you want to know how your team is truly performing, you need to make feedback feel like coaching, not criticism.

This requires being both intentional and specific. A great way to start is by changing how you run your one-to-one meetings. Use a shared document where both you and your team member can add points to discuss beforehand. This turns it from your meeting into our meeting.

Then, when you give feedback, ground it in specific observations. Instead of a vague, "I need you to be more on top of things," try something more helpful: "I saw in our project tracker that the client proposal is behind schedule. What roadblocks are you facing, and how can I help you clear them?" This approach builds trust and solves problems.

Use Your Data to Ask Better Questions

Performance data is your best friend as a remote leader, but its purpose isn't to catch people out. Its purpose is to help you ask better questions. When you see a problem in the data, your first question should always be "Why?", not "Who?".

I saw a great leader do this recently. Their sales data showed a new software feature was getting very little uptake in a particular country. Instead of blaming the local sales team, they called them up and asked, "The data suggests we're struggling to sell this feature in your market. What are you hearing from customers? Is the pricing wrong? Is our marketing message missing the mark?" The data didn't end the conversation; it started a productive one that led to a better strategy. That's how you build a culture of shared ownership.

From 'Logged In' to 'All In'

Ultimately, measuring remote performance has nothing to do with green dots or mouse clicks. It's about building a system of trust and clarity where everyone knows the goal, understands how their work contributes, and feels supported to do their best work. When you have that, you don't need to wonder if they're working. The results will speak for themselves.

Building this kind of high-trust, high-performance environment is a core skill for any modern leader. If you’re ready to learn the frameworks to do this effectively, the Remote Team Leadership & Management (RTLM) programme at ClickAcademy Asia is designed to show you how.

Ready to Stop Managing Activity and Start Measuring Impact?

Ready to move beyond tracking green dots and start leading a team that delivers real results? The Remote Team Leadership & Management (RTLM) programme at ClickAcademy Asia provides the frameworks and tools you need to build a high-trust, high-performance remote culture.

Sign up for the RTLM course today and learn to lead a team that doesn't just show up, but truly excels.