Managing a remote team as a Malaysian manager — what I've learned in 2 years
by Jennifer Goh·May 21, 2026
My team of 6 is distributed across KL, Penang, and one person in Sabah. Here's what I've figured out by doing it wrong first.
What I got wrong initially: Treating remote management like in-office management with video calls. It doesn't work. Remote management requires a different architecture, more documentation, clearer async norms, and explicit communication about context that would be implicit in an office.
What's working now:
- Weekly written team update (from me) so everyone has the same context regardless of timezone
- Meeting-light culture, we have one 45-minute team sync per week and the rest is async
- Over-indexed on 1:1s during the first 6 months with each person, relationship before efficiency
- Shared team norms document: when to message, when to call, expected response times
The Malaysian-specific challenge: Some team members are less comfortable with written English communication. I've adapted by mixing BM and English in async channels, which wasn't in any remote management playbook.