Nikita Mercado

  I often hear this feedback from founders and team leads: “Our offshore team isn’t proactive.” But when I ask a few more questions — about structure, inclusion, and leadership — I usually discover something deeper: Their offshore team isn’t set up to succeed. They’re expected to take initiative without being given ownership. The Truth About Offshore “Proactivity” Let’s be honest — most offshore teams aren’t brought into the full picture. They’re assigned tasks, not outcomes. They’re trained on tools, but not context. They’re expected to support, but not lead. And when proactivity doesn’t show up, leadership assumes it’s a limitation. It’s not. Proactivity is not a personality trait. It’s a product of environment. It grows when people feel trusted, included, and safe to speak up. If your offshore team seems reactive, ask yourself: • Have they been trained with the same level of clarity as your local team? • Do they understand the why behind the work — or just the checklist? • Have ...

  The sun never sets on our team—and that’s by design. Leading a remote team spread across continents is both an art and a system. It challenges you to rethink traditional collaboration, redefine productivity, and deepen trust without ever sitting across a conference table. Here’s what I’ve learned through experience:  1.  Overlap ≠ Productivity Chasing overlapping hours across time zones can quickly become a scheduling nightmare. The truth is: you don’t need eight shared hours to do great work. What matters more is the  quality of handoffs  and the  clarity of ownership . A few golden hours of overlap—used wisely—can go a long way when paired with strong async documentation and a culture of proactive communication. 2.  Async Doesn’t Mean Disconnected Working asynchronously can feel transactional if you’re not intentional. That’s why emotional connection must be built into the system. We’ve made async feel human by: Sharing short video updates instead ...