How to manage a remote team in a war zone

The sirens go off in the middle of a demo with a US prospect, right mid-sentence. Another round of sighs, gasps, and oh-ohs from that side of the screen – but for us it’s already routine.

We paused, gave a quick explanation, and walked to the shelter. Ten minutes later, the demo resumed from there. The prospect sounded more shaken than the team. We closed the deal a few weeks later.

At some point, moments like that stop feeling exceptional for our Israeli office. They become the norm. We have siren pauses mid-dailies, mid-calls – mid-everything. My military intelligence background – 7 years in Unit 8200 – taught me to develop clear coping patterns, so the response becomes consistent rather than reactive. You treat it like a drill: pause, walk, come back, keep going.

Admit productivity isn’t linear anymore

Under these circumstances, the idea of a “normal workday” disappears. The day stretches and breaks apart depending on what’s happening outside the screen. Meetings are interrupted, hours shift, and focus comes and goes.

What hasn’t changed is how we measure performance. The team still looks at output: the number of deals closed, customers onboarded, features shipped, and revenue growth. Customers don’t adjust expectations based on geography, and we do not expect them to – the standard remains high.

What changed is how we think about time. A productive day is still a day where the business moves forward. It just may not happen between 9 and 5, or even within a single uninterrupted block. Someone might step away for part of the afternoon, then return later in the evening. The work continues – on a different cadence.

Over time, the unit of measurement shifts. Instead of optimizing for hours or days, the team optimizes for the week. Progress is assessed over longer intervals, where interruptions even out and momentum becomes visible again. And in practice, performance didn’t drop. We’ve had our strongest quarters during the war – the opposite of what you’d expect.

Build systems to carry the load

In a constant state of disruption, you can’t rely on people being available at the exact moment something comes up. Work has to move forward even when someone drops off.

A few practical rules we rely on to build stable work cycles:

• Anyone can drop off any call at any time, no explanation needed. Resume when you’re ready.
• Critical work always has a backup owner. No single point of failure, and no one is the sole point of contact.
• We over-communicate status in writing, so nothing depends on a specific person being available in a specific moment.
• We buffer customer-facing commitments. Better to under-promise than to explain delays.

None of these practices is new – most are just good remote-team hygiene. The difference is that under pressure, they stop being optional. The war forced us to implement it faster and treat it as part of how we care for the team, not just as an operational choice.

Add an emotional layer to operations

There are moments when work is not the priority. When missiles land near team members’ homes, their families need attention – and people step away without warning.

We respond accordingly and try to be genuinely accommodating, especially for parents at home with small kids when school or playgroup is closed. The message we keep repeating: put yourself, your family, and your mental health above all else.

People must take care of themselves and their families first. Work adjusts around that, not the other way around. When things are tough, take a break, start your day later, work the hours of the day that actually work for you and your household.

What stands out is what happens next. In many cases, people return to work with even more intensity and focus. It becomes a way to stay grounded when everything else feels chaotic and provides structure when the external environment does not. That dynamic comes from the team itself – nobody’s pushing them to work more.

Learn to lead with trust

Extreme conditions don’t introduce new management frameworks. They tend to remove unnecessary ones.

The rules we stick to:

1. Judge by output, not hours. No one on the team owes an explanation for where they were at 11 am. We trust people to manage their time, especially in moments like these.
2. People are capable and resilient – that’s our basic assumption. Most of the team has faced hard things, and managing around fragility that isn’t there can be disrespectful. At the same time, when someone is having a tough time, we make space for it.
3. Keep building. Leadership attention stays on the business: the most useful thing I can do as CEO is stay focused on the company. Then the work itself becomes a point of stability for the team. When leadership remains focused, it creates a sense of continuity that others can rely on. When it drifts, that uncertainty spreads quickly, and it has a negative ripple effect.

The challenge is to maintain clarity within that context of ever-present unknowns. If we get it right, the work continues, because the team has learned how to operate without relying on external stability. Instead, it creates it from within.