First of all, make sure that the management itself is aligned. Patterns reproduce themselves across the organization and that process is mostly top->down. Have

First of all, make sure that the management itself is aligned. Patterns reproduce themselves across the organization and that process is mostly top->down. Have your most important values written down. Technical and non-technical. Ask new joiners read them and refer to them when discussing short and long term plans. Don't believe that a fully flat hierarchy is the solution for all problems. A distributed team makes communication harder, so you might need more process than usual -- for 40 people you almost certainly need other managers to help you. Have a strategy for the corporation that everyone understands. Team leads will then understand what their team has to contribute, and individuals will understand how to contribute to the team. If the company strategy is not well-known, your remote team is doomed. Focus on alignment to values and vision, not to what you tell people directly. You're doing your job well if people and teams become autonomous. Find and remove anything that blocks lateral communication (i.e. that goes outside of the hierarchy chain). Be skilled in people management. Recognize isolation, burnout, depression, tension early enough and be able to solve them. If you are not skilled, learn from professionals, not from blog posts. If needed, break rules. An important rule in a distributed team is that people don't meet often. If necessary, break this rule.