Council Post: How To Build A Strong Remote Work Culture

Kim Troy is CEO of Civilis Consulting, working alongside business leaders to transform sales, marketing, operations, and company culture.

As we put 2020 behind us and head somewhat bruised and battered into the new year, it’s pretty clear that the traditional on-site work environment has (mostly) become a thing of the past. The year ahead will require many business leaders, managers and workers alike to make significant — and possibly permanent — adjustments to the way they work to survive, and dare I say thrive.

With our own client base and workforce dispersed across North America, we have operated our company virtually for the past 20 years. We’ve made numerous mistakes along the way, but as most entrepreneur-led companies, we’ve embraced the failures as opportunities to improve and tweaked our processes, policies and principles accordingly. The techniques that follow were born from two decades of learning what does (and doesn’t) work to build a strong remote work culture.

Culture Of Impact

In traditional office environments, where employees constantly interact with customers and each other in plain sight, and where the physical space subliminally reinforces the significance of the work being conducted, team members are overtly and subconsciously reminded of how their work fits into the overall scheme. This is not so with the remote work environment. One’s home office environment can convey a whole different vibe, where the dog pees on the floor, the kids need help with homework and the freezer goes on the fritz. So we recognized that it was important for our people to realize — and feel like — they were part of something more than whatever was going on within the four walls of their own home offices.

• Company impact. We redefined our company’s mission to convey the far-reaching impact we have on people’s lives. We don’t simply help our clients’ businesses succeed. We help our manufacturing clients save lives; we help our law firm clients right wrongs; we help our B2C clients spread love, hope and joy. Approaching your client engagements from this perspective not only can make you feel better about the work you do; it ultimately can lead to delivering even better results to your clients.

• Individual impact. Once we had clearly articulated how our company was impacting others’ lives, we set about defining each person’s place on our team. We spelled out each team member’s role, including their daily responsibilities and criteria for success, and tied it back to our company’s mission. And we began regularly and publicly recognizing each other whenever someone met or exceeded a success metric. In doing this, you can constantly remind your team members that the work they do is important and fulfilling and positively impacts the world.

Culture Of Collaboration

Never underestimate the power of in-person, informal and even unspoken communication to foster collaboration and cohesion. Once people start working from home, the physical isolation naturally can lead to emotional, mental and information silos. Here are some techniques we developed to cultivate a more collaborative environment:

• Daily huddles. We instituted brief mandatory daily video huddles with a simple agenda: What is going well today? Or what are you grateful for? What are you accomplishing today? How can others on the team help you get it done?

• Decision-making process. As individual team members were working in isolation, and as the company grew, it became abundantly clear that top leadership simply couldn’t weigh in on all decisions. Decisions had to be made daily and often in the moment, but leaders weren’t always available physically or mentally to get involved. We found that it’s less important who makes the decision than that decisions are made and abided by. So we established a decision-making process that enabled others in the company to collaborate on decision making.

Culture Of Mindful Leadership

As business leaders of virtual companies, we encounter the same challenges our people do. We get distracted by the idiosyncrasies of the remote office. We get laser-focused on our own urgent priorities. And we easily forget that we are not only a part of something much more than what’s going on within our four walls — we actually are the company to all those who work for us. As leaders of remote teams, we must make an extra effort to be present for our employees because without our guidance, our companies become rudderless.

• Virtual town halls. In a remote environment, it was challenging to keep the company’s long-term goals top of mind. And in a growing company, it was difficult to make employees aware of how and why the company is adapting its strategies as the weeks, months and quarters go by. So we established regular video or email updates — directly from the CEO — to communicate notable accomplishments and changes in focus. The overall tone ideally should be congratulatory and positive and relate back to your company mission and values, and you should copiously recognize individuals’ success and accomplishments.

• Sacred one-on-ones. We learned that our direct reports not only needed to hear from us, but they also needed to be heard by us. So our leaders established weekly one-on-ones with each employee they supervised. Half of the meeting time is reserved for the employee to let us know what they’re feeling good about and what they’re struggling with; the other half is reserved for the leader to recognize and reinforce great behavior, and to help the employee work through solutions to their challenges. I recommend making these kinds of meetings sacred; ensure that everything else gets scheduled around these meetings to indicate that you’re making this time together a priority.

Indeed, the world has changed. In many ways, I believe it has changed for the better. The remote work environment has many advantages: It allows employees to work where and (in some cases) when they are most productive; it allows employers to attract a more diverse workforce; and free of geographical constraints, it enables employers to recruit from a much bigger candidate pool. So let’s embrace the remote work culture and leverage it to make our companies stronger than ever.


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