5 Keys for Building a Great Remote Work Culture

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In a remote work culture, trust and communication are key.

When working in a remote culture, it is important to build trust with your team and to communicate effectively. This can be done by setting up regular check-ins, sharing your screen, or even just sending a quick message to let them know what you're working on. By establishing these communication habits, you'll help your team feel more connected and trust that you're working on the same page. Additionally, it's important to be clear about your expectations and deadlines. By setting clear goals and communicating them effectively, you'll ensure that everyone is on the same page and working towards the same goal.

In this episode, we share five keys to building a great remote work culture. From setting clear expectations to using communication tools effectively, these tips will help you create a productive and positive work environment no matter where your team is located!

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Atiba de Souza: Hey, let's talk about five keys for building great remote culture. 

Hey, welcome to the Build Your Team show! I am your host, Atiba! And you're probably at a point where it's time to really start considering the culture of your remote team. Well, I've been building teams for the last 20 years for my business since 2013. Almost a decade, I've been doing that with remote teams. I'm talking about highly productive teams for my business. And if you're ready to grow, I've got five tips for you today. 

But in truth, I've really only got 2 .I've really only got 2. Because everything boils down to these 2 things, okay? So, I'm going to talk about the five, but I want to give you these 2 categories. These 2 really, really big, really, really big categories. 

The first one is communication. The second one is care. Communication and care. Those are the really 2 big categories. But, let's dive in to all five. 

And before we get there, before we dive all the way into all five, do me a favor, hit that "like" button and that "subscribe". And don't forget that little bell so you know the next time I put out a great video, helping you to build productive teams for your business. 

So what are the five? What are the five? Here we go! 

Number 1. Number 1. You want to make sure that all of your policies are communicated well to your employees. Again, remember, we talked about communication. Now, by policies, what I'm talking about is not just time off, or how you work, but also your values. What is this company all about? What are you all about? What is it that you're trying to accomplish? What are the goals? What are the things that you value as a business? What are even some of the things that you value as an individual? As the owner of that business? You need to communicate those really, really well.

Now for us, we start that communication process in the job posting. When we post jobs for positions, we put in there our values and some of our expectations. We start that communication process then. We continue it in the interview process. We continue it in the onboarding process, and then we repeat it, just smallest pieces of it, every single week, to the team. We're always communicating who we are, what we value, what our policies are, for our company. That way, everyone's on the same page, and everyone says, "Yes, this is where I want to belong. Yes, these are things that I get down with, and I can also align with!". 

Let me tell you, it works so well. It works so well that I've had people quit because they said, "I thought I could align with your values, and I can't keep up. You know, this over here, where you want us to really be curious about things, that's just not me. I'm not that, I just want to do the same thing over and over again, and I don't want to learn or grow. And this is an environment where everyone's learning and growing, and I don't fit". So you get that odd transparency from people where they'll tell you, after you've hired them, that they don't fit, and they'll leave, because it doesn't work for them.

And that's what you want. It creates great culture that way, because you know, the people who are there, they really do fit, because you've been communicating what it means to fit, repeatedly, repeatedly. Like I said, we do snippets of it every single week, every week. So we don't communicate everything, but just little snippets of it every single week, we communicate, okay?

All right. Now, next one. Number 2. Number 2. Along with communication, you've got to foster a culture of trust and respect. And that starts with your communications, right? It starts with what you value. It starts right there because in communicating what you value, you then, start to build trust and respect. When you live out those values, when your staff sees you applauding other staff members, who are living out those values, you start to build a culture of trust and respect. 

Number 3, if you couldn't tell by now, the first 2 were all about what? Communication. Number 3, facilitate communication, right? And you see, I've talked about this in a bunch of different ways in the first 2, and it's one of my big 1 to 2 things, right? Communication and care. But you've got to facilitate communication. 

So with what we've been talking about so far, is you communicating to your staff. You also have to facilitate great communication from your staff, back to you. That may mean staff only meetings. And you say, "Well, how does a staff only meeting communicate back to me?". Well, if a staff only meeting happens, and you know it's going to happen, and you tell them, "Hey, I want you to have this staff only meeting". I schedule my staff only meetings. So, I'm going to have it. And, if things come out of this that you all need to bring back to me, bring it back to me. Let's talk about it. Let's go through it. Let's figure it out. 

So, you have to facilitate communication in a two-way street, not just you to them. That's actually not communication. Communication isn't one way, it's two way. So you just talking to them, you just telling them what your values are, is not communication. That's just you talking, right? We want to hear back from them and give them the opportunity to speak. Give them the opportunity to share. Give them the place and make them feel safe to be able to communicate to you. 

Next is you want to encourage collaboration where it makes sense, obviously. But encourage collaboration amongst team members, amongst team members, so that they start to learn, one, to communicate with each other. But in establishing collaboration, you start to build community. And in building community, you get to building care. Because that's what happens inside of community. You get to know the different members, you get to care about the different members and you share that care. And people want to find communities that are going to care about them. Why not help create one at work? Why not help create one right here in your environment? Absolutely something you should be doing. 

And then number 5, number 5, and this one speaks directly to care. You have to encourage your employees, especially in the virtual arena, to take care of themselves. Because it's so easy to sit here at the desk all day. You see, when you work in a job and you show up, well, you show up, the work starts, you leave, the work ends usually-ish. But when you work virtually, you can work at any time of the day. You can get work done all day long, and it's easy for a staff to stop taking care of themselves because they're becoming workaholics, or they're neglecting other things because they're just constantly going, going, going, because the work is right there, in their home, and it never actually leaves, and they never get a break. 

So, it's important to encourage the time off. It's encouraged to respect your staff's time off. If you don't work weekends, don't work weekends. If you work weekends, and your staff doesn't work weekends, fine. Tell them I'm going to work, but I don't expect you to respond. I don't expect you to work, however that works out. But you have to encourage them to take breaks, stay healthy, and take care of themselves. Because if they don't take care of themselves, they're going to be no good to their family, and then they're going to be no good to you, which is going to, guess what? Affect the culture, right? 

So, all five of these, roll up into 2 things: mastering communication and truly, truly caring. Mastering communication, and truly, truly caring. That's what you have to focus on my friend. That's what you have to focus on. In this world where you're trying to figure out how you build this virtual culture, that's the key. Those five are the key, and it boils up into mastering communication and care. That's it. That's it. 

As always, if you have any questions, do me a favor, drop them down below. Love to answer any of your questions. Like I said, I've been doing this for a long time. Probably not much I haven't already seen. Love to share with you my expertise.

All right, everybody! Talk to you soon! Bye-bye!

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