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7 Secrets to Amazing Leadership & Culture (When Your Employees Are Remote)

Updated: May 12, 2020



1) Over-Communicate


Provide a supportive culture where people always know what you expect and what is going on. Communication breeds trust!


Use tools such as:

  • Email

  • Video Chat

  • Slack

  • Personal Messaging

  • Whatsapp

  • Live video

Schedule regular one-on-one calls with team members to discuss:

  • Professional goals,

  • Workload

  • Work through existing roadblocks

  • Discuss personal goals / challenges



2) Build a Sense of Community


Teams thrive in spaces which are:

  • Social

  • Collaborative

  • Productive

Adding enjoyment increases worker psychological safety. Freedom to express oneself leads to more investment and willingness to contribute to innovation and new ideas


Games/Icebreakers:

  • 2 truths and 1 lie

  • Share an interesting personal fact

  • Answer interesting questions

Build personal relationships with team members


3) Maintain Culture and Build Trust


Trust your employees

  • When they recognize you trust them, it makes them motivated

Gaining trust takes patience, and is earned

  • Make a conscious effort to walk your talk, keep your promises and align your behavior with your values.

Give honest feedback, but be supportive (praise sandwiches!)

  • Communicate facts while being considerate of their effort and sensitive of their feelings

Build Accountability

  • Encourage honest dialogue and build processes that become part of the culture, such as an evaluation of every big project

Assume positive intent

Create alignment

Create trust-building situations

(It’s more important than you think)



4) Cultivate Gratitude


Gratitude is the gift that keeps on giving for both the recipient and the giver (and it’s free!)

“The easiest, fastest, and cheapest way that managers can boost performance and employee engagement.” - Chester Elton, Leading with Gratitude

  • Contributes to a positive culture

  • Helps people feel valued

  • Lifts your own mood, which is contagious

Thank the unsung heroes

Quality AND quantity

Acknowledge the small wins as well as the bigger ones

Acknowledge team success

Encourage employees to practice Gratitude as well


5) Setting Mutually Clear Expectations


  • Be clear yourself

  • Make it a conversation

  • Be specific

  • Put them in context

  • Creating traditions

  • Creating a sense of accountability

  • Creating an open environment

  • Discussing, adjusting and improving

6) Maintain and Build Culture


  • Creating traditions

  • Creating a sense of accountability

  • Creating an open environment

  • Discussing, adjusting and improving


7) Use Technology Better

  • Match the tool for the task

  • Gain agreements

  • More might not be better

  • Make the webcam your friend


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