Tim (00:00):
Everybody wants to win. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>. Everybody wants to do well. Everybody wants to perform well. And our job as the leaders is to make a clear roadmap, clear processes, and a clear defined target of this is what it looks like to win. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>. And this is How to win. Welcome
Cindy (00:15):
To the Takeover with Tim and Cindy, where we show you how to dominate every area of life and business. Let's get winning.
Tim (00:24):
What is happening my people? Hey, this is Tim and Cindy here with the takeover. And today we're gonna walk you through exactly how to build culture in a remote environment. In fact, we're gonna show you how to build culture. So good that people show up to work energized, enthusiastic people love meetings and it seems crazy for some people, but it's very, very, very doable. Very practical tips we're gonna give you today. So Cindy, how do you think about remote culture?
Cindy (00:51):
Yeah. When I think about building culture in a remote team, I first wanna highlight that people think culture is only in person. Like if you have an office, if people have to show up to an in-person environment, that that's a culture of a team. But people don't emphasize or highlight how important culture is in a remote environment. Especially, it's increasingly more important when you are not interacting with people face to face in person, that you do have to build culture remotely. Whether you have a team of two people or 200 people, culture is equally as important. Yes. And we know a lot of people in the remote environment or in the remote space that deal with freelancers or contractors, maybe they have one or two employees. Regardless of where you are at in business, you need to establish culture for your team. I think about the way the modern workforce is today, how easy it is for people to go from one job to another job hopping or seeking new opportunities.
Cindy (01:55):
Yeah. If you want people to be attracted to your team and your opportunity as a place where they wanna invest their time and their skills and their talent, you have to build culture because people are attracted to companies for two reasons. It's one, it's the pay two, it's the opportunity or the culture, right? Mm. And so you wanna build the kind of culture, even as a remote team, where people are actually excited to show up for work. Yeah. But they're also committed to staying. And how you keep people is by having really good culture. So I wanna start off this episode by just thinking about regardless of where you're at in business, whether you have 200 employees or just two, you need to establish culture and especially so in a remote environment.
Tim (02:38):
So I 100% agree, and I will say this, when I first got into business, I heard culture, I knew culture, I all the buzzwords, but I don't think I actually knew what it was. And when I had built, built my first kind of bigger company, culture formed, I didn't know how it formed, but it formed it and it was super, what I would call toxic. And it wasn't fun, it wasn't enjoyable, it was super stressful. So can you maybe explain what even culture is? Yeah.
Cindy (03:07):
Culture is one of those things that you can't put your finger on. Like, you can't point to culture like this is culture, but it's definitely something that you can feel. Hmm. And it may sound woo woo, but when you've been in very toxic culture, it's a feeling, it's like a, an environment that you can feel is very toxic. And you can also feel a culture that is good, right? That is energizing. And so if I think about culture, I would say it's an environment, it's a feeling that people have when they step into a zoom room with you or in a room with you. Culture is communication. Yeah. It's how you and the team interact and engage with each other. So a lot of it is spoken through communication, but a lot of it is also unspoken. And it's a feeling that you invoke. That makes sense. So yeah, like I, I wanna say that you can put your finger on culture, but you cannot, you will tell through the environment, through the way people interact and the way that they show up and communicate whether there is a really good healthy culture or whether there is not. And I'm almost 100% certain that everybody listening can attest to having been in either really good culture or environment and really bad. Like you can feel when you're in one or the other.
Tim (04:16):
Yeah. I'm excited about this to just have some practicals of how we do that because we have insane culture and it's so good and it's so energizing. And people wonder like, how can you do that in zoom rooms? Yeah. How can you do that over slack? And it can be done. And in fact, you can make it so fun because not only are you able to build culture in a remote environment, you also are giving people a flexibility that they're just not gonna have in an office environment. So I think, and I feel strongly that you can actually build better culture in a remote environment because like we have some people on our team that are like, where are you at this week? I'm in Thailand. They're still getting their work done. How, what amazing culture is that? Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> that that person can keep putting the work in, be with the team and travel and experience the world. Yeah. So I'm excited to, as we roll this out and kind of just talk about the practicals of how to do that. Yes,
Cindy (05:07):
Absolutely.
Tim (05:08):
So, so what are the fundamentals of having great culture in a remote work environment?
Cindy (05:13):
Yeah. So a big part of your culture is your team meetings. Mm. Especially in a remote environment, your team meetings are your culture. Yeah. So think about does your team get energized to jump on meetings, whether it's on Zooms, Skype, Google meets, however you will interact. Are people energized and excited about meeting or do people dread meeting with each other in your company? Because that's a very clear indicator on the type or the kind of culture that you have. So think about how can I make my team meetings engaging, interactive. Yeah. Where people can jump on, communicate and engage with one another in a way that's energizing. Yeah. Another part to that is making sure that you have a very clearly defined structure to your team meetings. Because when there is structure, when there is order, people know what to expect. Yeah. They can be prepared for the meeting.
Cindy (06:02):
And it actually allows your meetings to flow a lot smoother. Mm-Hmm. I'll see a lot of teams. People will jump on, they'll brainstorm. People are not really sure what the agenda is. And that can really dampen the culture of your team. Yes. So think about if you are gonna build culture in a remote environment, make sure that your team meetings are a place that energizes people and gets them bought into your vision, into your mission. Yes. Into the values of your company. And not a place where people are frustrated or they're multitasking, and half of the people on the team are actually disengaged.
Tim (06:36):
I think what is really cool about what you say here, and I think a lot of people are gonna miss if they're not paying attention, is that culture is structure. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>, right? Culture requires structure. Yeah. Culture requires energy. The second law of thermodynamics is that everything will get worse without energy. I, I'm kind of botching it up, but the whole concept, the whole principle is everything takes energy. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative> to maintain in, in a closed environment and culture takes, you have to have a structure. You have to have a system, you have to reinforce it. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>. But what's beautiful is once you, it's kind of going and it has momentum, the team itself will reinforce the culture. It's almost like an immune system where if you have the right culture and systems and processes, if people come in and like, eh, this is stupid.
Tim (07:22):
The team's like, what are you talking about? We're bought into this. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>, we're here. And so I think the cool thing about having a structure is when you are very clear, defined on your, your structure, your mission, your vows, how you do things, you're actually gonna start attracting people that are like-minded to you. Yeah. In that way. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> not that you're trying to get everybody that thinks the exact same way, but people that like that kind of culture. And so, which it makes it building culture easier when you define it, because you're gonna start attracting people that like that definition of what culture should be.
Cindy (07:52):
Yeah, absolutely. And I know we touched on vision, mission, and values. And so if you have not yet listened to episode two on culture, make sure that you tune into that episode because we talk all about the vision, the mission, the values. Mm-Hmm. And how you actually build that all from the ground up. Today we're taking it a step further on how to build it in a remote environment, but the same rules apply. Yes. And as we're mentioning, the team meeting is a place for you to further enforce and get people brought in to the vision, the mission, and the values of the company. How do
Tim (08:24):
You do that in a <laugh>, in a Zoom meeting, reinforce mission, vision, values, and get them bought in? I mean, it's a, it seems like kind of tough to really reinforce it. How, how do you practically create, reinforce and get people excited about the mission, vision and values? Yeah.
Cindy (08:39):
I'll say practically how we do it. So every Tuesday we have what's called a tribe huddle. And on that zoom meeting, people are shouting out other members of the team that are living up to the vision, the mission, and the values. So that is very practically where we're highlighting this is our vision, this is the mission, these are our values. How can we identify other people on the team and shout them out for living up to those values? And so values for us is a living, breathing thing. It's something we talk about all throughout team meetings. Yes. Someone's gonna shout someone out. It's not just for doing a good job, it's for living up to the values. Right? Yes. People will shout somebody out for candor, like candor's our language. People will shout somebody out for having a passion for people. So when you are giving praise and recognition, we do it from a place of how does this align with our values? Versus just, Hey, you did a great job. I mean,
Tim (09:28):
That's just the science of human behavior is if you see a certain behavior, you wanna reinforce that behavior. And in this case, it's, we have our ten values, the PEMA ten. In this case, it's if somebody showed a resolve to win, they were relentless to push to get something across the line. We're not just saying, you did a great job. We're saying, Hey, I wanted to shout out so and so you're resolve to win inspired me, man. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. And so we're we're reinforcing behaviors with the values in the meeting. Absolutely. Yes. That's, yeah. And I'll tell you right now, that is just, it's so cool when you start to reinforce that, 'cause people get excited about it, people get energized about it. And what are you doing with the rest of the team is you're reinforcing the kind of behaviors that you want in your tribe or in your culture.
Tim (10:14):
Whereas I think a lot of times what happens, and the reason why team meeting, another reason why team meetings can be bad is that, that we don't start off with positive energy or we're not reinforcing according to culture. We're more, Hey, why is this wrong? What's this doing wrong? What are you doing here? And sometimes people can get on the calls like, oh shoot, am I gonna get bashed for do doing the report wrong? Are we gonna talk about how doom and gloom things are? Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. And this is like a positive reinforcement of like, Hey, great job doing it this way. Yeah.
Cindy (10:41):
Yeah. That's so good. I think that's, that's such a good thing to highlight and important is how you start off team meetings and how you all engage right. In that positive sharing wins, bringing good energy and momentum into the meeting because that is a huge contributor to culture for sure.
Tim (10:55):
So what else do we need to know about building culture in a remote environment?
Cindy (10:59):
Hey there, I've gotta stop here for one quick second to ask you this question. Have you been enjoying the podcast? If so, make sure that you are subscribed and take that one extra step to please leave us a rating and a review. Wherever you are listening to the show, not only does it help us continue to grow and impact more people, we'll make sure that we show up wherever you are listening as well. Yeah. I would say the second part to that, one of the fundamentals that I think about is making sure that people have an opportunity to connect personally. So think about in an office environment, you have an opportunity to connect with people, say in the hallway or what they call like water cooler chats. So you can pass by coworkers, have conversation, meet up for lunch, things like that. Yeah. That is not something that you can do in a remote environment, right?
Cindy (11:47):
Mm-Hmm. So very often you see people will miss the personal connection that they can potentially have with coworkers when they're working remotely. So if you wanna build a really good culture in a remote environment, you need to craft or create opportunities for people to connect on a personal level. Very practically, how we do it at PEMA is we will set up breakout rooms. So after say a 15 minute team meeting, after we've shared wins a lot of energy and momentum, we'll break out into breakout rooms. We'll put people in different rooms every week. And that's an opportunity for people to share what's going really well on a personal level, what are some goals that you've hit so people can engage and interact and share what's going on personally with new people on the team that they maybe haven't interacted with before. Yeah. But it allows people to connect on a personal level. And let me tell you, when we implemented this, how bought in people were to the company, how bought in they were to each other, right? Mm-Hmm. You hear about somebody else's goals and you're like, wow, we're working on this mission to help this person hit their goal too. It's energizing, it's encouraging. And so yes, just finding opportunities and ways for your team to connect personally and even for you as the owner or the leader or the entrepreneur to connect with your people is so, so, so important. Yes. Especially in a remote environment. One
Tim (13:06):
Thing I love about this is you're gonna have people in the team connecting that would've never connected before. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>. So if you have a, you know, small two, three person company, you can just do this in that main room. Yeah. What happens is, when we started growing past a certain amount of people, it was maybe like 10 or 13. It was like, we don't have time to go through Tuesdays. We do what's your personal and professional wins? It was started getting where, like the whole meeting was just everybody going through their personal and professional wins. So we started doing these breakout rooms, and as the team's grown, it's been so cool to watch Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>, because you could have the sales person in the same room with the marketing t that's at a totally different piece of the company. They would've probably not even in an in-person environment would've ever connected.
Tim (13:47):
And now you got this salesperson in this, this marketing tech, totally different parts of the company and they're sharing what their personal professional goals are in a, in a room of two or three people. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. And so it allows everybody on the team to have a very deep connection with everybody else in the different departments. And for everybody I I've ever talked to about these breakout rooms says they absolutely love them. And I know for me it's just, you know, as, as the CEO to be able to meet the new people, meet different people, hear people's dreams, hear people's goals is, is very powerful. Yeah.
Cindy (14:18):
Absolutely. Absolutely. So that's a really practical way to build culture. I would say remotely is just giving people opportunities to connect on a personal level. Mm-Hmm. I've heard some companies do really interesting things like trivia or different games and they'll have like game days, all the different ways you can connect, but you can make it fun, see what works for you and your team. Yeah. Biggest takeaway is give people an opportunity to connect on a personal level and don't assume that people will create this on their own. You have to be proactive to create those opportunities. Yeah.
Tim (14:46):
And I will say right now that if you have these structures that you're, that Cindy's talking about, if you're listening to this, if you have these structures in place, you don't have to have them perfect. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. But if you have them in place and you're refining them over time, this will absolutely change the game. If, if you're finding any of your meetings or, oh man, I'm tired, I don't wanna go to this meeting. Over time as you start to implement these things, you'll actually start to get excited by the meetings. Yeah. So, so there, there can be things that I'm like, man, I don't want to do this today. I don't want to do this. But it's rarely or never the team meeting. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>.
Cindy (15:22):
Yeah. Absolutely. What's
Tim (15:23):
The final piece to the puzzle that we need to have a really good culture in a remote environment?
Cindy (15:29):
The last thing is autonomy with accountability. So everybody performs better with accountability. But when you're thinking about a remote environment, you want people to have autonomy on how they do their work. Right. Which is why you have a remote team anyway. If you're trying to micromanage every single little part of how somebody gets something done, might as well have an office. Right. I think the, the reason why a lot of people go remote is for that autonomy, right? It's so that people can communicate or get things done asynchronously. So think about how can you implement autonomy, meaning giving people the leeway on how they get their work done, as long as the results or the output or the outcome is there. Yeah. But make sure you're also holding people accountable because everybody performs better with accountability. And we've noticed, especially in a remote environment, that you have to hold people accountable and people perform so much better when they know they have accountability.
Cindy (16:23):
Yes. And it automatically elevates your culture. Right? Because if I'm checking on one of my direct reports like, Hey, this was gonna get done at this date and this time, what support do you need on that? They automatically not only wanna perform at a really high level, but they know that they have the support and backing from the leaders as well. So think about when you are creating culture remotely, how can you give people autonomy on how and when they get things done, but hold them accountable to ensuring that it gets done with your support?
Tim (16:53):
A big mistake that a I've made for sure, and then I think a lot of people make is they mistake, autonomy and accountability for abdication. Mm-Hmm <affirmative> or for, hey, not having to create the right processes. Hey, you just do it whatever way you want and you get the result. So just to be really clear, this is not abdication. Like you just go do your thing and let me know when it's done. And you know, you don't give any support. And this is very clear 'cause at our company everything is documented processes, step one, step two, all of that. What we're talking about here is giving the tools and the support, the processes, the SOPs, here's how to do the role, here's the outcomes we're looking for. But then giving them autonomy on kind of when to do that. The flexibility that as long as they have it done in the result by said date.
Tim (17:40):
And then accountability is just making sure that they're getting that done by said date. And then also giving them what's super important is the tools. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> that they need to be successful with that. Because I think a lot of times, and I've made this mistake when you yell or you say get this result <laugh>, but you don't give a clear roadmap of how to get that result. You don't give a clear, here's what it looks like to win, here's how to win. Then you're also setting that person up for failure. Everybody wants to win. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>, everybody wants to do well. Everybody wants to perform well. And our job as the leaders is to make a clear roadmap, clear processes and a clear defined target of this is what it looks like to win. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>. And this is how to win.
Cindy (18:21):
Yes. Absolutely. Abso I think a lot of teams miss that last piece that you mentioned, which is giving them the exact process or way to win, right? Yeah. With very clear metrics and KPIs on what winning looks like. Mm. Or what success looks like, what hitting the target looks like. If you don't have that, it's very easy for people to get demotivated. Yes. Because they dunno what they're reaching towards.
Tim (18:43):
Yeah. And then when they do get the results, they're like, cool, great. But they might not know how to repeat that result. And then when they don't get the result and they get in trouble, it's like, well, I, I did my best but I didn't have a process. And when you have that clear target and roadmap to get there, it really sets 'em up for success. Wanted just to make sure that people know clearly what we mean by giving autonomy and accountability. This is not abdication. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. That's good. And I think that alone right there, people wanna win. People want to thrive, people want to do well in their role. And I think that alone, right there is a big key to having great culture period anywhere, but is super important in a remote environment because it can't just be like, oh hey, come over to my desk. Mm-Hmm mm-Hmm. I'll show you this
Cindy (19:28):
Thing. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. That's so good. One more bonus tip I'll give on culture and especially building culture remotely, is if your team culture shifts or changes based on who comes in and out of the company, you don't have a culture. Ooh. If your team culture, say somebody new comes in and they're like this massive personality, very outgoing, and your team culture now shifts to massively big, outgoing, energetic, and then that person leaves and your culture's back down to boring or nonchalant, that means that your culture is shifting as people come in and out, which means you do not have a clearly defined culture. Yes. So that's so important to think about as you're running your team remotely. Because I think about us at PEMA, our culture is our culture is our culture. Yes. Regardless who comes in or out, like the culture stays the same and it's very consistent regardless of who's in or who's out.
Cindy (20:21):
And so when people are coming in, they know that this is the culture. They abide by the rules of the, of the tribe, of the culture. They, they participate, they're engaged. Right. And our culture doesn't shift based on who comes in and out. And so think about that and reflect on that for your team. If somebody comes in, does that shift your culture? 'cause It probably means your culture is not clearly defined. Yep. If somebody leaves, do you feel like a part of your culture has left? 'cause That also means your culture's not clearly defined. So your culture shouldn't be based on a person or on a group of people. Your culture should be your culture. Yeah. Very objective, very clearly defined, regardless of who comes in or out. Like this is the culture. Wow.
Tim (21:01):
I love that. And if you go back to our former episode, it's about setting <laugh>. It's your company. What, what do you want this thing to be like? Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. What do you want the values to be? You're setting that, you're defining it and then that doesn't get shifted and changed when a different personality with different values comes in because it's been defined. Yes, absolutely. And if you're the owner of the company, <laugh>, how beautiful is that? That you get to determine Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative> what you want your environment to be, and then you attract teammates that like that. And so you actually don't have different types of people with totally different values coming in.
Cindy (21:35):
Yeah. Because you hire and fire based on the values. I love it. Absolutely
Tim (21:39):
Love it. Well, this is super powerful. I just know because I've been on the other side of bad culture that I is my fault. It was my company I built, I let it form and I had that exact same thing where it was, I didn't build culture. And so every personality that came in contributed to it, but it went in a bunch of different ways. Yeah. And it ended up getting really, really toxic. And so Cindy, I wish I would've known this information a little, little while ago, but you know, as the old Chinese parable says, best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, second best time is right now. Yeah. And I think what's super important for those listening right now to know is it doesn't matter whether it's just you, you've gotta define the culture. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> just you and one person.
Tim (22:21):
You gotta define it. Or you already have 10 people and it's a little bit of a runaway training. How do you even get started? You gotta get started. You gotta get it going. Yes. And it will take energy, it will take effort. But I will tell you on the other side of having great, amazing culture that energizes you when you go to meetings that you're excited to see people, the work is worth it. Because once you build culture, there is a momentum that is so powerful that it just drives the company. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. And top of that, it's almost like the culture acts almost like an immune system where when bad people come in or gossip starts coming in, it's like the culture is so strong, it almost flushes those kind of things out. Yes. So it will be work, be willing to do the hard work now to make a culture that is easy to thrive in. Mm-Hmm.
Cindy (23:10):
<Affirmative>. So good. So good. This is Tim and Cindy with the takeover. At the end of every episode, we always say, what's one thing that you can take out of the episode? What did you learn? What can you implement today? Make sure that you follow the show wherever you are listening. And remember, domination is not a destination, it's a way of life. Stay winning.