Leading a Remote Workforce (Part V)

LEADING A REMOTE WORKFORCE (PART V)

Culture is the secret sauce of any team or company. It is the way we are. It’s the glue that invisibly holds us together. It is the force that releases discretionary energy. It is what attracts people to us and what expels people from us. If it’s healthy, culture will make a good company great.

But culture must be constantly reinforced and developed. It’s not a stationery thing that doesn’t change. It’s always getting stronger or getting weaker. This is true all the time yet it’s infinitely more true today in this new age of hybrid work.

I believe that the leader’s Job One is to define, support, protect and reinforce culture. Others can help and must help but the leader must wake up and go to sleep thinking about the current culture and its health. So, how does a leader do this in a hybrid situation? The same way it’s done in a more traditional setting.

• Talk about it
• Continuously refer to it
• Use it when making decisions
• Reward and celebrate behaviors that align with the culture
• Rebuke and correct behaviors that violate the culture
• Establish key rituals that revive the culture in the heart; rituals are habits that stir the soul
• Share stories that illustrate the culture
• Use symbols, logos and other visual representations of the culture

This is the leader’s all-day job! And whether you do these and similar things in person, on the phone, on a website, via video conferencing, etc. do them and, in today’s world, do them twice as many times as you used to. Dial it up!