Know And Understand These Tips To Build A Culture For An All-Remote Team

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Hey Everyone,

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Know And Understand These 

Tips To Build A Culture 

For 

An All-Remote Team

Working remotely is becoming more and more common among today's professionals. The convenience of being able to work from anywhere allows for more flexibility, greater work-life balance and can even increase productivity. However, when employees are so physically and geographically spread out, it becomes even more difficult to create a sense of camaraderie and teamwork.

Top strategies for building company culture and improving morale in an all-remote team are. 

Develop A Common Cultural Language

Get the team physically together for a leadership training in which all members are able to learn about themselves and each other through a common cultural language. Afterward, hold weekly video meetings where time is withheld for team members to continue to explore themselves and give and receive feedback. Encourage vulnerability and mutual respect. 

Stay In Touch Through Video

Give up thinking in the three-dimensional paradigm and get creative. We are completely virtual and flexible, with unlimited PTO. We do many things to stay in touch: a weekly email thread where we share our personal updates, we hold brown bag lunches, have hosted wedding and baby showers, hold an annual holiday party with games, shipped gifts—all using an inexpensive video platform. 

Encourage Cross-Collaboration

As someone that has worked 16-plus years remotely, the single most important cultural tool is cross-collaboration. Remote teams that integrate cross-collaboration among team members tend to create deeper and more personal relationships. It ultimately tends to translate into deeper personal bonds that not only help maintain but also evolve the organizational culture. 

Host Regular 'Virtual Coffees'

With today's great video conferencing tools, a great tactic is to host regular virtual coffees with the entire team. Everyone literally comes to the conference with a coffee, tea or water to catch up in an informal way. You can have a mixture of topics—work and non-work related sessions—to add a ton of variety. For global teams, remember to rotate times to accommodate the multiple time zones. 

Prioritize Two-Way Communication And Dialogue

Communicate, but not the usual way. Yes, sharing info is important—clarifying goals and strategies, celebrating wins. But the secret sauce is two-way dialogue: talking with people, not at them. Fully listening, hearing, understanding and answering what's asked shows your respect. Encourage remote folks to connect and get to know each other. Building engagement builds commitment.

Schedule One-On-Ones And Virtual Office Hours

You don’t have the benefit of being able to walk by someone’s office when you’re working remotely. Be deliberate in scheduling one-on-ones and holding virtual office hours when anyone can “drop by” and catch up or ask questions. Also, be creative—virtual happy hours with non-work related discussions can help build stronger connections. 

Host A Team Retreat

While my team is spread across the entire U.S., once a year we all come together for a few days in person for a team retreat. It doesn't have to be expensive—we rent a house and keep it simple! This is a great opportunity for us to really plan what is next for the business as well as spend some quality time nurturing the team and culture we are building. 

Restate Your Company Mission At The Start Of Team Calls

Our behavior today is a function of the future that we see for ourselves. Keeping the vision, the mission and the future of the company front and center will unify your team no matter where they are. Give them something to brag about. Use your mission to create meaning for the team. Making money isn't meaning. Tell them why you do what you do. Share stories of the difference they are making. 

Ask Your Experts

Ask your team members from far and wide for their ideas and suggestions on how to build culture and improve morale. Suggestions from the top might not hit the mark for virtual workers. Also, what works for one may not work for another, hence why soliciting a variety of responses gets everyone involved, provides a range of ideas and often encourages even more innovative solutions. 

Share Progress With Your Colleagues

An issue I frequently run into with clients who have remote teams is that team members often wait until a project is complete (or nearly so) to share it with colleagues. At that point, it might be too late to incorporate helpful feedback. Sharing early—and often—can help teammates feel more connected to each other, build trust and yield better results too! 

Leverage Digital Engagement For Connectedness And Inclusivity

Utilize digital technologies to increase interaction, strengthen bonds, solicit ideas, provide feedback and amplify the effects of good leadership on remote teams. Use video communication tools so teams see each other live while collaborating. Integrate emojis into digital messaging to reinforce organizational values, positive emotions and intent, show appreciation and promote team connection. 

Have A Non-Work Group Chat

Remote employees need a place where they can communicate to their colleagues to let off steam. Starting group chats on apps like Slack or WhatsApp where they can build personal connections, poke fun at each other and discuss non-work related topics will go a long way in building morale. I have seen this in other companies and it has worked very well for their remote employees. 

Establish 'Check-In' And 'Check-Out' Processes

Building a sense of community in an all-remote team is essential. Start with a brief "check-in" and end with a brief "check-out" practice. This helps team members to connect with each other at another level before diving into work topics and before signing off. Sometimes it's just one word, sometimes it's a sentence that is shared. Video calls versus audio only also make a big difference. 

Regularly Share Best Practices

One of the significant advantages of an all-remote team is the diversity it brings. Teams can leverage this and learn from it. Having regular opportunities to share successes not only helps apply best practices across the whole team, but also creates a sense of unity around a common mission. Each member feels valued and appreciated for their contribution to the team's success. 

Build High-Performing Teams

When building high-performing teams, we need to ensure that we are giving the team the ability to self-direct, and not micromanaging the team members. This is the No. 1 killer of morale when fostering a culture that focuses on team collaboration. 

Hope You Enjoyed Reading This.

“What Do You Think?Do you agree or Disagree or Have any other ideas?? Please Share your thoughts in the comments below as I learn just as much from you as you do from me!” 

Bye for Know

Sameer 

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How To Relax and Calm The Mind While Travelling For Work

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Hey Everyone!,

How To Relax and Calm The Mind While 

Travelling

A good friend of mine was an emergency response expert, dealing in oil disasters. For years he would have to leave home at a moment’s notice and fly to some of the world’s toughest environments.

It’s intense, working in life-threatening situations with constant anxiety and tension. If you’re going to survive, you have to manage the stress. Otherwise, you’ll burn out—which hurts you and the cause you’re dedicated to.

Recently, we compared notes on how the two of us, myself a public speaker and him an emergency first response expert, manage stress when we’re traveling. In one year I may take up to 50 flights to speak at international events, which takes its toll. We realized there were some similarities in how we prepare to show up as the best versions of ourselves no matter where we are going. The biggest unifying factor was rest—good, quality, uninterrupted rest.

But that doesn’t always mean sleeping.

Sometimes It Means A Big Travel Mug.

One of the most frustrating things about traveling is the cups never seem to be big enough.

When you want a large, warm, soothing cup of tea, the best you can get in a hotel room is a little paper vessel worth half a mouthful. So I always pack a large travel mug and ask the hotel for a kettle. This works perfectly for brewing my favorite tea after a long day of air conditioning on planes and in conference buildings.

And of course, like any proper Brit, I bring my own tea.

My favorite is a turmeric and ginger tea from Rishi. Anytime I’m particularly worn out, a cup of this warm magic helps restore my energy. It’s the perfect way to ease into a good night’s rest or wake my body up in the morning. It also reduces the inflammation of my voice after a long day of talking.

And having that key element of calm in my hotel room is a must.

Because most people don’t rest well in hotel rooms.

You’re in a strange environment, you have a major meeting in the morning, you’re wired from travel adrenaline—so you’re quite likely to toss and turn all night.

This means you’ll also worry about oversleeping once you finally drift off.

To counteract this anxiety, one of the early things my emergency first response expert friend and I do is plug in our phones. This way no matter what happens we have an alarm to rely on and a touchstone to remind us where we are.

The challenge? Many hotel rooms only have one plug socket and it’s across the other side of the room! We both take a long phone charger cable—at least 10 feet long—so if we wake up disoriented, we aren’t disrupting our sleep by shuffling around the room trying to check our phones. We can just roll over, check our phones, and return to sleep.

It’s a simple touch, but it makes for an improved night’s rest.

And of course, we can’t forget conscious relaxation.

My friend says no matter how stressful the day was, no matter how many disasters he dealt with at a time, he always allows himself 30 minutes of laughter.

This block is completely uninterrupted by any responsibility and is meant solely for pleasure. He’ll stream Netflix or download comedy specials on his laptop to watch in increments. It’s how he switches his mind off to reset and recharge for the next day. And he’s on to something—laughter activates and then soothes your stress response, so it helps to release extra tension from having fired it up earlier.

I also block out uninterrupted stress-release time—although I prefer meditation over comedy specials.

I like to use meditation apps—Headspace in the morning or Insight Timer in the evening. Either way, I follow about 10 to 15 minutes of guided meditation. It eases my mind and puts me in a balanced state so I can accomplish everything on my list the next day.

What works for you? I’d love to hear your best tips for performing at your best when traveling for work. Is there something important you always take, or a routine you aim to stick to? Whatever it is I hope it helps you to be your best self when you need to be.Please Share your thoughts in the comments below as I learn just as much from you as you do from me!”

Hope you enjoyed reading this;)

Bye for Know,

Sameer

There’s more to that

If you’re looking for more,Please subscribe to my blog by clicking on Subscribe in a reader the icon or Subscribe via Email by submitting your email id on the side bar ;)

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How to stop comparing yourself with other people

This post may contain affiliate links, including Amazon.com(and affiliate Sites/Stores.)Any One Can Shop from this blog.Using links to these sites means I may earn a small percentage from  purchases made at no extra cost to you.

Hey Everyone!

How to stop comparing yourself 

with other people

It’s totally normal to use happy,successful people as a benchmark, but here’s how to keep it from eating you up.Maybe it starts with a LinkedIn notification that your professional nemesis got a big promotion. Or, perhaps you heard through the grapevine that a former colleague landed your dream job. Suddenly, you’re a wash in negative emotions like envy,anger, or frustration.

“Comparison is adaptive and has helped us survive, think, feel, judge, and cooperate. But, like many adaptive psychological mechanisms, there can be a downside,” says Matthew Baldwin, PhD, of the Social Cognition Center at the University of Cologne in Germany. It opens the door for jealousy and, in extreme cases, could even lead to negative actions like sabotaging someone else’s success.

The always-connected world of social media doesn’t help. A November 2018 University of Pennsylvania study found that frequent use of Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat led to greater feelings of depression and loneliness. The researchers found that the carefully curated images can make others feel as though they’re not doing as well or that someone else’s life is so much better than theirs.

How To Stop Comparing Yourself With People

PAY ATTENTION TO YOUR FEELINGS

Those feelings may be an indication that there’s a bigger issue, says Natalie Pennington, PhD, assistant professor of communication studies at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. And it’s often related to your relationships and satisfaction with life, in general. “It’s not that the tech makes you depressed, it’s that you already are probably struggling with your relationships and so the tech just makes it worse,” she says.

Cognitive biases also creep into our tendency to compare ourselves to others, online and offline, says Preston Ni, professor of communication studies at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills, California, and author of How to Let Go of Negative Thoughts and Emotions–A Practical Guide. Recency bias, the tendency to remember events that happened more recently, and social comparison bias, where we feel competitive with someone who seems to be doing better than we are, can powerfully distort our interpretations. “We don’t know the whole story. We only know what we see, and what we see is completely biased,” he says.

In addition, our attention is often captivated by people who are doing or achieving remarkable things. But, you don’t know the story behind how they reached their achievement,says Toronto-based organizational psychologist and management consultant Michael Vodianoi. And, sometimes, our tendency to take a pessimistic view–possibly because of negativity bias–may extrapolate someone else’s success into something far worse, he says.

“A ‘catastrophizer’ or a pessimist might take that and start to globalize it, or blow it up, and say, ‘You know, nobody’s gonna find me. I’m never gonna get a promotion. I’m not good enough,'” he says.

TURN COMPARISON INTO A COMPETITIVE EDGE

When used in a healthy way, comparison can be a motivational tool, Baldwin says. If you feel like someone is smarter than you and it motivates you to study for a test, that’s a good thing. The challenge is to keep the negative feelings at bay. Here are steps that can help.

Spend some time with your values. 

Getting distracted by others’ accomplishments may be a sign that you need to check in with what’s important to you, Ni says. “Ultimately, if you have a strong set of internal best practices or internal values and you are good at what you do, you’re dedicated with your career, you have a good strong likelihood of feeling good about your professional performance no matter what, and it doesn’t matter whether or not somebody gets promoted or demoted. You know who you are,” he says. So, think about what really matters to you.

Acknowledge what’s working. 

Take inventory of what’s going well in your life, Ni says. Where are you crushing it? What positive accomplishments have you enjoyed lately? Recognize them, even if they’re small.

Compare apples to apples. 

Look closer at the person or situation, Vodianoi says. Are you really comparing apples to apples? Did the person have connections you didn’t have? Did they have special training or advantages? Examine the evidence you have about what led to another person’s achievement–and acknowledge what you don’t know. The unknown can play a big role in what happened.

Go after the goal.

If someone is achieving at a level you want to reach, use them as a model. Study what they’re doing to rack up those accomplishments and integrate those activities into your routine. Discuss the issue with your mentor, manager, or other trusted adviser to explore how you can get there, too.

Build relationships. 

The most important thing you can do, both professionally and personally, is to focus on building a strong sense of purpose in your life, as well as relationships and interests that give you satisfaction. Pennington says that failing to invest in these elements of a balanced life can lead to giving outsize meaning or importance to others’ good news. Instead, you’ll have many areas of strength and satisfaction from which to draw, leaving you better able to keep the situation in perspective.

There is only one you

This might sound cheesy, but there is one you. You’re utterly unique, and so are your experiences, your world review.That makes you valuable, and pretty awesome. Be the best version of yourself you can be, because no matter how hard you try, you can’t be anyone else. There is always going to be someone taller, smarter, thinner, or richer than you. Trying to get to the top of that is a losing game, and physically impossible.

If you let it.

In order to succeed, you have to be the best you. Oscar Wilde was right: “Everyone else is already taken.”

Hope you enjoyed reading this;)

“What Do You Think?Do you agree or Disagree or Have any other ideas?Please Share your thoughts in the comments below as I learn just as much from you as you do from me!”

Bye for Know,

Sameer

There’s more to that

If you’re looking for more,Please subscribe to my blog by clicking on Subscribe in a reader the icon or Subscribe via Email by submitting your email id on the side bar ;)

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