Do's and Don'ts of Remote Work & Culture
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Some do's & don'ts for remote work and culture.
This is for employees, leaders, teams, everyone. Here's a smattering of ideas for how to improve the remote work experience for all.
Lets go.
Don’t: Micromanage
This should be a no-brainer but for some reason it needs to be said. People don’t need leaders breathing down their necks to make sure they are being productive. Micromanaging causes people to feel frustrated, suffocated, spied on, to hate their jobs, and ultimately quit.
Do: Hire smarter
Focus on hiring people with high integrity and accountability that you trust to get the job done. And then get out of their way so they can do their jobs.
Find other ways to measure how productive someone is being and if they are getting quality work done than spying on them or giving them constant full court press — people don’t need babysitters at work.
Don’t: Have excessive meetings
I think sometimes leaders feel the need to have meetings so they can remain connected to their team and feel like they’re ‘doing leader things.’ But if the meetings you are having are not necessary, they are most certainly wasting a lot of time and are likely causing your team at least some frustration.
Some pointers: Don’t schedule pointless, constant meetings, don’t let meetings go on and on, and don’t hold people who aren’t relevant to the meeting captive. Allow people to leave once their part is concluded.
Do: Have short, regular check-ins
In lieu of long, excessive meetings, have regular one-on-one check-ins with your people to make sure they have everything they need to do their job. Create a regular, consistent time to connect, keep the check-ins brief and productive.
Don’t: Create silos by isolation
When working remote, it can be easy to only interact with a small handful of people. Create opportunities for folks to connect and network with other people in the broader org and other departments so employees can know people in the company apart from just the few they work with on a regular basis.
Do: Have a visible, available leadership team
With remote work, help people feel like they actually belong to the company. Everyone should know who their boss’s boss’s boss is. Leadership should be available and visible to the rest of the organization as much as possible. Engage, connect, be visible. Don’t overlook this.
Don’t: Ignore community
Some people need to feel connected and have community more than others. Some people really struggle with remote work and not being in an office. Likewise, some people really struggle with in-person work and thrive in a remote setting.
Both of these exist — don’t forget about the folks who desire the connection and community of an office setting.
Do: Create opportunities for connection
Get creative with things people can participate in to build community and connection. Give folks the opportunity to build trust and rapport. Here’s a few ideas of ways to do this. These can happen more or less often depending on how into it people are and how simple or involved the activity is:
Show and tell - someone is chosen to share an object from their home or life and tell about it for a few minutes.
TEDx style talk - allow people 5 minutes to tell an interesting story or give a “TEDx talk” on something they’re knowledgeable or passionate (nerdy) about. If they can’t think of a topic, they can tell an interesting personal story. Rotate who goes.
Create competition - create light competition between teams or team members with a quarterly contest. This doesn’t have to be work related, they can be completely random or fun types of things.
Trivia events - Kahoot! is great for trivia contests for remote teams.
Water cooler chats - schedule “water cooler” meetings so folks have time to connect about TV shows, pets, their lives, and anything else non-work related.
Don’t: Force participation in a cringey way
Forcing people to fully participate in the community-building exercises I listed above will make some people uncomfortable and want to die. We’ve all be there, don’t be the person that forces others to participate in something they don’t want to when it could be completely elective.
Find ways for people to participate and engage at different levels. Ask for feedback, get input from your team about the things you try, and about other ideas for activities. If needed, brainstorm about how you can accommodate different levels of participation from the team.
Do: Be intentional with your home/remote work space
Create a space that helps you be productive. Your environment can greatly effect your energy, creativity, and morale levels — carve out a space in your home that you can work in that has good energy for you that has as few distractions as possible.
Also, mix things up. Move things around every once in a while and make changes to refresh the environment and change up the energy. Having good space to work in and creating good energy helps avoid things like burnout and general malaise.
Don’t: Blur work time and life time
When you work from the place you also live, it can be extremely easy to blur the timeline of when you’re working and when you’re not. Create rituals to shift your mindset when you’re starting/finishing work. Stick to a routine, and take little breaks during the day and a lunch break even if you don’t really need/want it. Don’t blur your work and life time — try to balance it out as much as you can.
Do: Move your body
Create time, whether it’s an hour or even just a few minutes, to take a physical break and move your body, stretch, go on a walk, whatever feels good to you. It’s important that we take time to get up from our workspace and move intentionally, even if just for a few moments.
It feels good to move, even if just for a few moments. Also, doing this consistently over time can reap a lot of positive benefits for your physical and mental health, it can impact your overall energy, your sleep cycles, creativity, attitude, etc.
Final thoughts:
Remote work can at times be complicated, isolating, and stagnant. Be intentional to find new ways to help you and your teams build connections and create community at work. Find some work life balance and a flow that works for you. Don’t forget to ask for feedback from your team along the way to get their input and ideas.
Related Articles:
Three Ways To Engage Your Team Remotely
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This article was created by Galen Emanuele for the #culturedrop. Free leadership and team culture content in less than 5 minutes a week. Check out the rest of this month's content and subscribe to the Culture Drop at https://bit.ly/culturedrop