Building Culture w/ a Remote Team

Hey 👋 - Brandon here.

Happy Saturday to 1,409 growth-minded accountants.

Today’s issue takes less than 5 minutes to read.

The last email I sent to you was in… April!

Turns out, it’s a lot harder for me to maintain consistency with a weekly newsletter than I originally thought.

So I’m starting this adventure again with a small twist…

I’m dipping my toes into the firm coaching game.

I’ve been coaching a couple firms over the past 1-2 years and have enjoyed it and now want to offer coaching to more firms.

But because my time is limited (I run a firm after all), I’m only accepting 4 firm owners at this time.

And I’m not sure yet if I’ll ever try to scale beyond that.

If you are interested, you can apply here.

Today I’m going to give you a glimpse into how you can build culture with a remote team.

Many people think a remote team has no culture.

They think culture means happy hours, lunches, coffee chats, and dare I say pizza parties.

While all of those things are important in bringing a team together, they are just one aspect of culture building.

Culture is the culmination of every tiny interaction your employees have with each other and your company.

You can either build it intentionally or let it be built for you.

Here’s how we build our culture with our remote team of 60+:

Clarity is kindness

Ever had a manager who beat around the bush in terms of what they need or expect from you?

It sucks because you aren’t sure exactly what to prioritize or how to deliver work.

At our firm, we believe clear = kind and unclear = unkind. We make an extra effort to drive clarity in a variety of different ways:

• Train our team that it’s okay to ask for further clarification when unclear words or industry lingo are used

• Develop expectations with clear start/stop dates and measurable results

• Help managers get used to delivering constructive feedback that may be tough for someone to hear but is what the NEED to hear

• Consistent coaching of all staff to drive this point home (with examples / stories)

Living your values

Your firm has values pasted on it’s website / walls… but do they matter?

Most businesses create random values that bear no meaning. For example, all firms list “integrity” as a value yet there are plenty of stories over the years where that was most certainly not a value lived by the firm.

Early in my career, I struggled with the importance of values.

The big unlock came when I realized I could use my values as a tool to drive my firm forward. Specifically, I could hire, fire, and promote based on my values. And I could train my managers to leverage our values as a management tool.

Today, we have little patience for any team member who violates our values.

Our managers frequently bring them up in team meetings and 1-1s when tough problems are presented and someone needs coaching on the various paths their decisions could lead them down.

Leaders who are available and empathetic

Teams who have highly engaged leaders are more likely to succeed.

I have zero sources to back this point up outside of my own experience, but I strongly believe it. Your team needs constant coaching. They cannot be expected to operate effectively or efficiently if you are absent and un-engaged.

It’s not easy to manage a team and the larger it gets the more importance you should be placing on leadership skills like listening, communication, and empathy.

Don’t underestimate daily standups, weekly 1-1s, and quarterly performance reviews.

High degree of accountability

A highly accountable culture builds teams that don’t need to be micromanaged and defines clear results to achieve that are attainable.

Each individual on our team has annual goals ranging from specific production targets to internal projects / innovation. We track progress quarterly and meet to discuss as needed to ensure everyone knows where they stand at all times relative to their own goals.

We also make production progress 100% transparent.

I think it’s important for people to understand where they stand relative to peers. Go-getters will discover what they need to do to be top of the list. They key is to not overly promote the people who are always on top (just because you are the best producer doesn’t mean you should be managing people).

We’ve created a leadership and technical career path for this purpose.

That's all for this Saturday. See you next week.

Whenever you're ready, here's how I can help you.

→ Work with me 1:1 to grow your firm (now accepting coaching applications)

See you again next week.

Cheers,

Brandon

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