Bryan Miles has been leading virtual teams for over a decade. He shares the best practices for leading virtual teams, what the future of work might look like, how to motivate your staff, why no one should be allowed to mute audio or video during a Zoom meeting, and how he’s led his businesses through the disruption so far.
Welcome to Episode 360 of the podcast. Listen and access the show notes below or search for the Carey Nieuwhof Leadership Podcast on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts and listen for free.
Plus, in this episode’s What I’m Thinking About segment, Carey talks about five reasons why your team doesn’t crush their goals.
Guest Links
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Lead a Better Team
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BELAY
It seems we always are running out of time. But what if I told you that you can have an extra 15 hours every week? Think of five tasks you can delegate—maybe emails, scheduling, booking travel, planning meetings, and expense reporting. That may sound scary, but delegation is the cost of your sanity, and the lynchpin to the survival of organizations everywhere.
BELAY—the incredible organization revolutionizing productivity with their virtual assistant, bookkeeping and social media strategist services for churches, non-profits, and businesses alike—is offering a free download of Things to Delegate to Save 15 Hours This Week to our podcast listeners today.
Text CAREY to 31996 to get your free download of Things to Delegate to Save 15 Hours This Week.
CONVERSATION LINKS
Virtual Culture by Bryan Miles
5 Reasons Your Team Isn’t Crushing Their Goals by Carey Nieuwhof
Text CAREY 33777 to join more than 70,000 subscribers to our leadership content
Text BETTERVALUES to get Carey’s 3-Step Guide to Developing Better Value Statements
3 INSIGHTS FROM BRYAN
1. Responsiveness is one of the most underrated qualities in a great hire
Bryan’s company, BELAY, receives thousands of job applications a month for people to join their team as a remote contractor. They hire less than 2% of them. It’s actually easier to get into Harvard than it is to get hired by BELAY. So, what do they look for in a hire? And, why do some make it and some don’t?
Bryan says that one of the most important factors he looks for in hiring someone is responsiveness. If you find someone who is overly qualified, but takes four days to respond to an email, they aren’t a good hire for your company. In our modern, fast-paced world, you need team members that respond quickly, especially if they are a remote employee.
2. Your culture isn’t a building, it’s a vision
One of the things that Bryan has seen throughout his years of championing remote work is that many bosses believe their culture is found inside of the amazing office building they’ve built with ping-pong tables and killer break rooms. Bryan has found that usually, the real thing that those buildings are holding up is the owner’s ego.
He’s found that your company culture is found in your company vision, not the building. It’s the “why” behind what you do and the reason that you even exist. Bryan is concerned that a lot of bosses are going to force their employees to come back to the office unnecessarily after COVID because of how much money and pride they’ve invested into their buildings. Don’t be one of those leaders.
3. What makes for a great home work environment
When you are working from home, where you write your checks and read your mail might not be the best place to set up your office. If you want a place where you will be productive, you need a few things:
- A solid internet connection
- A good enough computer that won’t slow you down
- A dedicated workspace that you can always work from (50-100 square feet is all you need)
- You also need to keep your dedicated workspace clear of clutter so that your only role while there is to be productive
- Good lighting (studies show that sunlight is good for productivity)
- If you are a parent, you’ll want a way to signal if you can be interrupted or not
Quotes from Episode 360
Culture is not an actual office. Culture is not a physical location. Culture is shared vision. - Bryan Miles Click To Tweet Half of the American workforce right now is working from home. - Bryan Miles Click To Tweet Crisis really reveals a lot inside teams. - Bryan Miles Click To Tweet Responsiveness is becoming a bigger thing that businesses are looking for, especially now because you have to over-communicate when everybody is working from home. - Bryan Miles Click To Tweet Now more than ever before, people are discovering what it means to work from home, and a lot of people are enjoying it. - Bryan Miles Click To Tweet One of the best things you can do, as a leader, is elevate your mission, your vision and your set of values. @cnieuwhof Click To TweetRead or Download the Transcript for Episode 360
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Next Episode: Adrian Gostick
A lot of leaders struggle with praising their teams. That, says NYT bestselling author and leadership consultant Adrian Gostick, is a critical mistake. Not just in terms of motivating your team, but in terms of boosting the bottom line and raising employee engagement. Adrian discusses why gratitude is so vital to teams, how to foster it, and why it always boosts the bottom line.
Subscribe for free now so you won’t miss Episode 361.
