Chris Brogan Media: Strategic Advisory and Executive Leadership Services

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Chris Brogan Joins Appfire as Chief of Staff

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Yeah, so I’m taking a role inside a privately held company for a little while as Chief of Staff. That means that I report directly to the CEO and am responsible for keeping the Executive team rolling along nicely, leading strategy initiatives, and communicating with the board externally and with all the various other teams internally.

I haven’t worked for any other company since 2009, so that’s interesting, but I don’t really mind/care/think much about it. I’m really tuned into the mission. That’s what got me excited. Well, that and the fact that I get to work with all the C-level titles and do all kinds of executive leadership development.

Am I still going to write books, keynote speeches, etc? Yes.

Just also doing this really fun-ass job with my friend and now boss, Randall Ward.

Carry on.

Company Culture at a Distance

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company culture
Photo by manny PANTOJA on Unsplash

To build a strong company culture for all employees challenges leaders when working from home (WFH) becomes the norm. Most leaders say that “corporate culture” ranks very high up on their list of priorities, but if I looked at 100 managers’ budgets, I’d find almost no money at all dedicated to creating a culture (or even reinforcing the existing one). Further, if you ask most employees to describe the culture of their workplace, they’ll rarely say what the bosses wish they’d highlight as competitive advantages based on the culture.

Core Values Are The Heart of Culture

Does your company value fast? Are your norms based around accuracy above all else? Is this a top-down organization or a performance culture? Without knowing this, how on earth would you communicate it out to your remote or even local teams?

If empowerment is important, for instance, your desired culture won’t emphasize a hierarchy. If you want a culture of innovation, then reward failure every bit as much as success. Teamwork thrives when every employee values accountability and a culture of leadership.

Start here:

  • Work either with the senior team or the whole organization to draft what you believe the core values of the team should be.
  • Highlight any inconsistencies where you’ll have to improve the culture to match the goal.
  • Keep these values posted visibly and talk about them in alignment with projects, briefings and updates. For your work from home (WFH) employees, mail out postcards with the values printed on them.

Successful Culture Tips for Remote Workers

We must adapt some values for remote work anyway. If trust is a core value, then “always available” employees runs counter to that. Just because leaders panic now that “butt in chair” management can’t be monitored, if you say trust matters, don’t force countless status meetings and ultra fast response times.

Instead, motivate and reinforce the leadership and communications values of your organization and point out that you want team members to send their own status updates to match company culture goals.

Employee retention comes from the feeling that employees are understood, seen, and valued. This requires leadership to connect and communicate and deliver even more feedback and praise while employees work remotely. When the team isn’t gathered, it’s easy to feel invisible and left out. Add extra “attaboy” experiences where it makes sense.

Emphasize cultural values often in communication. “As keeping our customer well informed is very important to us, we ask that the customer never go more than an hour without a status update until their problem is resolved.” Make the norms match the daily language. “It’s only a win if all your teammates also feel confident that they can lead if you’re away for a few days. Can we train them up to feel even more prepared?”

Remote work thrives on everyone acting accountable to their projects, their teammates, and their leadership. Reinforce this wherever possible.

“Play” is Part of Company Culture

Or it should be. Developing a culture with many remote employees means that spontaneous hallway conversations are at a minimum. While the whole Zoom Cocktail Hour experience feels a bit tired already, finding ways to build in non-essential interactions becomes vital for successful culture.

Even working memes into company culture would help. As we build desired culture elements, leave in personal interactions, family talk, and all that. It’s vital. Again, people want to feel seen and understood. They want to know that their contributions belong. And part of this involves a sense of acceptance as a whole person and not just the role at hand.

Work Culture is a Verb

Remote workers have tasks and schedules and meetings and status assignments. None of these have a “build culture” task assigned to it. That means it’s up to you as a leader to keep culture in mind at every turn. With your knowledge that company culture improves employee retention, speeds instructional comprehension, and encourages stronger team dynamics, it becomes your project to keep it rolling forward at every turn. It’s simple but not easy. But the payoff is quite worth the effort in this regard.

StoryLeader™ is built around helping leaders use stories to improve their skills around remote leadership. If you want to talk about training concepts, get in touch.

How Do You Absorb Information Best?

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I just released a new episode of my podcast, the first in a little while. Just before I hit record, I decided to also record it as a video show (and I use the term “show” loosely as it’s just a multi-camera talking head thing). But I did it for a reason. Some of us prefer to read text (like this). Others prefer audio because they’re on the go. Still others prefer video so they can watch when they have a moment to absorb something new.

How do YOU absorb information?

That’s the video (embedded above, if you can’t see anything, maybe click here.) I used that same video to create the audio player below:

It’s essentially the same thing, but for some of you, audio is the way to go. For others, it’s all about the video footage. Still others prefer text and only text. (Obviously, if you have a hearing or sight impediment, you’ll align your preferences accordingly.) Which is it for you?

Should you produce material for all the various media types?

This becomes interesting because ultimately, this can be as simple as what I did: record once and split off the audio file. But that creates a challenge.

  • People prefer audio lengths of 20 minutes or more.
  • People prefer video lengths of 10 minutes or 20 tops.
  • People only want to read for 300-500 words tops.

If you create something ONCE, you either have to make your videos twice as long as preferred or make your audios half as long as preferred. The (nearly obvious) trick for making this still work is as follows: shoot a 10 minute video, peel out that audio, dump it into GarageBand or Audacity, and create another 10+ minutes of content to go with it. THEN you have what you can go with.

Oh. But wait. There’s a frequency issue. People PREFER daily videos. They are tuned for weekly podcast episodes. Can you create daily videos and weekly podcasts? Sure. But then you’re going to have to mix and match your production methods a tiny bit.

Should you even be thinking this way?

Yes. That’s the short answer. People want to consume your content where they want to get it. I offer a YouTube channel, a podcast, a blog, and an amazing newsletter. Why? Because I need to reach my buyers where they are. I’d do the same for clients (and have). It’s a powerful way to make it all happen.

So, what’s it going to be for you?

Sell Clean

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In July of 2006, I first learned of Humpy Wheeler, one of the foremost promotors of NASCAR. He was a guest on NPR’s news quiz show, “Wait Wait! Don’t Tell Me!” And what he did thrilled me.

Sell Clean

Humpy talked about running the motor speedway about 12 miles away from the theater where the episode was being filmed. He asked, “You want to come? I’ve got tickets in my pocket.”

Here’s where I have to stop explain something.

In my memory, I recall host Peter Sagal asking if he was inviting people for free. When I replayed the episode, that part doesn’t appear. Was this post-episode editing, or do I remember it wrong. (If you know me, it’s the memory.) But I’m going to tell you the story the way I remember it, not necessarily the way it was.

Humpy asked, “You want to come? I’ve got tickets in my pocket.” Peter Sagal asked, “You mean for free?” Humpy said back, “No, for sale.”

What I love about this is that Humpy Wheeler doesn’t apologize one bit. He sells a product he believes is of great value.

That’s the story for today. Sell clean. Believe in what you sell. Be clear that you’re selling it. Be clear WHAT you’re selling. And sell it often.

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