{"id":471,"date":"2017-12-01T03:07:39","date_gmt":"2017-12-01T03:07:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/danielvlopes238992071.wordpress.com\/2017\/12\/01\/8-things-leaders-of-remote-companies-do-differently\/"},"modified":"2024-08-08T13:26:48","modified_gmt":"2024-08-08T20:26:48","slug":"8-things-leaders-of-remote-companies-do-differently","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canopy.is\/blog\/2017\/12\/01\/8-things-leaders-of-remote-companies-do-differently\/","title":{"rendered":"8 things leaders of remote companies do differently"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019re thinking of going remote, here\u2019s what successful leaders of remote companies do\u2026<\/h2>\n
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Earlier this month, I spoke with a CEO who\u2019s looking to transition her company to become remote in the upcoming year. I could tell she was hesitant\u200a\u2014\u200aperhaps even nervous about it. She\u2019d never run a remote company before.<\/p>\n

She asked me:<\/p>\n

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\u201cClaire, what do CEOs of remote companies have to do differently?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cDo I need to shift some of my attitudes or behaviors?\u201d she elaborated. \u201cWhat do I need to do as a remote leader<\/a> to make sure we\u2019re as successful as when we were co-located?\u201d<\/p>\n

I had to pause and think about her questions for a minute.<\/p>\n

Even though I\u2019ve been a CEO of a remote company for the past almost four years, I\u2019d never explicitly thought about the difference between what a remote CEO requires vs. what a co-located CEO requires. But when posed the question, I realized there are<\/em> certain things I deliberately focus on as a remote leader. And, I\u2019ve noticed other CEOs of remote companies focusing on similar things, too.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t to say that co-located CEOs are a world apart from remote CEOs\u200a\u2014\u200ait\u2019s just to say as a remote CEO, you cannot survive<\/em> without doing certain things. You have to do things a little differently.<\/p>\n

Based on what I personally strive to practice and what I\u2019ve observed from other CEOs who lead remote companies, here are 8 things that remote leaders do differently\u2026<\/p>\n

Write it, don\u2019t say\u00a0it.<\/h3>\n

As a remote CEO, I spend 90% of my day writing. Sure, I\u2019m writing blog posts, notes to prospects and customers etc\u2026 But I write a lot <\/em>to our team. I\u2019ll write up our strategy around business development, how we\u2019re doing financially, or a new experiment we should try with marketing. I\u2019ll riff on a new product concept or critique a customer service approach with a co-worker\u200a\u2014\u200aall in writing. If we were a co-located company, most of this stuff would happen in the form of meetings or chatting someone up by their desk. Or maybe I\u2019d pick up the phone if the person was on a different floor. But in a remote company? You write it out.<\/p>\n

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\u201cBeing a good writer is an essential part of being a good remote worker.\u201d\u200a\u2014\u200aJason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson, co-founders of\u00a0Basecamp<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Jason<\/a> and David<\/a>, the co-founders of Basecamp<\/a>, espouse this in their best-selling book, Remote<\/a>. But being a good writer is not just an essential part of being a good remote worker\u200a\u2014\u200ait\u2019s required for being a good remote leader<\/em><\/a> as well.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve observed this firsthand in the way that Jason and David both lead Basecamp, as a company. I\u2019m looped into their all-company Basecamp HQ Project, and I remember being floored when I first saw how Jason wrote up a new idea he was introducing. His written message was crystal clear, well thought-out, and succinct. In other companies, I imagine the same message might get communicated at an in-person meeting\u200a\u2014\u200amore off-the-cuff, haphazardly, a little all over the place. Here, I saw the power of clear writing as a means to get everyone on the same page, articulate a complex thought, and not waste a bunch of people\u2019s time. Great remote leaders understand this, and utilize writing as a tool.<\/p>\n

Commit, don\u2019t dip a toe\u00a0in.<\/h3>\n

You can\u2019t half-ass running a remote company. I\u2019ve noticed this in watching other CEOs try to transition their company into becoming a remote company\u2026 They only let a select few people work remotely, or they don\u2019t make writing things up a priority, or they don\u2019t make what\u2019s going on in the company accessible to their remote team members. That doesn\u2019t cut it. The remote folks get treated like second-class citizens. Over at Help Scout<\/a> (a Canopy<\/a> customer, no less!), their CEO Nick Francis<\/a> says exactly this when talking about<\/a> their remote culture of 60+ employees world-wide:<\/p>\n

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\u201cA friend and investor in our company, David Cancel, once told me that you have to choose remote culture or office culture and stick to it, because there is no in between\u2026 Trying to optimize for both will likely result in remote employees feeling like second-class citizens.\u201d
– Nick Francis, CEO of Help\u00a0Scout<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Similarly, Help Scout\u2019s Head of People Ops Becca Van Nederynen<\/a> shared<\/a> that, \u201cYou can\u2019t dip your toe into remote work, it requires 100% commitment.\u201d<\/p>\n

At Canopy<\/a>, there\u2019s no way we\u2019d be successful as a remote company if it was just something we tried out part-of-the-time, or only allowed some <\/em>employees to partake in. Someone, at some point, would have been left hanging. I\u2019ve found being 100% committed to remote work from the get-go has been an advantageous choice to make as a CEO.<\/p>\n

Respect the\u00a0quiet.<\/h3>\n

Effective remote CEOs<\/a> understand how quality work happens: People need quiet, uninterrupted time to get things done. That\u2019s how people get into a state of \u201cflow<\/a>,\u201d which is crucial to thinking creatively or building something from scratch. Remote CEOs recognize this, respect this, and encourage this. Paul Farnell<\/a>, Co-Founder of Litmus<\/a> (also a wonderful Canopy<\/a> customer), embodied this when he wrote<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s more important to give employees quiet time than it is to cram them into an open office.\u201d\u200a\u2014\u200aPaul Farnell, Co-founder of\u00a0Litmus<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This sacred \u201cquiet time\u201d that remote work enables is possibly the biggest reason I personally love being at a remote company, myself. I can\u2019t imagine Canopy<\/a> being co-located and getting even half the amount of stuff we get done today. I attribute the uninterrupted periods of \u201cquiet\u201d time as to why we can be so small as a team (just 2 people!) supporting over 15,000 employees in 25 countries. As a remote CEO, you must embrace and respect the quiet.<\/p>\n

Communicate well, communicate often.<\/h3>\n

Communicating as a remote CEO isn\u2019t just about writing\u200a\u2014\u200ait\u2019s also about how well <\/em>and how often<\/em> you\u2019re communicating. While communication is critical for CEOs who have co-located companies, the importance of communicating well is amplified in a remote company. As Jeff Robbins<\/a>, founder of Lullabot<\/a> (another fantastic Canopy<\/a> customer), has said<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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\u201cIf you don\u2019t communicate well at a distributed company, you don\u2019t exist.\u201d\u200a\u2014\u200aJeff Robbins, Founder of\u00a0Lullabot<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In other words, if you don\u2019t say or explicitly communicate something as a remote CEO, your team has absolutely no idea what you\u2019re thinking. Unlike co-located CEOs who might rely on small talk or one-off conversations to gage the pulse of an employee or relay an idea to, remote CEOs<\/a> must be much more intentional about communicating.<\/p>\n

Relatedly, communicating your company\u2019s values becomes even more significant in a remote company. As a remote CEO, you can\u2019t rely on your body language, tone of voice, or physical office relics to communicate values. You have to explicitly state them over, and over, and over. Wade Foster<\/a>, CEO of Zapier<\/a> has highlighted this, saying<\/a>: \u201cYou really need to set the values of what your company is going to look like. The high-level things that you care about.\u201d<\/p>\n

This sometimes means over-communicating. In her research<\/a>, Mandy Brown<\/a>, co-founder and CEO of Editorially<\/a> and an editor of STET, <\/em>found that, \u201cPerhaps the most persistent bit of advice I gathered\u200a\u2014\u200aand in some ways the most counterintuitive\u200a\u2014\u200ais the need for remote teams to over-communicate.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a remote CEO, I definitely default to over-communication. If I\u2019m unsure of something, I ask questions about it. If I\u2019m wondering if a team member understands what I mean, I share greater detail and context. This isn\u2019t to belabor the point or to create extra work for myself or others. Rather, communication is the oil of the machine in a remote company. Without it, things simply won\u2019t run.<\/p>\n

Know exactly who to hire: Self-directed, highly-empathetic people.<\/h3>\n

Jason and David of Basecamp have famously talked about hiring \u201cmanagers of one<\/a>.\u201d Other leaders of remote companies advocate for the importance of self-driven folks. Becca of Help Scout has made clear<\/a> that remote leaders should hire people who are \u201care mature enough to work well without a ton of structure.\u201d Jeff of Lullabot echoes this in saying<\/a>, \u201cWe need people who capable of thinking about the big picture and self-managing to some extent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here at Canopy,<\/a>\u00a0we not only seek out self-directed people when we hire\u200a\u2014\u200awe look for folks with high degree of empathy. People who don\u2019t take things personally, genuinely care about others, and have a deep, intrinsic desire to help. Wade of Zapier describes<\/a> this necessary empathy well:<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe like folks who have a lot of empathy and are really good, just helpful people because you\u2019re working in Slack and in text all day. You need to be able to empathize when maybe a sentence doesn\u2019t come off quite right, or whatever, you\u2019d be like, oh, I trust that they had good intentions here, this wasn\u2019t meant to be, you know, harsh to me or whatever right. Those are important values that we have that lend themselves well to remote environments.\u201d\u200a\u2014\u200aWade Foster, CEO of\u00a0Zapier<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

While co-located companies may value self-direction and empathy in new hires, at remote companies they are an absolute must. As a remote CEO, it\u2019s imperative to discern for these two characteristics while hiring.<\/p>\n

Trust your employees\u2026 for\u00a0real.<\/h3>\n

As a remote CEO<\/a>, I couldn\u2019t operate day-to-day if I didn\u2019t trust<\/a> my employees. If someone goes out and runs to the grocery store in the middle of the day\u2026 so what? If someone takes the afternoon off to go watch their kid\u2019s school play\u2026 so what? In fact, it\u2019s great that they get to do those things, live their life, and get work done too. It doesn\u2019t matter how many hours are being put into the work or when the work is being put in. All that matters are the results\u200a\u2014\u200aand I trust our employees find a way to make the results happen.<\/p>\n

Leon Barnard, a UX Designer and Writer at Balsamiq<\/a> (another Canopy<\/a>\u00a0customer we are proud to serve), talked about how their CEO trusts their employees:<\/p>\n

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\u201cOur founder and CEO, Peldi Guilizzoni, shows a lot of confidence and trust in us. I would guess that we all actually work more effectively than we did in previous jobs where the most important thing was \u201clooking busy\u201d for the boss\u2026 Being so distributed, we couldn\u2019t function without valuing trust and autonomy. Peldi doesn\u2019t micromanage. At this point he couldn\u2019t, even if he wanted to.\u201d\u200a\u2014\u200aLeon Barnard, UX Designer and Writer at\u00a0Balsamiq<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Paul of Litmus put it<\/a> succinctly: \u201cTrust your team\u2026 Work only gets done when you allow people to make mistakes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Have a strong, hands-on onboarding process.<\/h3>\n

Remote CEOs readily acknowledge a key challenge when hiring folks who aren\u2019t all in the same physical place: Getting up to speed as a new employee is key. This means giving new hires the exposure, resources and support they need to be successful. To do this, remote CEOs often focus on having a strong, hands-on onboarding process that\u2019s often partially in-person. Wade of Zapier<\/a>, explains how they onboard new hires:<\/p>\n

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\u201cAirBnOnboarding, which when we hire folks within the first month, we actually do like to have them spend a week in person out here in the Bay Area. So we\u2019ll rent an Airbnb, we\u2019ll bring their manager out here, them out here and then spend a week working alongside them.\u201d\u200a\u2014\u200aWade Foster, CEO of\u00a0Zapier<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

At Help Scout<\/a>, they give the new hire a buddy\u200a\u2014\u200aor a new \u201cwork best friend\u201d as they like to call it. You can read a wonderful in-depth write up of how they onboard folks here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Find ways for people to interact who usually don\u2019t interact.<\/h3>\n

Fostering a sense of connection<\/a> across the company is a vital part of your role as a CEO\u200a\u2014\u200awhether you are remote or not. There is literally no one else whose job it is in the company to unite people and ensure they feel they\u2019re heading in the same direction. Doing this in a remote company is admittedly more challenging than in a co-located company where everyone is physically in the same place, bumping into each other, or at the very least, seeing each others\u2019 faces.<\/p>\n

Paul of Litmus<\/a> emphasizes the importance of finding ways to \u201cmake time for socialization.\u201d He describes<\/a> at Litmus how \u201ca few times a year, we have company get-togethers and smaller teams meet in-person more often. Week to week, we get Coworker Coffees, drink beers on Skype, and play video games online. And we invite local employees to the office every Thursday.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most remote companies host some sort of yearly or a few-times-a-year meet-up. At \u00a0we try to get together at least twice a year in-person. Balsamiq<\/a> is known for their all-team retreats<\/a> that focus getting everyone together to have a good time. In addition to in-person meet-ups, Buffer<\/a> has helped people get to know each other through personality tests<\/a>, and Help Scout<\/a> organizes 15\u201330 minute coffee breaks between randomly assigned team members called Fikas<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Now, there are plenty of CEOs who are not<\/em> remote that do many of the things above\u2026which is great! However, when you\u2019re a remote CEO, these 8 things become do-or-die. Don\u2019t do them, and it\u2019s likely your company won\u2019t last as a remote one.<\/p>\n

When you\u2019re a remote CEO, you can\u2019t afford to not be a good writer. You can\u2019t afford to not know exactly who to hire. You can\u2019t afford to not trust your employees.<\/p>\n

If anything, being a remote leader tests you as a leader in all the right ways<\/a>: It forces you to respect the quiet, uninterrupted periods of time, communicate well, and have a strong onboarding process in your company.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re are considering the leap to become a remote company, keep these 8 things in mind as a leader. I know I\u2019ll be sending this post over to the CEO who\u2019s thinking about going remote, myself \ud83d\ude0a<\/p>\n\n\n

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Canopy is software that helps you to become a better remote manager. We help you\u00a0<\/em>run\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>effective one-on-one meetings<\/em><\/strong><\/a>, get\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>honest feedback<\/em><\/strong><\/a>, share\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>team progress<\/em><\/strong><\/a>, and\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>build team rapport<\/em><\/strong><\/a>.<\/em><\/strong>

Additionally, for a deeper dive, be sure to check out our “How to Lead Well Remotely<\/a>” module in Canopy. The first few lessons are free – as are hundreds of daily tips. Try\u00a0<\/em><\/a>Canopy<\/a>\u00a0for free, yourself, today.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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