E119 – Creating a Remote Team Culture featuring Monique Lindner

Creating effective team cultures is challenging in the easiest of times, but creating an effective team culture in a remote setting is much more daunting. The irony is that a strong team culture is even more important when people aren’t regularly meeting in-person.

You’ll hear from Monique Lindner, AKA: The Time Alchemist, a coach/consultant for Holistic High Performance, Leadership & Lifestyle Design who will offer her expertise and advice to help emerging leaders create strong, impactful, and meaningful remote team cultures.

Monique’s Episode Links:

1. https://thetimealchemist.co/#foryou - This is my website with my free offering including a guide to the 11 traits of an impactful leader as well as a guide to the Perfect Morning routine for busy leaders 
2. https://facebook.com/thetimealchemist - My public FB profile for people to follow me and receive free value 

Monique’s Recommended Book/Movie/Podcast List:

Books:

1. The courage to be disliked by Ichiro Kishimi & Fumitake Koga
2. The T.I.M.E. Method by Monique Lindner https://www.thetimemethod.com/

 Podcasts:

1. The diaries of a CEO - Steven Bartlett https://open.spotify.com/episode/1dBnMUeFd0nqX6j4q7KQK5?si=vW6TnCViTNWmrG2FuipA7Q

2. Huberman Lab - Andrew Huberman 

https://open.spotify.com/episode/3RWeArnFqgOOE62oJnDt0r?si=L9lp4LOFSUevc823cM5HXA

Chapters

• 0:00 Podcast Introduction
• 7:41 Monique's Journey and Background
• 19:17 Defining Effective Team Culture
• 24:11 Hiring Based on Core Values
• 35:22 Remote Team Culture Strategies
• 41:44 Being Kind vs. Being Nice
• 47:56 Active Listening Across Differences

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:07

I would like to begin this episode by acknowledging that I am located in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, and I am privileged and honoured to live and learn on the unceded, unsurrendered territory of the Anishinaabe Algonquin Nation.

Speaker 2: 0:24

Hello, you're listening to Trench Leadership, a podcast from the front, a show for emerging leaders from all professions to hear from other leaders who have led from the front, made the mistakes, had the triumphs and are still learning along the way. Produced by Jennifer Lee at it's a Legit Business, a podcast launch and management company. And now here's your host, simon Cardinal.

Speaker 1: 0:52

Hello and welcome to Trench Leadership, a podcast from the front, a show for emerging leaders. Creating effective team cultures is challenging in the easiest of times, but creating an effective team culture in a remote setting is much more daunting. The irony is that a strong team culture is even more important when people aren't regularly meeting in person. In this episode, you'll hear from Monique Lindner Also. I'll try that again. In this episode, you'll hear from Monique Lindner, also known as the Time Alchemist, a coach and consultant for holistic, high performance leadership and lifestyle design. Monique will offer her expertise and advice to help emerging leaders create strong, impactful and meaningful remote team cultures. But, as always, it's not about me, it's about the guests. So I'm just going to go ahead and try and be quiet and welcome my good friend Monique all the way out in Thailand. Hey Monique, how's it going out there?

Speaker 3: 1:48

Thank you so much, Simon. It's wonderful. We have a great time here. It's fresh and green and very lush to be here.

Speaker 1: 1:57

Oh, that's fantastic, and it's, I guess it's. It's all like what an 11 hour time difference there. It's 6.30 in the evening for you right now.

Speaker 3: 2:06

Yeah, about that time 6.45,.

Speaker 1: 2:09

It's 7.45 in the morning here, so there's a significant time difference there, but thank you very much for giving us a part of your evening after what was probably a very long work day, and you're still working, so thank you so much for that.

Speaker 3: 2:21

Thank you, simon, I'm so excited to be here.

Speaker 1: 2:25

Oh, for that. Thank you, simon. I'm so excited to be here. Oh, this is going to be great. We've been trying to get to this point for a few times. We've had to reschedule for a couple of different reasons, but we made it, and that's all that matters.

Speaker 3: 2:31

That's right.

Speaker 1: 2:33

Well, listen, before we get into different things, I'd like to go ahead and do the visual introduction. And for myself, that means that I'm wearing a green t-shirt. Normally I have a black golf shirt with the Trench Leadership logo, but it apparently is one of my favorite t-shirts to spill coffee on. So here I am right now wearing this green t-shirt. My microphone is in front of me. Today I happen to be wearing a set of white earbuds in for some speakers. My glasses are still with the black rim. I still have way too much gray hair on the sides of my head. The screen in the background is a screenshot of a stone wall with the Trench Leadership logo. The logo is white with purple highlights around it. Again, every time I mention it, the logo is actually meant to be red, but this is what happens when you go ahead and buy something on Amazon and don't really pay attention before you hit buy now. But that's okay, I still love the look of it. And here we are. Monique, before we get going, would you like to offer your visual introduction?

Speaker 3: 3:35

Yeah, I would love to Thank you. So today I'm wearing yellow, a yellow shirt, and you would not see me without yellow. So that is somewhat a signature for me. I have long hair, dark hair actually, and it's put up in a little bun like a ballerina kind of bun, and I'm wearing very colorful earrings, which is also a signature. They're handmade in Thailand and I have a whole collection of them. So today they're in colors like red and orange and green and yellow and they're somewhat a diamond form, I I would say, and they're pretty big and fluffy. So in my background you see a whole mess of a room because I'm about to move. So you see my shelf with all of my handbags on my left side and you see the sofa and I covered the boxes with my favorite yellow blanket. So it's not too big of a mess.

Speaker 1: 4:24

Well, it looks fantastic. Honestly, if you hadn't said you were getting ready to go, it looks really, really organized, so you're clearly have a plan as you're getting ready to move, so that's perfect.

Speaker 3: 4:34

Thank you yeah.

Speaker 1: 4:36

Well, listen, before we get right into the meat of all of this, do you mind just taking a moment and telling us a little bit about yourself, your journey and, ultimately, how we got to this point?

Speaker 3: 4:46

Absolutely, I would love to. So I'm born in former East Germany. If you don't know about the separation of Germany, you can Google it or you can ask Alexa, maybe, about it. I don't know if she knows much about it, but you can try.

Speaker 1: 4:59

That'd be a fun question.

Speaker 3: 5:01

Right. Hey, Alexa, tell me about the separation of germany um in the 1960s and anyway.

Speaker 3: 5:08

So I was born in former east germany and it comes with the background of this being a part of the country that was ruled by the former soviet union, meaning we've been as communist socialist country, and that has really formed a lot of my mindset and a lot of my cultural background as well, because it's very different from the former best part of Germany. I started working really early in my life, by the age I was 13 years old, and I started to work in different type of jobs and really fast got into team leadership without me actually trying. I was just put into these roles by the age of 15, I already had a small team. I was a shift leader at a petrol station, actually.

Speaker 3: 5:58

The things you do when you're young. I also had a team of what we would call street marketing.

Speaker 3: 6:05

I don't know if you remember the flyers and the pamphlets to give out and sell tickets on the street, and I was doing that, yeah, I was doing that, and I had a team of eight people that I needed to organize and to bring to the right places on the street and to actually coach them on how to do certain things, and this expanded. I was still in school, by the way, by the time I was in high school, but I would work after school on the weekends and all of my vacations for over six years without taking a day off, so by the age of 19, that became a little too much because I already was in university by the age of 19. It also started to become a thing where I just worked so much that I didn't sleep a lot Like I didn't sleep more than two hours a night for many years, unfortunately, and the some hours in the weekend I did have, I went to party because I was still young.

Speaker 1: 7:02

And I didn't know anything.

Speaker 3: 7:04

Yeah, I didn't know anything about life, and that turned into a real punch in the gut by me dying of a cardiac arrest Should I have said a punch in the chest? My heart stopped beating throughout one of my migraine and epileptic seizure attacks. So which I have mentioned before I was born with life-threatening diseases kidney failure, and those neurological disorders basically turned into migraines and epileptic seizures. So I died of this cardiac arrest and I was clinically dead for 25 seconds and when I came back, the first thing I thought was wow, I lived my life so far for everyone else, not for myself, not for what I want, but I was in rebellion to what people told me. Right, they told me don't do this, don't do that, we want to do this, we want you to do that, and I would always do the opposite most of the times. Um, and I felt like it was something I had to prove other people. And so this cardiac arrest put on a real big switch and it was as if I got a second chance at life and basically the universe telling me hey, you can't keep going like this, you have to change something.

Speaker 3: 8:22

And from this point forward, I really changed my life. So often it's it's um, not in my, in my way of counting anymore, um. I changed careers many times, but I always came back to high performance, project management systems and so on, but they evolved throughout my life because I understood that what I learned in terms of work ethic is not sustainable, and what most of the world has now adopted as like the hustle culture and like micromanaging and team management instead of leadership, has never turned out well and it's always been usually at the expense for the team members, and so I wanted to create a different version. I wanted to work more human centered and create an environment where people can be their unique selves and are appreciated for their skills and their efforts and their knowledge and everyone can have a win-win scenario. And that's what I do with my work now, and that's why I'm here.

Speaker 1: 9:32

Oh, that's amazing. Thank you so much for that. It's interesting. As you were talking about all of that, I was thinking about some of the different guests that I've had on the show over the years, and one of them that really stuck out was a gentleman by the name of fred rootman, and he was actually my guest for episode 53, called title. The title of that episode was shit happens, learning from mistakes, and basically he where that. The idea was that fred had died a couple of dozen times for different reasons and and he's like okay, one of the times he walks, okay, I need to adjust the way I'm living my life because these things keep happening, and some of it was through no fault of his own or things just happen, unfortunately. But it's interesting how you had that similar shift, and sometimes it takes something as extreme as dying to realize okay, I need to make this shift. And it's interesting how you chose to hold on to that and keep going forward and and how.

Speaker 1: 10:28

I think that relates to today's topic, where we'll be talking about team culture, is a lot of organizations have often talked about the need to have a working, healthy, effective team culture, and some are better.

Speaker 1: 10:41

Some organizations are better than others that actually living up to doing that.

Speaker 1: 10:46

One of the things that one of the great things that came out of covid is almost universally agreed upon is the understanding of the value of a team culture and understanding that it's not something that's just going to naturally happen.

Speaker 1: 10:58

And when everyone was forced into a remote setup, it became very clear how authentic the organization had actually created that culture, because the cultures that were strong, they were able to weather their way through and adjust more easily to the new reality, the new temporary reality, whereas the cultures and organizations that didn't necessarily have the strongest cultures, they and it's there's a lot of research that's starting to flow out about that, and that's really the point of this episode is in your expertise is to talk about how to create and manage healthy, effective team cultures in a remote setting, and so I would like to offer. I went, I went onto the internet and I found I looked up definitions of team culture, and so I found one that they are. They're all very similar, so I found one that I kind of liked, and I'd like to just read that to you really quickly. It's just one sentence and then, if it's okay with you, I'd like to get your definition of team culture, and then we'll just kind of go from there.

Speaker 3: 12:00

Yeah, let's do it.

Speaker 1: 12:00

Excellent, yeah, let's do it Excellent, excellent, all right. So the definition that I found is that team culture consists of shared values, attributes and beliefs among the employees within an organization. Now, that's very, very broad stroke. I recognize that, but this is also the point of talking about a team culture.

Speaker 3: 12:31

So I'd like to know what you think about that definition and then maybe you could offer your definition.

Speaker 3: 12:33

Yeah, absolutely so.

Speaker 3: 12:33

Just to preface very quickly, because I forgot to mention that before, but we talked about it the reason why I learned a lot about team culture is because I traveled to 45 plus countries already in my life and I lived in nine of them, and in those nine countries I would also work within this environment, and so I learned so much about different work ethics, cultural backgrounds, core values, communication differences that are huge and other cultural influences that we tend to ignore if we work within our own culture.

Speaker 3: 13:04

And so, as a definition, that's why I would say that a good and healthy team culture definitely consists on shared core values that are implemented through the leadership and set as a fundamental, like a foundation, to help um create the team culture. But what needs to be um, what needs to be looked at as well and taken consideration, is every person's individual cultural background, traditions, communication styles, ethics and understanding of different traits that we bring to the table, and, in my eyes, team culture is supporting all of this and keeping the uniqueness of the individual while creating a loyal, supportive and I don't want to say safe but somewhat good-feeling environment, because safe spaces are hard to create at times and there's always something that can trigger us. But I feel like it's one of the tasks from creating a team culture to bring as much safety to the environment as possible so people can actually be themselves sorry about that.

Speaker 1: 14:33

I was muted. Uh, that has to be a big challenge. I love how you talked about one of the the most important values inside creating an effective team culture is respecting and maintaining the individual's own values while at the same time, driving forward with the organization's values and goals, because, at the end of the day, every organization has something they want to achieve, so that's a fine balance between the two. For the leader to have to figure that out and as a new leader, it's even more difficult because maybe, uh, you're either new to that team, so you don't know anyone, so it's going to take time to figure out how to learn about your people or, at the same token, maybe you the day before you were a drinking buddy with everyone and now all of a sudden you're in charge. But that shift matters. So you might think you know someone, but all of a sudden they're treating you differently because all of a sudden you're the leader. That's a challenge. Do you have any thoughts on that at all?

Speaker 3: 15:30

Yeah, absolutely. You know, I believe that team culture starts with hiring and I have created a hiring process for my clients that shows them how to hire, based on the core values and not necessarily only based on skills. So you want to look at the skills about 30% of the hiring process and what I mean is, like you want to have a fundamental um baseline that you need people to know or bring in skills, and from there they can always learn more, because as humans we tend to learn skills and we can turn knowledge into action. But changing our core values is very, very difficult and usually it doesn't work because they're deeply ingrained from so many different areas right, cultural background, traditions, religion, faith, spirituality, where you grew up, how you grew up and what you were told the first seven years in your life. So it's a whole different setup and to unlearn and relearn this is very difficult, if ever we don't actually do it because we also kind of identify with these core values.

Speaker 3: 16:44

And so in the hiring process you want to look 70% at core values and you can actually test them out by setting up different scenarios that you check on during an interview, where people don't know what they're being asked and they have to react or respond in the moment, and those scenarios would be written out based on your core values.

Speaker 3: 17:06

So if you have a core value of trust, for example, you set up a scenario where you ask the interviewee about a scenario that would show if they trust you and if you can trust them, and their answer is there's no right or wrong answer, it's just their answer right. We don't judge by right or wrong, we just look at does the response fit to who we want to hire into this position? And that's the first thing that we check basically. So in the hiring process we start with a form where they fill out skills and knowledge and everything and tick boxes or not, and then the interview will be knowing that they have all the skills we need and they can still expand. And so we test and ask on core values.

Speaker 1: 17:54

Well, and that's the thing. If someone's getting to the interview point, the resume tends. My experience has been that the resume tends to be very similar to everyone else that is going to apply for that role. They may have an expertise in a different section than someone else, but at its core, if you make it to the interview stage, you've got the skills. But often I think that's also we're now checking for a personality fit and when. As a new team leader. I'm curious how could a new team leader, when they're working with a new team, for example, how could they check to see if all the team members are going to be able to work together?

Speaker 3: 18:29

And how do?

Speaker 1: 18:29

they do that in a remote setting Because often it's a gut feeling, but it's different over Zoom.

Speaker 3: 18:35

Yeah, that's a great question. So when I was a new team leader, I had a team of 160 people 155 of them were men and they were at least double as old as me and I was in IT for Siemens Enterprise Networks. And I was very young, I was 22 years old and I was thrown basically in this position because I used to work for the same company that served Siemens Enterprise Networks, although we were hired directly by them and but I hadn't yet. That was my first team leader position in a formal professional setting, although I was a team leader before, right in the petrol station, whatnot but for this type of environment and with so many people. I didn't have as many people before.

Speaker 3: 19:21

So my technique was and I improved it over time obviously because it's a little bit ago, but the the most important thing is really getting to know people and getting to know them also on a personal level somewhat. So my first month I scheduled getting to know meetings with everyone in my team and I sat down for at least half an hour and, instead of asking them what they do here, I asked them what they like to do in their lives, how they live their lives, if they have a family or not, how they, you know like to do certain things. What? How they you know like to do certain things If they're being late, and why? Because sometimes that matters too. Right If they have. For example, because we tend to judge people just by what happens. So, oh, you're being late, you did this wrong. But what if this person is a single parent and they had to run to school and then they were holed up there and whatever? And it sometimes matters, you know, to be able to judge a certain behavior or patterns differently than what you would be judged for or by, basically.

Speaker 3: 20:29

And so now, in a remote setting, I do the same thing with a new team leader and a team. We set up coffee chats and we give the team leader prompts that the team member doesn't know to find out something personal about every single of this person and to bring it back, basically, to either the CEO or the founder of the company or however. And that means that they need to ask good questions to get to know about this thing. They can't just ask like, oh, what's your favorite movie?

Speaker 3: 21:01

Because those things we want them to find out is not necessarily something you can straight up ask. You need to dig a little deeper and that's one exercise we do in order for the team lead to get to know the team members. But we also give the team lead a prompt to share something about themselves with the team members. So it's a reciprocal conversation basically. And that's the start of it, and later on what we do is really we are going to set up the core values and have obviously the team lead go through the core value training and everything and make them observe people and that's possible on like group calls, co-working calls, team culture, setup calls and just observe how these core values show up in different ways without having to necessarily look at the work setting.

Speaker 1: 22:00

That's a big challenge in that because more often than not, especially in profit-driven organizations well, actually that's not even true at all. I'm going to completely backpedal. Organizations have goals and whether or not that goal is to make money or whatever it may be, more often than not the old saying of time is money or time is, as I like to often say, is time is getting things done. You know it's not very quick little saying but time is. There's a cost to that. When we're taking the time to actually get to know our people and understand them and people, it's easy to forget that that's actually an investment in helping the team be stronger by getting to know everyone, and I think it also builds trust, a two-way level of trust People, the team members will see that.

Speaker 1: 22:41

Okay, simon's actually going to sit down and not focus only on getting through whatever. Take him more than just saying a hello in the morning as he's walking to his office or, in this case, you know, in a remote setting, saying, hey, how's everyone doing today? A quick hello through in the Zoom room and then get right to the topic at hand. It's challenging, it's tough, I get that, but that's the thing about creating these healthy environments for people to see that the leader actually is going to take that time to hear what people have to say. And then once my my perception is once people are willing to realize or not realize, but willing to see that the authentic, the leader, is authentic. In that there's my experiences have been people are going to be tend to be a little more open about how things are going, especially if things aren't going well, because they know they can. They can speak in an environment that is healthy and safe. Does that make sense at all? Am I really going anywhere with that an environment?

Speaker 2: 23:36

that is healthy and safe. Does that make sense at all? Am I really going anywhere with that? Oh, hello there, it's Glenn, the voiceover artist, and if you're hearing me, that means we're at the midpoint of this episode. Are you considering starting your own podcast? Are you confused or overwhelmed and don't know where to start? Well, Jennifer at it's a Legit Business is a podcast wizard who can help you get started, provide advice, consultation and help you along the way. Trench Leadership has been using it's a Legit Business for over a year and Jennifer offers personalized service catering to the podcast's unique needs and desires, truly hearing Simon's requests and being instrumental in realizing Trench Leadership's vision for each episode. If you want to get started, contact Jennifer at jennifer at itsalegitbusinesscom and she'll help you realize your dreams. Trench Leadership is always striving to improve our content and provide valuable insights for leaders across all professions, and to do this, your feedback is crucial. So drop us a note at simonk at trenchleadershipca and let us know what's working and what can be improved. And now back to the show.

Speaker 3: 24:52

No, I totally agree. The thing is that I always explain to the business owners that work with me that this is a long term investment. Especially the leadership team is going to work differently than their team members. Teach people over profit. It's a concept, basically, that we actually care about the person, that we sometimes and that doesn't mean we need to do this all the time but when the circumstances ask for it, that we give grace and compassion and that we maybe offer different versions of support during times of need.

Speaker 3: 25:34

So when there is crisis, for example, or someone in the family maybe passed away which unfortunately happened during COVID a lot right and we offer support differently and we're not looking at the numbers behind it, because we know if we can offer the support and if we're really authentically and genuinely caring about our team, we actually get back more in the long term because they're also more willing to invest into our mission and vision of the company. They're also willing to support and help out when someone else needs help and the team has a less usually the rates are less in turnovers. So you're saving a lot of money. With hiring the right people and then creating this team culture, you're not only saving money but actually also time and energy, and those are even more valuable than money at times, although a lot of people don't want to believe that yet, but we get to it, and so I totally agree with you.

Speaker 3: 26:35

It's definitely a long-term investment, and we should look at leadership not from the perspective of get as much out of the people as you can, but take care and foster, as much as you possibly can, an environment where people want to be, because what we've seen over the last decades is work environments where people are trying to run away from and they are trying to run away from toxic environments or just stressful environments or environments that doesn't help them grow, and so that's what we really do with leadership. It's not about bouncing all the numbers and, you know, being like on the butt of people to kick them. That's not what we're trying to do.

Speaker 1: 27:27

No, no, I mean, sometimes the leader does need to step in and be okay, Listen, everyone. Here's a little kick in the rear end to get going. But I think, and based off of what I've heard, is that if the leader invests the time to work with the team and be genuine and authentic in what they're trying to say and do, then when things are a little tough, people are going to be a little more open to working through those tough times and, as you mentioned, there actually is a monetary value attached to taking the time to do these things because of that long-term investment dropping the turnover rate I think of. If I could offer an example of that, would that be okay?

Speaker 3: 28:05

Yeah, please.

Speaker 1: 28:06

So I lived in a little city called Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, which is near Montreal, in Quebec, canada here, and my favorite and Montreal loves the breakfast restaurant, so they specialize on breakfast type items. So my favorite restaurant of all time is this place called Le Feu de Ré, which is French for golden egg, and they make these house potatoes that are. It's actually a family recipe. They don't want to tell us what it is, but it's amazing what they put in these things. But that's not the point of the story. But Le Feu de Ré in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu if you ever get a chance to come to Canada, we'll have to go and visit it. It will blow your mind away.

Speaker 1: 28:47

But the point of this example is that I was talking to the owner one time and he was explaining to me that in this restaurant the turnover rate of for all the waiters and waitresses was eight years, that someone tended to stay at that restaurant, which, considering it the industry, that's a long time for someone to stay in location. And, and according to the owner and I actually ended up asking some of the different servers why do they stay it's because there is a family culture there and it happens to be a family run restaurant, which is helpful, but the culture is such that it's okay that they have to work quickly and very, very hard, because the restaurant's always full, it's never not busy, but because of the culture that has been created there, it's not work with finger quotations. They enjoy going and that says something about an industry where traditionally the turnover is quite high and there's something in that. There's definitely a lesson in there.

Speaker 2: 29:42

Do you have any?

Speaker 1: 29:43

type of lessons or sorry examples that you would like to offer, or talking about strong or maybe not so strong teams.

Speaker 3: 29:50

Yeah, you know, I mean, I've been in a lot of teams that, unfortunately, weren't well led and the team culture was non-existent almost.

Speaker 3: 30:01

So my experience comes a lot from seeing what doesn't work and then figuring out how we can balance this out.

Speaker 3: 30:09

And so what I recently learned with well, not I didn't learn it, but, like one of my clients went through hiring and then you know, setting up the team culture and what we've seen together is what's one very important thing is to understand, as a team leader, the difference between kind and nice, because a lot of team leaders they because they think they want to be setting up a family-like team culture, which I just want to mention that we want them to feel like a team really, but we don't want to make it like family, and I explained why in a little bit, and so he was being really nice to them. But nice is people pleasing, nice is not being firm and it's not being a leader, right, and we have to switch that to being kind. We need to sometimes be firm and, as you said before, right, like kicking their rear ends, but we can do this in a kind way and a lot of times I've seen many team managers and whatnot to become an unbearable person. I'm trying to not swear.

Speaker 1: 31:22

Oh, swear away. I've seen a bunch of assholes in my career, so it's totally all right.

Speaker 3: 31:27

Yeah, really. But sometimes I was looking at them like, how did they even get into this position, right? Looking at them like how did they even get into this position, right? But that's how they were. They are literally using their power or control over people and I'm putting this in like fingers, because they don't actually have control or power, but they try to with being such an unbearable person and what happens then is that there's no team culture and the team falls apart easily, and so you want to be kind but not nice, and it's super important to know the difference.

Speaker 3: 32:02

Now, why do we also not want to create a family setting? Here's why, again, I lived in so many different cultures. I experienced so many different backgrounds, and there are a lot of countries in this world where family has the first priority, and it's important to know their backgrounds and to also maybe ask about family sometimes. But when we create a culture that is like a family, we are creating a connection. For them, that means that they cannot detach from work anymore and they would work through weekends and nights and everything, and we don't want that because that's going and falling back into hustle culture, right? So while we want a really safe team environment, and I think that's what the restaurant also did, right um, is that we want to create this space where people feel safe to open, to share, to work through hard times, but also to be open about their tough times and receive support.

Speaker 3: 33:04

But we don't want them to think they're now in a family setting where their commitment is a totally different one, based on their cultural or upbringing or religion or whatever, and so I think it's important to make this distinction too, and that was a very big learning over all of the years that I had because I went, I had different team leadership roles in different countries some in Asian countries, some in Latin American countries, in the UK, in Germany, in all of these countries and it's very different how people relate to being in a family right, but there are certainly countries where family is the first thing. So if you even say we want to be a family at work, they commit very differently and it can be unhealthy again. Yeah well.

Speaker 1: 33:56

so, as you were talking about that, I was thinking about the, the value and the challenges that come with being in one of the as a family style, and I completely agree. How many, how many families are out there and the culture is such inside the family that things are kind of dysfunctional. I think most families live inside of that environment. You know so to say, well, we need to create this family environment. Well, do we? Or do we need to remind people? Also, I'll remember that leaders are leaders and they are in charge. It's knowing when to step in and be the authoritarian version and knowing when to step in and remind people that you're still a human being.

Speaker 1: 34:34

One of my favorite sayings is that everyone poops, you know, that's just the way of it. It favorite sayings is that everyone poops, you know, that's just the way of it. It doesn't matter who you are, we all go to the bathroom and it's easy to forget that sometimes. And it's a challenge to when we're trying to create those cultures. Now, in a remote setting, that's even more difficult. And do you have any type of advice to help for leaders to know how to create a healthy, effective team culture in a remote setting?

Speaker 3: 35:00

Yeah, definitely so. As a leader, you do want to embody those core values. That means that if the company has a core value of, for example, integrity and trust and maybe a commitment to work or something like this, you want to be the one commitment to work or something like this. You want to be the one and I'm not meaning to lead by example, because that can create a form of wanting to do it best and better than everyone, and that's not the case of it. What I mean is just embody what you want the others to also embody. Basically, right, and you don't need to be better. You can be human, you can make mistakes and everything, but just show up in the way that those core values ask you to show up. Now, to integrate the team with these core values and also creating this team culture. I recommend a set of different things. So you want to have a place where people can chat about different things and be in contact at all times during working hours.

Speaker 3: 36:06

For most companies, they use Slack, for example not an ad word, just what happens to be the one of the favorites so far and we can use different Slack integrations and they're called apps, I think or add-ons that help with that. For example, one of our favorites is the hey Taco add-on, where when people did something that you want to reward or just point out, they get a digital taco and then, by the end, you can reward them with like team member of the month, or things like this. And to do rewarding in a way that it's not damaging is to find things that everyone can participate in, and that's mostly like soft skills or you know core values. So you could be like hey, uh, team member a, you have supported our team this month. Uh, specifically with these rough times, whatever, here are tacos and, and thank you for that, you know. And another one could be like hey, your communication style was great and we loved how you helped us in meetings. To get to the point, things like this, right, um.

Speaker 3: 37:17

So other add-ons would be that uh, maybe I don't have the correct names for it, but I think there's geekbot, and this one is something that you can set up, for example, with a daily reminder that is automatically sent to your team, and ask them like hey, how are you doing today? What? How do you feel? How did you wake up this morning? Is everything okay, you know? And the core of this is that when you get these responses, you do want to obviously read them and not just be like, oh, it's an automation. No, you do want to read them.

Speaker 3: 37:53

And if someone said like, honestly, I feel really shit today and I have like pain and whatnot, and I have my, my kids are all over the place and my dog pooped all over the house and whatnot Everything's just going wrong today Then you can reach out and be like, hey, how can we support you today? What can we do to make this a little bit better and to make this day a little bit brighter? Right, and then see what comes up. So it's really a tool. But also, if someone says like, oh my God, I have an amazing day, you just say like, oh my God, yeah, let's celebrate that you have an amazing day.

Speaker 3: 38:28

Like, sometimes it's just these little interactions, because that's how people like to connect and you want those bits for connections to be answered from the leader, right. And other things are that we set up team culture calls, so calls specifically that have nothing to do with work, where we either chat about what you've done on the weekend or someone shares what happened in their life or if they had a new achievement or whatever, and they can also be mental health check-ins. They can also be things, for example, that you offer in your company as a benefit, like a book club or a podcast club or a little mastermind where you can all together go through like personal development that the team votes for. There are so many options, but this specific call and it can be like an hour or two every week or just every two weeks for a little bit longer to check in and just get closer and really just chat about what's really interesting to the people.

Speaker 1: 39:28

That's a big part of it is because I'm going to backpedal just a little tiny bit what I've heard in that is what you're. Ok, I'm going to start that from the beginning again, because I've got three thoughts going on in my mind at the same time. From the beginning again, because I've got three thoughts going on in my mind at the same time, you've offered some very tactical examples and ways that leaders can go about getting to know their team in these environments and really, at the core of it, what I've heard and correct me if I'm wrong, but what I'm hearing is it's talking about fostering trust, communication, actively listening. I am a huge, huge proponent of active listening, actually taking the time and letting someone finish their thought. Let them finish speaking, take a moment, think about it and then respond. Let the person know that they're actually being heard. That is so invaluable for the leader to take that moment.

Speaker 1: 40:15

Time is value. It's invaluable. Time, rather, is valued. It's an invaluable time, rather, and and this is what I'm hearing the examples that you're using will allow the leader the opportunity to actually stop and hear what's being said and, a lot of times, what's not being said. That's that's invaluable. Does that make sense?

Speaker 3: 40:31

Absolutely, and I love that. And I just want to throw in one single thing, because I have a different perspective on the active listening part. As an autistic person, I personally have issues to read in between lines and to read social cues. I can read the energy of the room really well, but if you tell me you're fine but you're not, I won't get it. I take everything literal get it. I take everything literal.

Speaker 3: 41:05

So me, as a leader, I tend to uh, foster an environment where everyone also is very honest and direct and kind, while they are direct and honest. So it's not like radical honesty or brutal honesty or something, because I don't believe in that and if you don't tell me the things that you actually want me to know, I won't be able to find them out. So we also um, try to, because we talked about access accessibility in the beginning, right, we want to foster an environment where everyone can actually open up and share and share in a way that they're being heard, and that sometimes needs practice with different methods and tools, because if you have neurotypical people, they may tend to share in between the lines yeah, I'm okay, you know, but yeah, actually, oh no, I think I'm fine, but then they're not, and some people may not get it, like me, I don't get it. You tell me you're fine and maybe, and okay. Then I think like, okay, you're kind of fine. And so I tend to ask again and I tend to then share about myself.

Speaker 3: 42:09

First that's a little bit autistic. I say, you know, actually my day is not going really well. If that's the case, I'm only. If that's the case, obviously, like I got up on the wrong foot and now I feel like really stiff and painful and oh, and I didn't want to actually do anything and so I'm being really lame today. So are you sure you're fine? Is like how did you get up this morning? You know like. So I'm asking a different question then to in order for them to have the opportunity to share. But I totally agree with you, it's very much about active listening and you know we're coming back to having everyone being unique and their individual selves and those needs being met as much as possible. You can't meet them all, probably, but just to show attention and care genuinely for everyone in the team.

Speaker 1: 43:05

So I have a whole bunch of thoughts on this and I think that one of the things I heard from you that I think is very, very strong in this is that it's not just the leader's responsibility to create and foster a healthy team. It's everyone's role to do that. Everyone has to speak up and feel a healthy team. It's everyone's role to do that. Everyone has to speak up and feel and do that. The leader's responsibility and I'd like to know your thoughts on this the leader's responsibility is to create the safe space where people feel as though they can speak up and say whatever.

Speaker 1: 43:32

The team member's role in all of this is to tell people what they want to see and hear, not just what they think the leader wants to hear. You know, if and I guess that's my my long winded way of saying don't make assumptions about what the leader wants, and the leader shouldn't be making assumptions about what the team members want. Dialogue matters and we have to really hear each other, even if we don't want to hear what we're about to hear, cause sometimes it's today, we're working hard and I don't have time for a conversation, but I'm being pressed with a heavy deadline and I need to get at it today. So we got to go press. Am I hearing that correctly in what you were saying earlier, or am I just making?

Speaker 3: 44:09

something up? No, absolutely Absolutely. You're very good at active listening. You reflect this back, because hearing your words and the and basically the language that you use it makes it more understandable for everyone, because we have different ways of saying these things. So I really love that, and you know, what just came up for me when you shared that was, um, that while the team leader needs to create the safe space, it's also for everyone involved the responsibility to not use anything against a team member or the leader that they've hurt, because that's what makes it safe. Right, that you know you can be in the room and say things and you won't be judged. You're being taken seriously.

Speaker 3: 44:57

But also you need to know that these people are not going to throw this back at you when shit hits the fan, and that's something that needs to be practiced, and I think we have a society unfortunately at least well, I think, around the world, honestly where this is pretty common. You know like, oh, remember that thing you've done, like five and a half months ago on this date, at this time. Remember that thing you've done like five and a half months ago on this date, at this time. You know, if you don't say it in the moment. That is your problem.

Speaker 3: 45:26

Everyone's involved. So if you're not saying it in the moment, or as timely connected to the event as possible, and you don't talk about what maybe disturbed you or what didn't go well or how you would like it to be different, or whatever maybe disturbed you or what didn't go well or how you would like it to be different, or whatever, you basically lost the right after a while to talk about it, because now you have to move through this yourself. So I recommend really to bring things up in the moment is a practice. That won't happen at the beginning, but it's a practice and that's where the leader really I like to say he's a guide, he, she, they are a guide, they're a guide for the whole team and guiding through this sometimes very uncomfortable environment that is needed in order to have hard conversations and then fantastic outcomes for everyone.

Speaker 1: 46:19

Just writing a whole bunch of notes about that Fantastic. Well, this has been an absolutely fantastic chat. You know we've talked a lot about the importance of team cultures, what they are, why they're important, how to create them and, specifically in a remote location. I am curious if people want to reach out to you, if they want to engage more in a conversation with you, how might they do that?

Speaker 3: 46:42

Yeah, thank you for asking. The best way to find a lot of the things is my website and it's called the time alchemistco the time alchemistco, and you can find me with the same name all at once, basically on Facebook. So facebookcom slash the time alchemist and you'll find my public profile, and those two places are where I post a lot about my personal journey as an autistic person, as a leader, and I give a lot of tangible tips and stories that help you maybe cross the concept or idea that I'm trying to share more. So these two spaces and my newsletter that you can sign up for on the website are the best places to be in.

Speaker 1: 47:30

Thanks so much for that and that has been a fantastic episode, monique. This has been so fantastic. Thank you so much for your time today and actually, in your case, rounding up into the later in the evening. So thanks again, and I'm excited for us to chat about another topic down the road.

Speaker 3: 47:47

Yeah, thank you so much, Simon. It was amazing and I'm so grateful to have been able to share a little bit.

Speaker 1: 47:54

Perfect. Thanks a lot. Take care. Well, that's a wrap from the front. In this episode we talked about team cultures in a remote setting. We talked about the need to understand that paying attention to your team, both individually and as the team, requires understanding, shared core values, considering all the regional and personal styles that exist. Now, that's not easy, but you're the leader. We also talked about the understanding that it's everyone's responsibility to create a healthy team environment, but, as the leader, it's your role to guide that team to the safe space so that everyone can help foster that special team. Thanks for tuning in and remember leadership without passion is the depth of your vision of your vision.

Speaker 2: 48:42

Be sure to join us next week with your host, Simon Cardinal, for another episode of Trench Leadership, a podcast from the front Produced by. It's a Legit Business Music provided by Ashamal of Music. Never miss an episode by following us wherever you get your podcasts. While you're there, please consider leaving us a review and rating Hint, we love five stars and let us know what topics you would like to hear about.