Think of your ideal virtual business like a delicious brownie. You’ll need the right amount of different but complementary ingredients like flour and chocolate. These are the positions and skill sets of your employees. You’ll need the right cooking process, like the stirring and heating; these are the actions taken by you and your employees. And you’ll need a good recipe to guide you to the end result; this is an articulation of your core values for your organization to uphold. When the ingredients and process match the recipe, you get a delectable brownie. When your employees and their actions match your values, you get team authenticity and trust.

Why is cohesion of core values so important? First imagine what happens when conflicting values are at play. Employees who value efficiency over relationship building won’t engage authentically when a boss encourages small talk among the team. A company that values timeliness will encounter conflict with an employee who sees deadlines as suggestions. Employees utilizing different values when handling customer service issues will undermine company consistency, which will negatively impacts the company brand.

These issues can become even more common and even more impactful with a virtual team, which by its nature works apart as much as it works together. While employees collaborate on projects, the majority of the work and communication occurs online. A need for consistency and cohesion is stronger when employees are scattered across the earth.

Now imagine what happens when employees are in sync with the organization’s values. Everything becomes easier! There’s no conflict over clashing values. Employees all prioritize the same values when making decisions, creating cohesion and unity among the team. The common understanding of the organization’s values helps build a consistent brand. The end result? The delicious brownie.

So how do you get this delicious brownie? You need a recipe, the ingredients, and the process.

Step 1: Articulate Your Core Values

This is the writing the recipe stage, where you’re figuring out what you want the end result to look like. Explicitly stating the core values is the guiding direction to the authenticity and trust in a team, just like writing baking steps is the guiding direction to a delectable brownie.

For some inspiration, check out these core values from big organizations.

• Starbucks “Contribute positively to our communities and our environment”
• Procter and Gamble “We have a healthy dissatisfaction with the status quo”
• Quicken Loans “Responding with a sense of urgency is the ante to play”
• Wells Fargo “Exceed the expectations of internal and external customers-surprise and delight them”
• Zappos “Embrace and drive change”
• Google “It’s best to do one thing really really well”

Step 2: Find Team Members With Those Core Values

This is the ingredient gathering stage. Hire individuals who embody your core values. Granted it’s tough to know from an interview whether someone holds the same values. But there are some ways to find out. Question their references and ask for specific examples of values at play. In the interview ask the individual to articulate their top three values. Describe a scenario where values are at play, and see which the interviewee prioritizes.

Step 3: Establish and Reinforce Those Core Values

This is the stirring, mixing, pouring, and heating of the brownie batter stage. Here are several steps you can take to reinforce values in your organization:

• Articulate in writing the organization’s core values and distribute to employees. Write out the top values and provide examples of them at play. If your company values time with family, for example, write out how employees should not hesitate requesting a day off to care for sick child.
• Model the values you want your employees to adopt. Be sure to showcase through your own actions the core values. Whenever possible, explain the thought process behind your decisions. For example, saying reliability is a key aspect of our customer service so disciplinary action will be in place if too many deadlines are missed.
• Be intentional with communication. When we lose nonverbals (like tone and posture) in online communication, we attribute more meaning to the nonverbals we are left with (like emoticons, punctuation, and phrasing). If you want to create a more relaxed atmosphere, throw in smiley faces to the emails. If you want a more professional atmosphere, keep conversation concise and formal. Let these expectations be known.
• Focus on the process, not just the results. Bosses who narrowly focus on results don’t care how it gets done, just that it does get done. Employees internalize this mentality and will often lose sight of company values (learning and improving one’s work, positive collaboration with team members, etc.) while they work for the results. As much as possible, reinforce values in your employees’ process.
• Praise examples of employees’ modeling the values. If you value timeliness and an employee consistently turns in work on or before the deadline, reference this work ethic in an employee of the month dedication or a “gold star” email.

A virtual team is a great opportunity to run a business with more efficiency and employee freedom, but it does come with challenges. We can enable you to tackle those hurdles through our many services, from online business management strategy and implementation to administrative services. Give a call or shoot us an email today!