It is really important when you’re working in a virtual environment with your team that you build a great culture. 

What I’m seeing a lot of at the moment is business owners trying to recreate the culture that they had in their office environment in a virtual environment. 

Here’s the challenge with that. They are different. There’s a similarity, there are certain aspects of leadership, of management and the like that are going to be similar. But trying to directly recreate the office environment in a virtual space is near impossible. 

I’ll give you an example. As I walk into an office, I say g’day to everyone, and I see people, proximity brings people together. I might go and make a coffee, and we sit there, and we might have a quick chat. When I’m in a virtual space, often the only time that I’m going to have conversations with other people is if there’s a preset meeting or via some form of chat like Slack or the like. 

So you’ve got to get clear in your head that to build an amazing culture in a work-from-home and virtual environment is different. The fundamentals that sit underneath building a great culture are the same. It’s the execution that is going to be different. 

And one thing that I say that’s really important is your goal as the leader, manager of your organization is to help have each person’s human needs met. 

When I went to my first Tony Robbins event, he talked about the six human needs. The six human needs being certainty, uncertainty or variety, significance, love and connection, growth, and contribution. And in the context of the event, I was at with Tony, it was talking about how we seek to have our needs met personally, and it was more as an individual thing. But as I work with organizations, great organizations ensure that the six human needs are met through the work environment and the work that people are doing. 

So to build an amazing culture, if you can ensure that your work, your business, your management, your people’s needs are being met, all of a sudden, you’re going to build loyalty, you’re going to build trust, you’re going to build retention, and you’re going to build this amazing culture. 

You need to think about what are the actions that we are going to take as an organization, whether it’s in our office or virtually, to fulfill and meet or even exceed the requirements that people have to have their needs met? 

Sounds really simple but it requires a bit of strategy and thinking, and it requires you to really dig deep on why does this business exist and why do I want to bring these people in to serve our mission and achieve our vision? 

When you get super clear on that and you align that with the six human needs, it’s amazing how cultures just sort of blossom and flourish. 

Take some time today to think about how you as a leader are fulfilling the needs of your people. 

How is your management or leadership team meeting the needs of your people? 

What do you need to shift or do differently or implement to meet the needs of your people? 

If you’re interested in learning more about this, if you just go onto YouTube and type in Tony Robbins Six Human Needs, there are loads of videos of Tony explaining how the six human needs work, and I think there’s a really nice correlation to implementing that into business in order to build loyalty, build culture and to enhance your team environment.