You used to be known for your organization skills.

When new people got hired, they’d be sent to you for help on setting up their schedules and To Do lists.

But lately – you’ve been missing appointments and commitments that in the past you never would have missed.

You don’t get what’s happening with you. How are you missing these?

What if I told you that…

People WANT to be led. We are pack animals. When there is a clear leader in place it makes us feel at ease. We listen. We follow. We emulate.

But right now you are so worried about appearing over-confident or arrogant in front of your team that you aren’t fully stepping into the leader that they need, and want, you to be.

A single draft horse can pull a load of up to 8,000 pounds. At a typical weight of 1,600 pounds this feat is hard to imagine.

So, what happens when we put two draft horses together? Can they pull 16,000 pounds?

One would think. But the answer to this question can teach us a lot about the importance (and magic) of team synergy.

As a CEO nowadays, you are told that your job is ‘keeper of team culture.’

But when you have a small team, and you’re building and scaling, the reality is… you have to spend the majority of your time GROWING the business.

And that means focusing on revenue, bringing in new business, answering to investors, and so on.

Team culture in a remote and hybrid setting is taking up a lot of brain space these days.

I’m having a lot of conversations with teams who are way too busy to be thinking about how to create team culture and yet they feel the effects of relationships straining and motivation wearing thin.

Congrats! Your company is growing, and more work than ever is coming through the door.

But instead of celebrating (after all this is what you’ve been working so hard for) you feel overwhelmed and scattered, thinking about how you’re going to put all this into action.

Especially with a team who is already in full swing.

We often think that the challenges we are up against when building a fine-tuned team in a remote context are big and overwhelming.

But that’s simply because we’re not clear on what the challenges really are.

We’re assuming. We’re catastrophizing. We’re putting off finding out.

You started your Monday off right.

You felt calm, you mapped out your to do list and got clear on your priorities.

You even blocked periods of time off in your calendar to try to make some headway on some of the big projects you’ve been lagging on moving ahead.

But then you get a ping - with a quick question. You answer.

In remote and hybrid workplaces, miscommunications and misunderstandings run rampant.

Without realizing it, we are managing a number of stories throughout our day about each of the people we work with based on what we’re assuming they are doing and thinking.

This is draining your energy - and is putting your brain’s focus on useless errands.

But this one piece of advice will save you from so many headaches. Are you ready for it?

Research is showing that performance reviews - while still a longstanding practice in many companies - are not very effective and in fact can cause more harm than good. Turns out that, we are not reliable judges of others and that more than 50% of our assessment of someone else reflects our perception of their abilities, rather than the abilities themselves.

In the new world of work, where people are working remotely and in hybrid settings, creating a culture for ongoing feedback is essential to keeping staff engaged, and addressing wins and challenges on the go, rather than once or twice a year.

Here are five shifts to consider when it comes to feedback in a remote setting.

Sometimes, it can feel like there is no time to stop. There is no time to recalibrate. Like you don’t know where to begin.

But nothing good comes from working in the chaos. And it certainly ends up taking a lot more time to get where you want to go.

Remote culture isn’t feeling easy - because it requires a shift in how we think, how we manage and how we work with others.

And for me, that shift is a good one.

Do you have a consistent 1:1 meeting with each of your direct reports? 1:1’s can be enjoyable, productive, and can lead to better relationships with your team. Here are three tips to ensure your 1:1’s create more time in your calendar, rather than less.

Feedback. It’s a word that gets a lot of attention. It can also create a lot of anxious feelings. As a leader, my guess is - that you know intellectually that getting feedback from your team is important, but on a deeper level there are voices inside you that are stopping you from taking the next step. Here’s why.

Does the word ‘consult’ make you want to run the other way?

Feel calm and confident when you hit that book your consult button with these three steps.