Learn to leverage new technologies and tools to keep your team motivated and engaged remotely with Ellen Stafford of Vidyard.
Ellen Stafford
(Director of Business Development, Vidyard)
Vidyard
– All-in-one video platform for business
– Screen recording, video hosting and
management, integrations into business
tools, enterprise-level features
Motivation
– The “why” behind what we do
– Further reading: Drive: The Surprising Truth
About What Motivates Us by Daniel H. Pink
Types of Motivation
1. Extrinsic
– Doing something to produce an outcome
such as receiving a reward (carrot) or avoid
a punishment (stick)
– If, then incentives
– Can be useful in certain scenarios for
SDRs (commissions, performance
improvement plans, etc.)
– When used alone, often only motivates
short term behaviors and short term results
2. Intrinsic
– Inner drive that encourages someone to
perform an activity
– From Daniel Pink, 3 types:
a.) Autonomy – is trusted by their leader,
feels like they take ownership of their
task and their outcomes
b.) Mastery – is challenged by what they
are doing and feels like they are
constantly learning and getting better
– somewhere between boredom and
anxiety, challenged in a healthy way
c.) Purpose – understand the impact they
are making for the team, for the company,
and for themselves
– better, more lasting results
Engaging Your Remote Team
– Benefits to being part of a team
– SDR Grind – we’re in this together
– Gaining energy from others
– Learning from each other
– The shift to remote survey asked teams what
they missed the most and what used to give
them the most energy: missing their
teammates and team dynamics
– Solution to recreate this remotely
Building the Right Team
– Starts with hiring the right people for your
remote team
– Hire for soft skills vs. what can be taught
– Experience is a plus
– Ask interview questions around:
– Drive
– Ability to take ownership
– Genuine curiosity & Love for Learning
– Trustworthiness
– Creativity
– Self-awareness
Your Remote Team Culture
– Build a culture of accountability
– Set clear expectations
– Allow flexibility in how they get there
– Demonstrate trust
– Avoid micromanagement!
– Something seems off? Assume the best
intentions and seek to understand
– Feeling like a team member doesn’t trust
you is very demotivating
– Exemplify work/life balance – try not to
reach out off hours unless extremely critical
– Give them ownership: promote
collaboration & solicit frequent feedback on
what’s working and what isn’t, stop-start-
continues, surveys
– make sure they have a voice in defining the
workplace culture
Team Communication
– Over-communicate with your team
– You can’t that things are learned organically in a
remote team
– Build an effective team communications
plan that doesn’t rely on virtual meetings only
– Asynchronous updates: Executive updates,
campaign reviews, process changes
– Virtual team meetings: Q&A’s from updates,
enablement, guest speakers, hot topics, results