As companies continue to work remotely many of us are faced with the question of how do we work with our teams remotely better? 

• How can we still do team building activities? 
• What are the right team building activities for a remote team? 
• How does remote work impact each team member differently?

Today I am going to share what we are doing using the DISC Assessment for Team Building purposes. This works directly into our system for how to manage staff remotely.

Some people on our team really enjoy the small chat, sharing jokes while others just want to get to work and be left alone. 

It is not JUST up to the leadership to understand everyone but if the team works with each other we all have a responsibility to understand how each of us are most effective. 

So… how are we going to go about improving our teams performance with a personality assessment? 

We are using the remarkably accurate DISC Assessment tool, create a personalized action plan off of the results and share the findings with the rest of the team. 

What is the DISC Personality Assessment?

Here are the steps to implement this assessment we are using with our team… 

DISC Assessment for Team Building Steps

Step 1 – Prepare the Team DISC Assessment Plan

In this step decide on the following items…

1. Who on the team is going to complete the assessment
2. How is the assessment going to be completed?
   1. Free Online Options – such as my favorite https://www.16personalities.com/
   2. Paid Consultants or Paid online options
3. Is taking the assessment required? In my case I have decided to not make it required although encouraged. 
4. Setup Google Sheet to share results
   1. See example here

Step 2 – Introduce the Team to The DISC Assessment Plan

Share with the team why we are doing this and how it is going to get done.

/// my email ///

Hi Team

As mentioned on the morning call I continue to be impressed with how the team is performing remotely. 

The purpose of this email is to layout the plan for taking the personality assessment discussed so we can work even better together. The team we have now is crushing through work and we definitely have the core team to keep building from.  

Through this process, we might even finally find out what is wrong with all of us 😉

2 parts in this Email:

• ONE – The Plan
• TWO – My Experience and the Why

ONE – Create The Plan

1. Go to this site – https://www.16personalities.com/
2. Take the 10 min survey
3. Read your results and see if you agree with them
4. Optional – Add a link to your results in this google doc – LINK
5. Add your direct reports to the sheet and share this email with them
6. Review each of the entire team members summary with a focus on your direct contacts (manager and reports) – read post at AWI on debrief process
7. We will discuss one persons results at each of the morning meetings (with myself going first) – read post at AWI on sharing process

The end result is every person will have taken the DISC assessment, shared with the entire team their results and created an action plan adjusting work to focus on strengths and mitigate weakenesses. 

This will also allow us to better understand how to work with each other most effectively.  

TWO – My Experience and the Why

As you can guess I am usually fairly dismissive of this soft stuff. However, when I completed it I was like holy shit this is spot on. Get out of my head computer! 

I am a big believer in doubling down on strengths and putting systems/people in place to mitigate weaknesses. 

The level of accuracy of the assessment certainly supported what were strengths and weaknesses. As a result, I am putting more effort into systematizing parts of the business. 

For example… this very effort is a systematic way to put in place an efficient way for us to better understand our differences and allow each of us (myself included) to work more effectively with everyone. Ideally leveraging a strength of mine (systems) to mitigate a weakness of mine (communicating I care about the team).

I welcome feedback and look forward to this process. 

Cheers

Jon 

Step 3 – Everyone Completes a DISC Assessment

Each person goes in and completes the DISC assessment entering their results into the spreadsheet. 

• Go to https://www.16personalities.com/
• Complete the assessment
• Read the results
• If you agree with them and are okay sharing with them team enter into the spreadsheet

If you want you can add in a comment if there is anything you think is worth noting.

Step 4 – Debrief at the Weekly 1:1 Meeting

At your weekly 1:1 with either your manager or a direct report review the summary of the assessment and debrief. 

Consultants have gone in DEPTH on this debrief process – http://discmastery.com/media/DISCDebriefingGuide.pdf

For our purposes, I believe a shortened version consistent with an OODA loop is sufficient…

• Observe
  • Any issues taking the assessment?
  • What did you think of the assessment?
• Orient
  • Did you find it “fit” you?
  • What parts did you relate to the most?
  • What parts did you disagree with the most?
• Decide
  • What changes to your work would play to your strengths and mitigate your weaknesses?
  • What changes to how you work with the team would play to your strengths and mitigate your weaknesses?
• Act
  • Add a list of action items to the weekly sheet (or Trello board if used) for tracking to completion

Step 5 – Team Building Share at the Morning meeting

At the morning meeting, I would like to have one person each morning share their findings. 

5-10 min and some version of the agenda (your time to share):

• Personality according to the tool – abcd
• My thoughts on if it fits me
• Any insights
• How I am adapting my work to play to my strengths and mitigate weaknesses
• How I am adapting how I work with others to play to my strengths and mitigate weaknesses 
• Comments from the team

My hope is this team-wide, efficient approach to personality assessment will have a positive impact on both the quality/quantity of individual output while also providing a framework for helping us work better together. 

I am looking forward to the process and seeing how it goes. 

If anyone has had experience with this process in another organization comments below would be greatly appreciated! 

This article is part of a series we are doing on remote work, a relevant topic in today’s times. With social distancing becoming the new normal, social isolation will also start to take place

Whether you are looking for a solution on how to manage staff remotely for the first time or looking to improve your current systems

Have you always wanted to learn more about some of the things we do here or at any of the portfolio companies? Or maybe you are looking to develop your skill set for another company while working on your own project? 

Now is your opportunity with the growth of MotionInvest and BrandBuilders and a refocus on other projects we are needing to bring on additional help! 

If you are interested in fulfilling one of the jobs below to join our team, we would love to hear from you.

We are currently hiring for 2 positions to help us carry some of the load as we grow.

Internet Marketing Content Writer Job Description

Job Description: We are looking for someone who is good with words and can create in depth posts specifically around digital marketing. 

You need to live and breath this space working on your own sites, follow the usual blogs and play with lots of the tools! 

You need to love data, spreadsheets and dedicated to creating useful content.

The approximate weekly output we are looking for is around 2,000 words with times where that will go up. 

Required:

• Have deep knowledge in the industry with experience (websites built, blogs in the space)
• Examples of content you have taken from concept to publishing in this space
• Capable of producing image concepts to go with the posts

Perks:

• Get access to tool data to execute the work (20k/yr worth)
• Get access to training courses
• Opportunity to be included in the team pages of the sites you work on with a link back to your project(s)
• Opportunity to collaborate with us and have us help you with whatever your projects are

Ideal Candidate:

• Running your own portfolio or SEO/internet marketing/website building blog and looking to take it to the next levels! 

Compensation:

• Although you will receive more in terms of value than most internet marketing internships or “coaching” this will be a paid position! Apply Here – https://forms.gle/ssnpqWhogYDdWp627

Affiliate Manager Job Description

Job Description: We are looking for someone who is able to make connections in the online marketing / make money online space and line up affiliates for a few different projects. 

Skills Needed:

• Have experience with affiliate management
• Build and maintain positive relationships with affiliates
• Line up promotions by working with us and the affiliate
• Develop strategies to improve affiliate outreach

Ideal Candidate:

• Existing rolodex of people who have an audience that would benefit from the services within our portfolio. 

Compensation:

• Flexible based on your experience with a large component attached to performance – apply here – https://forms.gle/bTRZc3sFxP6bKMkP9

Over the years I have had a lot of partnerships, some have worked out extremely well building friendships and achieving success for everyone… others have ended in failure and disappointment. 

Many people say they like to avoid partnerships because they are always messy! This would be much less fulfilling for me since much of the satisfaction I get from the companies we run is winning together. 

It is true partnerships are often messy, but here are some of the lessons that I have learned and structures that have seemed to work for me and some of my business partnerships. Hopefully if you’re putting a partnership together or adjusting one you already have- this might help you avoid these mistakes. 

Most Importantly – There is no ONE system that is best for everyone. The key is to understand the motivations of people involved and find a solution that has everyone’s incentives aligned. 

I have had my share of painful discussions, but fortunately- I haven’t had any disagreements that I haven’t been able to solve with people. 

In the news in just the past 2 weeks and just in Canada there have been a couple examples of partnerships going off the rails publicly impacting in some cases thousands of people!

• Roxodus Music Fest Cancelled – Life long friends no longer on speaking terms – https://barrie.ctvnews.ca/i-was-shocked-like-everyone-else-roxodus-co-creator-breaks-silence-1.4499510
• Lawsuit Between Dining Empires and Partners – https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/cactus-club-earls-joey-restaurant-war-1.5210465

Here are 5 of the most common mistakes I have either made myself or seen others in the online world make…

• Mistake – Not separating capital and management. This is one I see often! Two people come together and say to each other Person 1 “I have an idea” Person 2 “I have money”… boom a business is born. Person 1 is going to run the business and person 2 is going to provide the capital they each get approximately 50% of the business. The result is if the business is successful Person 1 without a management agreement and compensation structure in place will struggle to justify why he will continue working on the business he only has a partial ownership of vs deploying his efforts and now his money into another project. The solution is the person “managing” should be compensated primarily based on results.
• Mistake – Misalignment on goals – Most commonly this shows up as a cashflow vs growth discussion. If one partner has cashflow from another venture while another is relying on that cashflow to pay the bills this can create a lot of stress. Similarly if the goals for the exit of the business are not aligned it can cause problems. 
• Mistake – Simple Structure Everyone Understands – Over-relying on lawyers to layout the plan and then no-one except the lawyers fully understands is too common. Rarely does it come down to the words on the agreement as often things get sorted out from everyone’s understanding. The best way I have found is the partners layout the partnership structure (typically in a spreadsheet) and then get the lawyers to make it official. 
• Mistake – Not updating the agreement as the years move on. Things change in people’s lives and there is always a need to check in on some frequency and make sure the incentives are correctly aligned. 

• Mistake – Communication and Stewardship Execution Not Disciplined – This is one that is easy to slip! There needs to be a consistent execution discipline to managing partnerships involving communication and stewardship. 

Below are 3 of the structures that have worked most consistently for me.

Structures That have Worked:

1. Base Salary with Revenue Share & No Equity
   1. This one is the simplest and the one I have often started with. If there is a business idea that a manager/partner needs to run with this structure is clean. Typically a below market base salary followed by a solid % of revenue. The benefit is it is simple, has one number to focus on and the emphasis is on fast growth early on. The downside is that the long term enterprise value is not the priority due to neither profit or equity being tied into the compensation. 
2. Profit Share + Vesting Equity
   1. This has been a fit when I want incentives to be aligned with a longer (ie 5yr+) time horizon and the business is already validated. Profit sharing without any understanding on the expected profit can be tough as people may end up disappointed so this has been a better fit for either acquired businesses or growing internal ones. The benefit is this optimizes for value creation, the downside is it adds significant complexity. 
3. Base Salary below market to Validate Idea with Equity Attached to KPIs
   1. When there is no initial revenue and it will be a number of months to build the business before potential revenue shows up how do you align incentives with a partner? The solution that has seemed to work in a couple cases has been a below market salary building up a “sweat debt” to bring salary in line with market and then an equity kicker attached to KPIs that will be triggered once the business hits break even. The up side is it has incentives nicely aligned if the business hits its goals… the downsides are it is both complex and the $ risk is squarely on the capital partners shoulders. The decision to reinvest/continue etc can be a challenge. 

Stewardship / Structure

No matter how good the partnership is setup there is a need for ongoing stewardship and management. The way this has worked well for me is the following…

• Weekly meeting with the manager/partner to review business KPIs
• Monthly – PnL done monthly and reviewed in detail Monthly and then discussed at the weekly
• Quarterly – review laying out the major tasks for the next 3 months
• Annual strategic review 

This is a work in process and I try to follow the guidance from the book Traction.

Standardized Business Stack

Having some standardization across the different businesses when it comes to the business systems has been helpful 

• Quickbooks Online 
• Same bookkeeper, lawyer, accountant, bank/banker
• Google Suite (gmail, google docs etc) 
• Not 100% Consistent but Software – Jira, GitHub, Trello, Slack, MailShake, Grashopper, ActiveCampaign, WordPress, ThriveThemes Suite of tools, Zaxaa or Chargify, Stripe/PayPal