Between the commute, lunch bills and lost hours,

return-to-office

(RTO) mandates amount to

significant pay cuts

for employees, but here is the bigger problem with RTO: It is bad for companies. It shrinks the available talent pool, makes

hiring

more expensive and weakens culture.

At Calix, we have proven that you can build a $1-billion, 1,900-person high-performance team without cubicles. We embraced

work-from-anywhere

informally in 2016 and made the formal leap in 2020. Our leadership team, including me, is spread from coast to coast across North America. Our flexible structure has attracted top talent to join our transformation journey and grow.

A great remote culture is the responsibility of leaders and it takes hard work. Here is what we have learned building ours.

1. Visibility does not equate to productivity

I started my career in sales, where there was one rule: closers are not in the office during the workday. They are with customers. Back when I led a team in Tokyo, the in-office culture was a Dilbert cartoon, with team members sneaking off to grab naps and not leaving the office until I left, even though I could see their browsers flicking through social media.

Add in the financially driven decision to pack people into unproductive open offices — which Harvard University research said tends to increase email traffic 50 per cent and reduce interactions by 70 per cent — proves that presence does not equal

productivity

.

2. Clear goals, coaching, flexibility and recognition are keys to a great culture

High-performance teams want clear goals from their leader,

flexibility

to achieve those goals, recognition when successful and coaching when they struggle. That does not require RTO. It requires trained and accountable leaders.

We ask all leaders to update a strategic plan twice a year with goals, methods and measurements. Clear goals cascade clarity to teams. And because high-performance

cultures

often hyperfocus on only what needs improving, we make recognition a discipline through quarterly all-hands, spot awards, and internal posts that celebrate teams working hard to help customers win every day.

Our biggest challenge as a high-performance culture is getting team members to take time off so they do not burn out. We designate quarterly “recharge days,” where internal meetings are discouraged and we partner with Unmind Ltd., an innovative mental wellness platform to encourage resilience and self-care. We also run reports on vacation time, so we can nudge those who have not taken time off.

3. Address underperformance head-on

The most common leadership weakness I see is indecision around poor performance. Twice a year, we run a nine-box talent review with every team and use Predictive Index LLC (PI) to help leaders assess performance and potential. PI reveals how employees prefer to work and be recognized, helping us coach leaders and team members to the highest level of performance. At the same time, we transition out those better suited to other roles.

4. Success starts with people, which requires competing for talent

The best people are not all sitting in one province or state. Limit yourself by geography and you end up in a bidding war for the same handful of engineers in Silicon Valley at a horrendous premium.

At Calix, more than 70 per cent of our R&D leaders are based outside California. Our engineering teams operate in 24 states, throughout Canada and internationally, with distributed groups collaborating daily across time zones. That structure gives us access to a wider and more diverse talent pool than companies that keep hires constrained by geography. It also leads to happier employees, as the cost of living in Silicon Valley is insane.

The impact of our

remote-first

culture speaks volumes. We are driving double-digit revenue growth and significant free cash flow growth, ensuring we have the resources to invest in our people and our platform year after year.

Soon we will launch the most transformative product in our 26-year history: AI-as-a-service capabilities as part of our Broadband Platform. This innovation was built by distributed R&D teams spanning five continents and 11 countries. We did not need intensive in-person whiteboarding sessions to get it done.

In my career, I took every chance to work remotely. I was always more productive, motivated and successful as a result because I had clear goals and the support of my leader. Calix founder and board chair Carl Russo has also worked remotely since the day I joined Calix nine years ago.

A culture is not a “what.” It is not a static thing, meant to stay the same over time. Culture is a “how”: how a leader sets goals, treats team members, communicates and empowers. If done poorly, the culture will suffer. Done well, there is no limit to the team members’ success. In turn, the company succeeds.

  • Why parking spots could be the next back-to-the-office battleground
  • Why a return to the office makes sense even if the debate lingers on

The future is remote, and it is already here. The only question is whether a company’s leaders are capable of leading it.

Michael Weening is the chief executive of Calix Inc.