Emily Leeb: finding the intersection where company culture exists

Creating a company culture that transcends the borders of an office is no easy task. Since the pandemic, this has been a challenge that many organisations – both in the igaming industry and further afield – have come up against.

From the shift to remote working, to workforces demanding flexible working schedules, the onus is on company leaders to ensure that they are optimising cultural interactions and supporting their teams.

What does optimising interactions mean?

When I set up Saroca, I had the goal of providing companies with the opportunity to invest in their own talent and culture. I have worked in the world of corporate transformation for more than 11 years now, but I wanted to bring that experience to the world of igaming.

When I first started out in this industry, admittedly I didn’t know much about igaming. I understood the concept of an online casino and poker, but I really had no idea how vast, fascinating and intricate an ecosystem it was. It totally blew me away! Before I knew it, I was enamoured with the world of igaming.

I first started out as the production manager of CalvinAyre.com when it launched back in 2009. What I knew about my new position was that I would be travelling all over Europe to cover igaming events, conferences and parties as well as managing reporters, camera operators, promo models, budgets and writing scripts. What I didn’t realise at the time was how many doors this new role would open for me!

I learned so much about the industry by attending events all over Europe and North America. I was lucky enough to conduct a number of interviews with high profile igaming execs like Sue Schneider and Bill Pascal III, where I gained so many unique insights into how our industry is continuing to evolve.  

We covered the very first Women in Gaming Awards, Ivonne Montealegre’s Punta Cana Poker Classic, multiple years at the WSOP including interviews with poker legends like Daniel Negreanu and Annie Duke. I garnered so much from these experiences and forged incredible relationships that have lasted to this day.

Defining company culture

I first joined this industry because I was attracted to the innovation, the creativity, the genuine and down-to-earth people that seem to be drawn to this space and all the fun we got to have along the way. And 11 years later, this hasn’t changed.

One of the biggest changes that I have seen in our industry, however, is how we define company culture. This has been particularly evident in the last 18 months, especially as more people start to return to the office.

Some people think culture is “the way we get things done around here”. And that’s true to a point, but it’s so much more than that. Culture exists in the way we speak to each other: the verbal and nonverbal forms of communication, how human-centred or transactional we are in virtual meetings, the way we treat and talk to our customers and vendors, how our managers interact with their direct reports in their 1:1s and their team meetings.

How to ensure a strong virtual culture

Culture can be assessed based on how much blaming, shaming and complaining we participate in or witness, how transparent leadership is with what’s going on and how we give and receive feedback. There are so many nuances where organisational culture lives and that means there are so many opportunities to improve it.

At Saroca, we believe and teach that the culture of an organisation exists at every intersection where people cross paths, whether with fellow employees, customers or vendors. That means culture exists in an email, the water cooler, a virtual meeting or a customer interaction.

We teach our partners that you can ensure a strong virtual culture by training people on how to optimise the intersections within which they are communicating with fellow employees, customers and vendors.

At Saroca, we can customise training programmes to optimise cultural interactions and support employees to see they actually contribute to or take away from company culture based on how they treat people, how they communicate and how they conduct themselves, even in a virtual environment.

Creating an environment of trust

To be a successful virtual company, you’ve got to cultivate an environment of high trust. We need to respect the autonomy of others, trusting they will get their job done while having the tools to rebuild trust and address breakdowns in a rapid and expedited way. We need our managers to forge close relationship with their direct reports, ones that inspire them to produce the best they can.

Whether your business is virtual, hybrid or in-person, if you want to maintain a strong company culture, you have to invest back into your teams. You need to have a human-centred HR executive that knows what it means to cultivate the development of each department head and subsequently those operating under them.

This is especially true if you are running a remote or hybrid business. You need to create opportunities to bring the humanity back to the workplace by doing off-sites, retreats and investing in team building efforts, ideally face to face.

While some companies may not have the budget for those things, they can start small by bringing in guest virtual speakers or spicing up their all-hands meetings virtually with something unique, like a virtual team building exercise – icebreakers and virtual games are always a hit!

The future of company culture

At first, creating and maintaining a company culture might sound like a difficult task. But it doesn’t have to be. As long as you have good intentions and a clear vision for what you want your company to stand for, then you are on the right path.

This might sound like a bit of a shameless plug, but this is Saroca’s bread and butter. This is what we do – and we do it well.

We offer customised opportunities for organisations to invest in their talent. Whether that’s an inspirational virtual workshop, a running programme designed specifically to cater to the needs of the organisation all the way up to company retreats, off-sites and team building experiences that truly last a lifetime.

And I’m not just pumping my own tires, I have been working in the world of corporate transformation for over 11 years. I have seen what works and, more importantly, what flops.

Last year I was brought into work with a cybersecurity company about to IPO. They’re based in Palo Alto, California with 17 offices worldwide and virtual workers all over the world. Saroca was brought in after two attempts at virtual talent development programmes had failed.

We’re now launching our third virtual leadership development programme with them that is being deployed around the world. They launched their IPO in the spring and we are honoured to be their leadership development partner. 

If that doesn’t say something about the impact that we’re able to create by working with Saroca, I’m not sure what would.

Bio: Emily Haruko Leeb is a seasoned executive, life and leadership coach. She has over a decade of experience in the world of corporate transformation. She started her remarkable journey of serial entrepreneurship at age 19 when she founded her own direct sales company, she then moved into advertising, followed by a career in media production management within the igaming sector.