The key to scaling your culture lies in leadership. Specifically, you must hire leaders who embody your culture and train them to lead in a way that aligns with your culture and values.

• Starting with trust and giving employees great autonomy and flexibility allows people to feel independent and empowered while still feeling like a part of something bigger. This leads to happy, loyal employees with a rich quality of life, which in turn leads to an amazing culture.

The key to culture is how you build relationships. It’s about the quality and types of conversations you have, not where you have them.

If you are serious about having a virtual company with excellent culture, you must have the discipline to develop a hiring process that screens for culture matches and for the attributes of successful virtual workers. You can’t just hire for skills—that never translates to great culture.