New Ways to Improve Your Company’s Culture
You want a great company? Let me tell you a secretā¦Start with your culture!
Editor’s note this is part one of a two part series.Ā
As a consultant and as someone who hangs out with people everyday in various fields, I have to tell you, some people just donāt get it. Especially the people at the top, the ones who can actually make the difference in their companies.
You want a great company? Let me tell you a secretā¦Start with your culture!
More than once, Iāve been called in to help an organization āfixā things in their business. I get the āthese workers are lazy,ā āthe turnover here is horrible, we are a great family business, why is this happening,ā and āI spend so much money hiring top talent and they leave before a year is up.ā Well, Iāve found that most times the problem is the culture. There are literally hundreds if not thousands of articles and books on Organizational Culture. So what exactly is culture? According to Frances Frei and Anne Morris at Harvard Business Review:
āCulture guides discretionary behavior and it picks up where the employee handbook leaves off. Culture tells us how to respond to an unprecedented service request. It tells us whether to risk telling our bosses about our new ideas, and whether to surface or hide problems. Employees make hundreds of decisions on their own every day, and culture is our guide. Culture tells us what to do when the CEO isnāt in the room, which is of course most of the time.ā
Itās important because so many have yet to get it through their heads that itās the culture! A CEO, Founder, Director, whatever leadership role you have can spend thousands of dollars on many things but if culture is not communicated, addressed, evaluated and rewarded, the problems will continue.
The real problem could be you.
Here are the real problems at the core:
- You donāt want to look at yourself.
- You donāt want to check yourself.
- You donāt want to have to change yourself.
- You want others to always be the problem but can never entertain that you could be the problem.
If your business matters to you, culture should matter to you. Not the lip service āI careā but the ā I will do whatever is necessary to bring self-awareness to my lifeā so that what you say and do enhances how people feel working for you and your company. So maybe you are grasping the importance of having a strong company culture, but even with the desire to build one, it’s not always obvious what steps to take. ThereĀ are five steps you can take today to improve company culture, both in the short and long term.
In part two weāll cover the Five Steps to Improve Your Company Culture and key takeaways.
.Below are three additional Latin Business Today company culture article abstracts including links to the full article:Ā
Creating a High Trust Culture at WorkĀ
Trust is built and maintained by many small actions over time. If you want to build trust you have to be intentional about it across the organization. A trusting workplace affords employees a comfortable environment for open communication, risk-taking, innovation, and achievement. If your people don’t have trust inside your company, then they can’t transfer it to your customers. Creating a high trust culture at work will be one the best things you do for your business! Itās a new yearā¦get to it!
Branding Doesnāt Matter When Culture Doesnāt Work
4 steps a small business owner can take to correct a culture issue. In just a few short years in the business world, it has become all about āthe brandā of the company. Even the person behindĀ the brand. I find the latter to be most important. In working with organizational clients to help their āemployeesā understand culture, Iāve learned that the toughest ones to understand ācultureā are the ones that are partly responsible for the culture they currently haveā¦the CEO!
Maintaining Control of the Small Business Workplace Culture
It’s important to stay on top of who is having the dominant influence on the workplace culture Your culture can benefit as a result of positive relationships and even friendships among co-workers. People need emotional support and a feeling that someone has their back and workplace friendships can contribute to this culture. Encouraging healthy workplace collaboration can increase engagement and productivity and benefit your workplace culture. As the leader of a business it is important to stay on top of who is having the dominant influence on the workplace culture you want to establish and grow.
If you want to set the tone or cultivate a certain culture then be certain you are paying attention.
Related articles:
What Your Company Culture Says About Your Brand In a Time of Crisis
