I was involved in a company that lost its way. It was my fault. I let investors drive culture and priorities, which led to an obscene amount of Board Room meetings. At first this was exciting. To have all these great minds, maniacally out-braining the guy or gal sitting next to them. But that luster wore off and soul-sucking cultural problems took the company off it’s rails.
No amount of money, or strategic plan had any chance to overcome this sloppy dissection of our culture.
Your company is young and scary. Fear can feed the darkest forces that will challenge your culture. We’re out of money, we’re not selling enough, we’re not growing fast enough, we need more people, we have too many people…you’ve seen this movie too. The great equalizer is culture. Can you smile through adversity and will those standing next to you smile back?
Protect your culture. Stay true to the truths of your brand and your product. Those brilliant minds are there to help you, but you are there to keep that culture intact amongst it all.
Are you on top of this?
- Do you throw ‘thank yous’ around like manhole covers? Saying thank you is like giving someone a brain massage, do it often.
- Do you smile? Life is short, and since your team has decided to take risks with you, you owe them a smile. Repeat.
- Institute a ‘No Assholes’ Rule. This means you cannot become one either, it’s an agreement that everyone is onboard and contributing to a healthy work environment.
- Do you pay attention to Birthdays, Holidays, family happenings, family concerns…are you paying attention to what makes your people tick?
- Clean. Distracting workplaces can clutter minds. Everything has a place, everyplace has a purpose. If you do this for your office, you are imparting the same on your culture.
- Celebrate victories and share in the defeats, together as a team. You’re goal oriented, but the journey is where culture resides.
The best sports teams, the best bands, the best schools have power from great culture. The Society for Human Resource Management’s latest survey for Employee Job Satisfaction reports the of top 5 criteria, #1 is Respect and #2, Trust. Compensation was #4. The top finding from this latest survey concludes professionals should ensure that their workplace culture and employee engagement strategies are of equal importance to compensation and benefits.
Build well.
~ Ryan