When it comes to company culture, there are many different angles, variables, questions and circumstances that seem to all accumulate into this one, big blender and then spewed upon an allegorical canvas to then be analyzed by the parent organization as if it were some Jackson Pollock painting, riddled with deeper meaning.
There are no instructions that come with building a world-class organization and there is nothing that will guide you towards the perfect secret recipe for creating the ultimate company culture. The whole relationship between employees and their organizations has been changing from more of an “Us to Them” relationship to being more open all across the board. Why though and what does positive company culture have to do with it? Let’s avoid the fluffy statements and dive right into what will help you in building a positive company culture like we have at Incept.
- Identify your mission
Overall, without a goal or mission statement, you are wandering aimlessly in the dark. When it comes to identifying what your company’s mission is, keep in mind it does not have to be a grand and lofty idea, but something all employees can strive towards. The tone of your mission statement will set other aspects of your company culture into motion and initially is an idea that will trickle from top-down throughout an organization. It is up to the organization to keep that feeling of “Us” or “We” appropriate in their education of their desired goals or it can come off rather imperative and make creating a positive team environment more challenging.
- Focus on strengths
Without a doubt I’m a better bass guitarist than I am a drummer, although I do dabble on my kit more often now in my apartment. Everyone has something they are better at doing than another task. Your employees are no different! Strength based development and management focus on what a person is already good and simply builds off of it. That doesn’t mean ignore areas needing improvement, but when an organization addresses what someone is good at or another strong quality and encourages that employee to strive towards improving that aspect, people can be much more receptive and willing to push towards even further improvement. Are you more likely to talk about something you are good at or something you don’t excel at? Try looking at it that way.
- Effective company cultures are values-aligned
When it comes to company values, keep in mind, these are more than just words on a wall meant to sound all flowery and pleasant to clients. Company values are what your mission statements, service standards and service promises should align with! Company values aren’t just created to sound impressive, but to be used as guidance between the interactions between your clients, your company internally and externally, and especially between your employees. Educating your employees about the values and why they are what they are and their purpose is key. When Incept held our own launch event to commence our Live The Brand process back in January, we educated our company over the direction we were going in and what our values meant in that decision, and from looking around the event I could almost see light bulbs light up above my fellow employees’ heads. They understood more clearly now about what was happening and there was a feeling of comradeship between the whole organization. That is still one of Incept’s biggest qualities and is another trait that separates us from our competitors.
When it comes to building that feeling of teamwork through company culture it is not an overnight success in most cases, but that doesn’t mean it should be abandoned early either. When you have a positive company culture you can feel the benefits of less absenteeism since people want to show up to work, high senses of employee morale and responsibility, reduced turnover rate and so on. I could probably write another blog based on the benefits of a company culture, which isn’t a bad idea now that I think about it, but what are some more ways to increase or build positivity in a company’s culture?