A company’s culture sets the tone for everything. Creating an experience that customers AND employees love is the building block for company success. Establish a clear vision for your company and build upon that vision. You can set your business apart by building a winning culture with these 4 tips:
Find the Right Team
When creating your team find great people who compliment each other. Each person has different experiences and skills, so use those to your advantage! Put your team members in positions that highlight their skill sets. You can reduce the chance for unnecessary rivalries when everyone relies on each other’s abilities to get projects completed. Skills can be taught, but it’s much harder to cultivate attitude and character.
Embody Transparency
Keep information transparent throughout your company. Leaders who share both successes and challenges of the company build trust among departments. Giving employees recognition for their successes by the company is a major motivational boost. While sharing challenges opens up the possibility for your team to offer innovative solutions that you may not have considered otherwise. Doing this improves collaboration, builds trust, and keeps everyone on the same page.
Give Regular Feedback
The idea that once-a-year, employees sit down with management for a performance review no longer is enough. Lack of feedback is a common complaint among employees and that is why giving detailed feedback more often is helping to build company cultures. Feedback, both positive and constructive, gives employees a direction for growth. They need to understand what they are doing well and what can be improved on. Open communication encourages more positive results and employee support.
Get Everyone on Board
Your employees need to live your company culture. They need to believe in the culture and then embodying the company culture becomes natural. Communicating your values helps everyone on your team to understand your ‘why’ for doing things. Your employees need to see that their work is making a difference, which in turns encourages them to become passionate about their work. Creating a company culture can be a difficult process if everyone isn’t drinking the kool-aid.
It is vital too that your company does not lose your culture as you grow. When adding new members to your team stress the importance of your culture, values, and the expectations of their position. They are now living value statements of everything your business stands for. But remember to be patient because culture takes time to naturally evolve, it won’t happen overnight!
By: Rebecca Clausen