COMPANY CULTURE

Have you ever wondered how an outsider would describe your company culture? The company culture is comparable to an individual’s personality traits. It might be energetic, fun, happy, open, and warm, or it could be reserved, uptight, cynical, or angry. In terms of people, it’s difficult to maintain solid relationships with those who have the latter personality traits; similarly, it’s unpleasant to work in or transact business with companies where the culture fosters similar traits.

How is company culture developed? It stems from the personalities and the policies set by the key leadership team. If a company CEO is extremely competitive, cutthroat and intolerable of failure, they are likely to have strict performance policies with strong penalties, up to and including termination policies for weak performers. There’s nothing wrong with instilling these types of policies, but without a defined culture that rewards actions tied to the company purpose, core values, and public agenda, it’s easy for a company like this to develop a negative culture that’s highly visible to the market–a culture of competitiveness, stress, pressure and control.

Conversely, a very open, friendly CEO who prefers to avoid conflict and is motivated to please people may have a very fun, jovial culture and happy employees; however that culture, if not aligned with the purpose, core values, and public agenda, may lead to weak performance by employees and have a negative effect on the bottom line.

Gaining a strong understanding of the culture you’d like to develop is vital to building a strong company foundation. The best companies have a culture that’s aligned with their business DNA, their purpose, core values, and public agenda.

Company Culture Concepts & Steps

Company culture is present whether a company has planned for it or not. By carefully defining the culture that will support your business DNA, you align your actions and key leadership to your plan to strengthen your foundation and make your business DNA highly visible throughout your organization.

Review actions reinforcing your core values

• These actions are the key activities that bring the core values to life. They’re a vital part of a company’s culture.

Create celebrations and rewards for actions and achievements

• It’s important to reward employees for achieving goals. A strong celebration and reward system makes key actions and goals more visible throughout a company. The greater their visibility, the more likely they are to become an important component of the company’s culture.

Assess the motivations of your key leadership

• Motivation assessment is a great start to defining the culture you’d like to have in your company. The key to making that culture readily apparent throughout the business is to have your team live and breathe it every day. Culture starts at the top, so it’s important to understand what motivates your key leadership team. This enables you to identity those people who can naturally champion the core values and purpose, and those who may be resistant to them.

What’s next?

Start honing your market penetration strategy by defining your competitive positioning.