Today, I want to talk to you about company culture because it’s something that people often refer to, but it’s not always that clear exactly what it is or how you can build one.
Now, there are three types of company culture, right? There’s a positive company culture, there’s a toxic company culture, and then you’ve got the kind of like neutral or indifferent company culture.
So, let’s deal with the toxic company culture first.
Now that’s the kind of phrase that you might hear in the news when a company or an organisation appears to have done something wrong and is accused of having a toxic culture. Companies with toxic cultures are often the kind of working environments where they’re lacking a lot of ethics, you might see lots of bullying, a lack of respect for staff, unethical behaviour and some questionable tactics. In short, it’s not a good place to work.
Staff become disengaged, they often leave and ultimately quality and productivity suffers. Now, a toxic culture like this can occur in both large and small companies and trying to change that type of culture can be a really big problem.
Then on the opposite end of the spectrum you have a positive company culture. This is literally the opposite of what I described there. These companies can provide an environment where people feel valued, they feel trusted and supported and staff feel that they’re really aligned and that everyone’s working towards a common goal. In short, it’s just a great place to be.
Then lastly, you have that neutral or indifferent company culture and that sits somewhere in the middle. It’s neither shoutingly toxic or reassuringly positive.
They’re the sort of place where it all feels a bit indifferent, a bit vanilla, and you might hear phrases like, well, it’s not a bad place to work, and you’ll find that staff are there for the pay rather than feeling any sense of enrichment. It’s not a terrible place to work, but it’s probably not the kind of place where you jump out of bed in the morning because you’re dead excited to get to work.
What you’ll find in those sorts of places is productivity is okay, but staff are really reluctant to push themselves and go that extra mile.
Now, I guess by now we all know where we’d rather be working, right? Yep, so given that we would all rather be part of a positive company culture, how can we create and sustain a positive company culture in our own businesses?
Well, there are lots of ways, but today I’m going to share my top five tips with you on how we can do that.
The first one I have for you is I want you to be really clear on what your company vision is and then underpin that with your values.
So in simple terms, look at what you’re setting out to achieve and how are you planning on going about achieving. Being able to distill exactly what you want to achieve and what you are prepared to do and not do to get there creates this immediate sense of purpose for everybody in the company. And then that starts to outline the company’s value so it can provide a guide of which staff can refer to when they’re faced with decisions about their own actions.
If we just work on an example, imagine that you want to start a company that sells ethical jewellery. Your vision statement might be, our vision is to create beautiful jewellery using ethically sourced materials, which demonstrate the highest level of craftsmanship.
So say that’s your vision. In those few lines, you’ve explained what you are setting out to achieve and how you are going to behave as a company to be able to achieve it. That’s the key thing here.
Now, number two, create a supportive environment. This is a real biggie because it’s easy to say, but harder to do.
This one is about walking the talk, right? Actually following up on your good intentions with practical day-to-day actions. You can do this a number of different ways, for example, you might want to promote a healthy work-life balance.
Yes, we all have to put in those extras from time to time, but when it gets out of hand, you need to step in. Otherwise, you’ll start and see staff looking like they’re heading towards burnout.
You also need to recognise people’s achievements. Recognition can be as simple as a public thank you, or maybe you’re telling people they can have an early finish that night. It doesn’t have to be about money, it’s about really acknowledging when people go above and beyond and do a great job for the company.
Then number three, another characteristic of a supportive working environment is where communication is managed really well.
This works both ways. So staff need to feel like they’re being listened to and that their input, whether it’s positive or negative, can be expressed freely and constructively without judgment. Having regular meetings, they don’t have to be formal or lengthy, but just having them set in the diary regularly will really help.
Use clear communication tools, emails or posters, whatever it takes to get the message across so that everyone is clear on what’s happening and they need to know in what direction they are headed.
Tip number four is to provide opportunities for staff to grow and develop.
If people can’t see an opportunity to progress, then they’re going to become frustrated and they’ll start to switch off. This in turn can lead to resentment and negativity and that can spread through the organisation.
Staff can feel left behind or undervalued, and you’ll even start to hear phrases like ‘them and us’ when talking about other staff or the management team. However, if you show staff how they can grow and progress, suddenly the world’s their oyster.
The possibilities are endless and their energy and enthusiasm will become infectious amongst other people within the company.
Then tip number five, my final tip, is about leadership and consistency.
Creating a positive company culture is the work of a few days or even months, and it’ll go on and take years and really, it never stops. As a leader or a manager, you set the tone, and as I said earlier, you’ve got to talk the talk and then walk that walk as well.
Never underestimate the power of being consistent. I talk about it all the time in my book, The Six Minute Entrepreneur and it’s something that you really need to be fully conscious of when you’re running a business.
If your staff can predict exactly what you would say or how you would react in any given circumstance, then you’ve probably nailed the consistency card.
So there you have my tips for a positive company culture. Focus on these five and you’ll be well on your way to ensuring that your business both develops and sustains a really positive culture!