What do Whole Foods, Southwest Airlines, Zappos and Google have in common?
They are all considered great companies to work for and much of the credit for that is given to the culture created by their founders.
Before you continue reading this post stop for a moment and write down the first thing that comes to your mind about the culture of your business. Seriously…stop and think about it for one minute.
Now that you are back how do you feel about what you wrote down? If you are 100% happy with your answer you can probably stop reading at this point.
For those of you that are not totally satisfied with your current company culture there is hope. Our post today will focus on three tips to assist you in creating a company culture where people want to work, including you!
Our post opened with some big familiar names, but the true inspiration for this post comes from WIPIN, Women in the Pet Industry Network. Last week I attended my second WIPIN conference and hands down it is my favorite seminar to attend. The reason being the positive, supportive and collaborative culture that is the foundation of the organization.
This culture did not happen by accident. It is the obvious result of the vision, purpose, values and energy of WIPIN’s leader, Shawna Schuh. The consistent message throughout every communication and membership feature of this organization is the message that WIPIN members support each other. Everyone is treated with respect, kindness and the attitude of how can I help you? The theme of the conference this year was collaboration and I’m confident everyone that attended left with multiple opportunities to improve their business through collaboration.
As leaders, we create the culture of our companies. Your most important role as owner is to be intentional in knowing what you want to create. No company is too small for this exercise; Crystal Canine has two part-time virtual assistants and the tips in this post have helped me provide clarity on our business.
My experience at Urban Tails taught me that if you are not intentional with your culture, one will be created and it may not align with your original vision. You can change a culture, however, it takes time, energy and a lot of communication. There are great rewards for the effort in highly engaged employees and very satisfied, loyal clients.
Let’s take a look at three tips for creating a strong company culture:
- Reflect and document:
- Purpose – Why does your business exist? Who do you serve?
- Mission – What do you provide?
- Vision – How does your business change your community?
- Core Values – What rules and boundaries define your company personality?
- Brand Promise – What is your service guarantee?
- Make #1 a Key Part of Your Employee Recruiting & Onboarding Programs
- Lead by Example the Items in #1
At first read this appears to be an easy exercise, however, the key here is to be very honest and real with yourself in task #1. Creating a culture means you must be authentic and expose your heart to your employees. They need to feel the emotion related to the “why” you started the business. In fact, sharing the true story about this is a very effective way to build a team that shares your vision.
The second tip is very important to hiring and keeping high performers. You need to hire people that share your company vision and values. These are the people that will think like you as you share these core principles. Hiring people that align is more important than technical skills, but also requires implementing a formal staff training program.
As the owner and leader of the business your team will be watching the decisions you make on a daily basis. They will be assessing whether the items that sound good in #1 are real or just talk. A lot of companies write down these things, but very few of them consistently “walk the talk”. This is the tip where the rubber meets the road and strong company cultures are created.
You know a great company culture when you walk in the door. Everyone is happy and you feel special. That’s how I felt at the WIPIN conference and is the bar I’ve set for Crystal Canine.
Will you join me?
Susan, GREAT article! I have to say that one of the things we put as a priority is the team at our kennel. We are constantly engaged with them and ensuring they have everything they need…including in their personal lives. If they are worried about something at home, they can’t give 100% at work. We have even sent those home with pay to handle issues. This communicates that we truly care about them and it isn’t just an employer-employee relationship that is important to us. Hiring is so important and one that I think is a continuous learning exercise. Potential employees have their best face on and will pick up on what is important with you and your business. If it is a match then great! But if it is not who they truly are, and they need a job, they can paint a picture of themselves that is not accurate. The good news is…that is where our current employees come in! If such a person gets past the hiring process and brought on board, the existing employees will see every little detail of their new colleague. It is vital that they are comfortable in communicating to supervisors/managers/owners to let us know that all isn’t well on the home front. This is probably the biggest thing that keeps our culture working and thriving! We can go into action to either get the new employee on board or allow them to move on down the road.
Thanks for the article!
Al, the values you describe of caring and assisting your employees is obviously benefiting your business. That is a hard path to follow as goes against the traditional business lines so many of us have seen modeled. I appreciate you sharing how it is a key part of your culture and success. Like you my belief is we can bring our hearts into our businesses and still have boundaries creating a culture where high performing employees flourish.