Why Culture Matters
Culture – A buzzword? A “nice to have”? I’ll worry about it later.
A strong company culture is in fact a game-changer! Culture impacts your ability to attract and retain talent, your performance, and your ability innovate. Do you want to grow revenues, become profitable, attract investment dollars? Then, you need to be deliberate and thoughtful from jump.
Talent
When someone comes and interviews, you are sizing them up and they are sizing you up. They are asking themselves - can I see myself here? They are trying to get a sense of what motivates the team, how ideas are shared, how well people collaborate, how promotions happen, what leadership is like, …Your culture is an asset that will attract the best of the best. Not to mention, if you are open and honest about your culture you are less likely to attract a bad fit. And honestly, one bad apple!
By sharing your story in clear and compelling way, you will attract people who are as passionate as you are about the vision. A strong culture is tied to that vision and has a defined set of values that tell your team what you stand for. Live those values in how you operate and interact internally and with the market.
Someone who shares your vision and values will be motivated to work hard and committed to seeing the vision come to life.
And, when they work hard, people want to be rewarded and recognized for their achievements. In building your culture, have clearly-defined roles and responsibilities, set performance goals, and agreed upon expectations. Employees that hit their targets should be rewarded.
A passionate, incentivized and valued member of your team will want to stick around.
Performance
A passionate, incentivized and valued member of your team is also an engaged employee. And, studies show that engaged employees create more value. Engaged employees show up every day with passion, purpose, presence, and energy.
When you empower your employees and give them room to exceed expectations, give them responsibility not just tasks and hold them accountable - they will step up. Millennials are seeking personal and professional development opportunities – they want to learn and find meaning in their work. They want to have a voice and influence outcomes.
By bringing together highly motivated, engaged employees in a culture of collaboration, you will see greater efficiency and productivity. When information, ideas, and workflow is shared in a systematic way and as tasks become automated, employees can take on more responsibility and generate greater performance.
Innovation
Ultimately, to continue to grow you need to innovate to capture new opportunities and respond to ever more complex challenges.
When you build a culture that is open, inclusive and diverse, team members will be more likely to share their ideas knowing that they will be heard. They will bring different experiences to problem-solving sessions. You will encourage questions and will be forthcoming with the necessary information to form opinions. Too often, as teams grow people hire who they know or friends of friends. Think outside the box.
A strong culture will have communication channels that go both ways – leadership listening and encouraging everyone to speak up about what’s working and what’s not, and employees understanding the strategy, the goals, and the results. This will create a continuous feedback loop that allows the company to constantly improve, iterate, and innovate. You will be agile, positioned to pivot and respond to market feedback.
There is an often-cited quote (it’s also on one of those little post-its on my website) by management consultant, Peter Drucker – “Culture ate strategy for breakfast”. The two must be connected to successfully build a business. Ideas are just ideas, they need people to execute and those people need to be supported by a culture of engagement, collaboration, innovation, communication and accountability.
