5 Building Blocks of Elite Company Culture
John Eades
Molding More Effective Leaders | Helping SMBs Increase Organic Sales | Leadership Development | Keynote Speaker | Workshops | Sales Training | Executive Coach | Author
The data is in. Companies that have elite cultures outperform those who don't. Take Chick-fil-A for example. The company is on pace to become the nation's third-largest fast food restaurant by 2020. The company generates more revenue per restaurant than any other fast-food chain in the US, and it's only open six days a week.
Chick-fil-A's average sales per restaurant in 2016 were $4.4 million. Its fried-chicken competitor KFC sold $1.1 million per restaurant that year, according to a report from QSR magazine.
While there is a certainly a legitimate argument that Chick-fil-A has better chicken than KFC, it certainly isn't 4x better. So the natural question becomes, what's the difference, maker?
The difference comes down to an elite company culture driven by Chick-fil-A leaders and their team members. While there are many definitions of culture, the actual definition is "the shared beliefs and values that guide thinking and behaviors."
Through our work and research around measuring a company's culture, we have found there to be five key building blocks to measure.
1. Effective Leadership
The most critical element of employee engagement revolves around the relationship between boss and direct report. It's the linchpin of an engaged workforce. A study by the Herman Group showed 75 percent of people who voluntarily leave their job, do so because of their boss, not the company. If you have front-line managers that aren't effective at leading other people, it's hurting your company culture.
2. Deep Purpose
With the influx of millennials employees in the workforce and Generation Z right behind them, companies that are connected to the purpose of their work will continue to retain and attract the best talent. In order to do this, executive leadership teams must define their mission, vision, and values. Often times these things are defined but aren't lived out in actions and behaviors.
3. Army of Ambassadors
The latest statistics on employee engagement are scary. As much as 62 percent of the current workforce aren't engaged at work according to Gallup. Instead of exploring all the reasons for disengagement, it's more useful to determine if the problem exists in your organization. The simplest way to figure out if this out, is by determining if team members are ambassadors for your brand.
Do they talk about what they do with excitement? Do they recommend it as a place to work? Do they plan to work there in two years? If you are unsure or don't like the answers to these questions, it means there is work to do in creating an Army of Ambassadors.
4. Optimistic Belief
At the core of any successful business or team is a deep unwavering belief in the future and what is possible. Colin Powell said it well in his book, It Worked for Me, "Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier." The best leaders know that without optimism and belief, achieving higher levels of success isn't possible. Negativity and disbelief come from many places and if they exist in your company it will eat at your company culture day in and day out.
5. Competitive Compensation
Compensation can't be neglected in any business. To go back to the Chick-fil-A example, they don't pay their employees more on average than their nearest competitor KFC. Where culture begins to be impacted is where the compensation is below or well below industry averages for a sustained period of time. This can even be impacted by the perception of low compensation by team members vs. actual data that supports the perception.
A version of this article appeared on Inc.com
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About the Author John Eades is the CEO of LearnLoft, a full-service organizational health company focused on improving culture and developing modern leaders. John was named one of LinkedIn’s 2017 Top Voices in Management & Workplace and was awarded the 2017 Readership Award by Training Industry.com. John is also the host of the “Follow My Lead” Podcast, a show that transfers stories and best practices from today’s leaders to the leaders of tomorrow. He is also the author of FML: Standing Out and Being a Leader and the upcoming book “The Welder Leader.” You follow him on instagram @johngeades.
A technical automation specialist with 25+ years in semiconductor manufacturing specializing in process optimization, cross-functional training, and delivering efficiency gains through innovative automation.
6 年This is great. I can use this in optimizing my customer relations.
Commercial Underwriter Licensed agent
6 年All great points all accurate. Leadership is huge and boils down to so much. People make a culture great. If your people are happy and empowered that happiness is easy to spread and resonate amoung others. It starts with great leaders who effect each of the other points.?
CNC Set up Mill / Lathe. Found an awesome opportunity.
6 年In my opinion number 4 is the most important of all 5. Attitude and enthusiasm go a long way.
"If you believe you've been ghosted, wait until you get old."
6 年I remember when I was a young man I worked for a manager I really admired and so did everyone else, over time he was promoted and his replacement was a person that none of us liked or respected. In the end, this manager lost most of the best people, sales, and profit soon reflected his inability and weakness. There were a couple of things I noted even back then. Number one we work for a person and that person, in reality, is the company to rank and file workers. Secondly, we all knew the business was going down, we all experienced the truth of this manager's shoddy practices, and yet people above him did nothing.? ?From that experience and validated countless times since the manager makes all the difference. Senior level managers need to pay attention to the numbers, they paint a management picture that should never be overlooked, where there's smoke there's fire. All the boardroom slogans and initiatives mean little if the manager at the execution level, that is one step above the level of customer interaction level, is ineffective. Organizations have more data than they know what to do with, yet leading indicators, i.e., revenue, employee satisfaction, turnover/retention rates, layoffs, and the list goes on that tell the story and yet are so often overlooked and not acted upon.
Managing Partner at Clifford Learning & Business Consulting
6 年You see so many of these articles that tell you conflict is the part needed for a great culture. A really refreshing article & brilliantly written. And not a mention of the C word anywhere. Fantastic post John, thanks so much for sharing.