Build Your Company Culture With These 5 Key Elements

From a healthy company culture comes strong business results, better customer experiences, improved brand equity and brand value expansion, and much more.

But what makes a healthy culture? How can we identify it? How can we cultivate it?

Healthy culture is created via the five following elements:

1) Purpose

Do our employees understand the company purpose? What is it? Why does it matter? What value does it provide the world and our customers? Further, do our employees understand how their own individual purpose fits in to achieving company purpose? Linking the "why" of the company to the "why" of our employees is critically important if they are going to see value in working with and for our organizations. If an employee feels like their "why" is "so I don't get fired", that's a pretty good sign that they are going to feel uninspired and leave for the first opportunity that provides deeper value.

For an inspiring and immensely valuable lesson on how to "Start With Why", listen to this incredible, viral speech by author and speaker, Simon Sinek .

2) Safety

Physical safety is a given, and most companies seem to have decent grasp of this with processes in place to proactively address it. But I’m talking about psychological safety, something neglected all too often. Do our employees have the safety to speak freely, honestly, without negative repercussions? The ROI of investing in creating psychological safety within our people is enormous. McKinsey studied the importance of psychological safety in the workplace , stating, "Our research finds that a positive team climate—in which team members value one another’s contributions, care about one another’s well-being, and have input into how the team carries out its work—is the most important driver of a team’s psychological safety."

3) Vulnerability

Although related to "Safety" as described above, vulnerability goes a step further. Do our employees see their leaders embody vulnerability and admit mistakes, their own insecurities, weaknesses, fears, etc.? We cannot expect innovation or an ownership mentality from our people if they don't feel that work is a place where they can be vulnerable, and that begins by it being modeled by their own leaders. Once modeled, our employees must then feel free and encouraged to be authentic and fully themselves, to try new things even if they fail, and take the risks that they were previously afraid to attempt, the very risks that drive innovation.

Brené Brown is widely recognized as an expert on social connection and has conducted thousands of interviews to understand what lies at the root of social connection at its very core. You guessed it: vulnerability. As Harvard Business Review summarizes her research, "Vulnerability here does not mean being weak or submissive. To the contrary, it implies the courage to be yourself. It means replacing 'professional distance and cool' with uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure."

4) Autonomy

It's incumbent on leaders to reflect on whether or not we have we created an atmosphere where we routinely invest in molding them into becoming masters of their jobs and then allow them freedom, flexibility, and significant discretion as to how they achieve their goals. This is the opposite of micromanagement. In fact, it's somewhat the opposite of "management" in general. Rather than management, it's facilitating the movement of our employees from "learner" to "master" of their jobs, and subsequently the masters of their own futures with or outside our organizations.

Autonomy is a natural byproduct of creating a purposeful environment that is safe, built on vulnerability. Purposeful, safe, vulnerable people will try new things, fail, try again, and succeed, all on their own, autonomously. Leaders must trust their employees that, when freed in this manner, they will ultimately deliver better results as they experience greater self-actualization. If you lead remote teams, check out this article by Harvard Business Review on creating autonomy with your people.

5) Barrier-Free Workplace

Having autonomy in an atmosphere where we are filled with purpose and are safe and vulnerable are important things, but the powerful effects don't last long when we keep running into obstacles in our daily jobs that never go away and when no one in leadership seems to care about them.

As leaders we must assess if we we are consistently encouraging and enabling our people to identify opportunities to improve processes, products, solutions, etc. Additionally, it's critical that we exercise our leadership role to remove the identified barriers at consistent, expected (not random) intervals. Our people have to be able to trust that they will be consistently heard, engaged, appreciated, and rewarded in regard to bringing up their ideas for improvement and that that we will actively respond to address those ideas proactively and quickly. If you haven't put processes in place for active feedback loops (and no, a wooden "ideas box" or "open door policy" isn't enough...) via technology enablement and empowerment for your people, you're missing out on a catalyst to improving your business.

Read this Forbes article for more advice on creating a Positive Feedback Culture.

6) BONUS POINT = Humility

To my list above, Top 100 2022 HR professional Kevin Henry (pictured right) added "humility" as the final element needed, woven into the fabric of all five points so far. In his podcast with me, he says, "Not taking ourselves too seriously" as leaders is important, "recognizing when we screw up it's okay, as long as we learn from it and we course correct as soon and as effectively as we can."

If our attitude is not that of humility, our effectiveness in inspiring purpose, safety, vulnerability, autonomy, and a barrier-free workplace will be greatly diminished, and thus it was a great addition to this list. Thanks, Kevin!

Time for your thoughts. Would you add anything to this list? Which one of these have you experienced as making the biggest difference in your life at work or in your relationships with leaders or colleagues? Would love your feedback.