Culture - There Are Two Kinds of Employees: Those Who are Resourceful and Those Who Need Resources

Should we get a ping pong table in the office? How about a pool table and catered lunches? Can everyone wear t-shirts and jeans? These are a few of the things I read about as it relates to company culture. And YES they can be part of it. But I found culture runs much deeper and is made up of more important components than these superficial things. Culture should embody what the company is about and how it makes people feel…….its employees, customers, partners, and even the market. As one of my idols Richard Branson says, “Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough so they don’t want to.”

When I started my first company, I always had culture in mind……but you should know for the first 6 months or more there were only two of us. One thing I learned is culture can’t be 100% planned but you also can’t just let it happen. There needs to thought and intention to it. You can “let it develop” as an early stage startup. You probably are still figuring out who you are and forcing it early may take you in a direction that is not where you were meant to go.

The first inspiration I used to influence the culture of my company was…………………..ME. It sounds self-centered but as the founder you want to be sure your company reflects your positive elements. It should have passion and personality and inspire others. You don’t want to overdo it though because as you scale it needs to have broad appeal……………but hopefully you have broad appeal! So, give some thought about what makes you tick, what inspired you to first start this company, how you want to be viewed by the world. What do people like most about you? Write it down! One of my mentors used to ask “did you write it down?” I sometimes said “no, but I thought A LOT ABOUT IT.” To which he replied “well, then you didn’t do it.”

The second thing I explored was the blueprint I was given for WHAT NOT TO DO from previous employers. This can be a fun and liberating exercise. This is your chance to think of mistakes your old bosses made, things you did not like about previous employers.  Lack of culture in any business or organization you have been involved in are all areas to explore and document. This will ensure you don’t make some of the same mistakes in hiring, office politics, communication style, meeting format, and a slew of other critical components of your business.

The third thing is more deliberate and structured than the first two. This is a step you can choose to engage your leadership team, talk with mentors, and consult various online resources or books on the topic. I am not suggesting you follow them exactly, rather, glean the portions that make sense to you and synthesize all of that together in a way that makes sense for you and your business. I feel compelled to highly suggest reading Gino Wickman’s EOS book called: TRACTION (https://www.eosworldwide.com/). At the risk of sounding corny I will confess this book changed my life. I’ve read it no less than 10 times and after my first time in 2008 it became required reading for all new employees. Moreover, in 2009 I met Gino Wickman and he recommended a Traction implementer in my area. I was able to secure a grant from the SBDC (Small Business Development Center) that covered the entire cost and we were on our way! We implemented the various components of Traction that year and experienced 5 years of unprecedented growth and success. In that time Mosaic Business Solutions made the following South Florida Business Journal lists 5 years in a row:

• 50 Fastest Growing Companies in the Region
• Best Places to Work (ranking #1 during 2 of those years)
• FastTECH which ranks the fastest growing technology companies in the tri-state area

This isn’t a plug for EOS or Traction by any means. I would encourage you to find your own inspiration.  However, it is a proven system that I subscribe to and would encourage anyone looking to start a business all the way to CEO’s of multi-billion-dollar corporations to read. It provides structure on which aspects to focus on and how to strengthen those. The reason it relates to culture is that it gets the right people in the right seats all rowing the same direction!! That is tough to achieve. This program helps you cut through the noise and identify your values, mission, direction, as well as meeting cadence and how to hire the right people based on these findings. Suddenly most of the noise goes away and you find yourself focused on what is important and the wasted time, pursuit of the wrong projects, poor hiring and other distractions start to fade away.

This is when culture starts to crystallize. You drive the direction and are cognizant of where it is going.  However, you must include the team in this journey. When you tell people what to do. How effective is that? When you include them in the discussion, get their opinion, and ask them the best way to do something then you have empowered them. That is how you engage them in the process. 

Keep in mind that culture is not static. It is fluid and dynamic. It morphs and changes, but can be a very powerful tool for you. We used it to serve our customers and attract new strategic partners, employees, leaders, and often times win deals and forge new relationships. I was once told that people rarely remember things you gave them, but they always remember how you made them feel.

It reminds me of a story from my first job. I was 19 or 20 and interning for a growing startup company in Fort Lauderdale. Most of my work was grunt work like stocking shelves, pulling product, and packing boxes or driving the forklift. I even had the great pleasure of throwing out the trash! Often the junior sales reps would open the door to the back and just throw bags of trash back in the warehouse. To be frank they were cocky and acted like jerks. The ironic thing was they too were new, they had not yet hit their numbers or established themselves, yet they still thought they were better than the people working in the back. I will never forget Jimmy V. the top rep who was a seasoned professional. He would always bring his trash back and ask where he could throw it out. He would stop and talk with all of us and discuss deals he was working on and thank us for our hard work recognizing that everyone there was contributing in one way or another to the team. The junior sales guys would close deals with 2 machines and come back to yell at people regarding how slow they were or to find out “when these machines will be delivered.” 

Jimmy V. would close deals of, 50, 100, and sometimes 300 machines for large banks and hospitals. He would buy the guys pizza and say let’s do this together on a Thursday or Friday. Then to our surprise he would change out of his suit, roll up his sleeves, and come back to stage this equipment while taking the lead on planning and labeling to ensure the deal went well and the customer was happy. Which person helped build culture? Who do I remember almost 20 years later? Jimmy V.!  He stood out to me and I will never forget that Jimmy V. treated everyone the same whether it was the CEO or the new guy sweeping the warehouse floor. He went on to start his own successful company. It makes me think of a famous Richard Branson quote “Respect is how to treat everyone, not just those you want to impress.”

As a postscript I went on to graduate college with a finance degree and worked for that company as their CFO. So, a few short years after junior sales reps were throwing their trash bags at me and acting like jerks I was their boss and cutting their checks. Goes to show that it matters how you treat people and you never know……………………….........

As you can see culture is about way more than catered lunches, unique benefits, and what kind of recreation room you have. Please don’t misunderstand me; those are cool AND are part of the big picture. But if you don’t have great people who treat each other well and a clear mission statement with company values then start now. Remember, these three steps to creating world class culture:

1.      Start with ME – why did I start this company? What do I want out of it and how do I want to treat my employees? How do I want to be perceived by the market, employees, and the rest of the world?

2.      Make the blueprint for what NOT to do – think back to bad bosses, companies, and experiences in your own career. Look at companies that are in the news for all the wrong reasons. Research and talk to others but figure out the "do not do list"

3.      Employ the advice of close advisers whom you respect – talk to successful CEO’s, mentors, serial entrepreneurs, and people you really trust. Consider their advice then make it your own

In conclusion; whether you are a two-man team in their first year as a startup or a billion dollar multinational THE MOST IMPORTANT asset you have is not the buildings, cash, or even intellectual property. Your most important asset is people. How you treat them and what kind of environment you create for them is paramount to being a successful business person. And for my third and final Richard Branson quote I will direct you to his belief that employees are even more important than customers:

"If the person who works at your company is not appreciated, they are not going to do things with a smile," Branson says. By not treating employees well, companies risk losing customers over bad service. To this end, Branson says he has made sure that Virgin prioritizes employees first, customers second, and shareholders third.

I decided to keep my quotes today consistent with one person: @Richard Branson. If you liked them or seek additional advice here is a useful link:

https://www.goalcast.com/2018/02/01/top-15-richard-branson-quotes/

It's a common misconception that money is every entrepreneur's metric for success. It's not, and nor should it be. Too many people measure how successful they are by how much money they make or the people that they associate with. In my opinion, true success should be measured by how happy you are.