Sowing the Seeds of Culture in a Startup

Modern startups are usually founded with a central idea: to disrupt or revolutionize an industry's current way of solving a particular problem. To be successful as an enterprise of change, to build a solid foundation for the future, and to attract and retain the most brilliant and motivated minds, a startup needs to begin with a strong organizational culture.

What is Startup Culture?

For many, the notion of a startup culture conjures images of indoor playgrounds for young adults where employees are encouraged to work hard and play hard in the same space. Or perhaps entirely remote or hybrid working arrangements that allow for flexible and free time as a work-life balance benefit. But these all fall under workplace perks rather than a true reflection of startup culture.

?Startup culture is a blend of the company's core values, the ideas and beliefs of its people, and the shared vision that creates an environment of innovation. Unlike typical corporate culture, startup culture is far more focused on the contributions and passions of its people, as they have a far more significant impact on a small company.

Benefits of a Startup Culture

A startup culture has significant advantages over an established corporate culture. For one, a smaller agile company usually has a singular product or service to focus on and has fewer employees. Smaller teams work more closely and communicate more clearly between themselves and leadership.

Startup culture has a way of broadening the horizons for its talent and providing ample opportunity to learn, develop new skills, and expand their own professional interests. It's easier for a startup to build a culture around specific principles and a clear mission statement, making it simple for employees to understand how they will play a part in the company's success. That clarity of each employee's role and responsibilities also brings something overlooked in a large corporation - an appreciation and recognition for individual contributions to the achievements of the whole.

Regarding competitive advantages, startup culture is about agility and a highly collaborative workplace. It's a breeding ground for accelerated adaptation, innovation, and quick response to the market's changing needs. It's a culture that allows and rewards, taking more calculated risks than you would see in a larger corporate environment. And with a flatter organizational chart, a startup culture usually gives employees better access to the leadership and stakeholders for decision-making.

Build Culture from the Beginning

An intentional, deliberate, and persistent building of organizational culture in a startup environment will determine its success or failure. A company's culture should be a part of its foundation, it should have roots in well-defined values and be reflected in the talent that it attracts, and it should grow and evolve in a natural way with the growth of the company. It might not always feel important in the beginning, when the company consists of nothing more than a few founders and a handful of employees, but that is precisely the moment that it needs to be defined. An intentional culture will provide direction, vision, and expectations for employees and how you intend to treat them, and it begins with identifying the Core Values.

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As a founder of a startup, you have complete control when it comes to creating your company's culture. Some of the core values you put emphasis on might be open lines of communication to foster innovation, or creative thinking and a strategic approach to problem-solving. You might also define core values around practices that mean the most to employees.

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By hiring people based on core values, and considering their individual beliefs, values, and expectations, you are more likely to attract the right talent for every role in the company. You will have a better understanding of a candidate's ability to adapt, make valuable contributions to the success of the company, and advance. That culture-focused approach ensures greater engagement, higher levels of productivity, and a more profitable business.

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Continue to improve and strengthen your organizational culture using benefits that enrich employees' experience and build a strong sense of community. Look for benefits that keep them engaged and foster a feeling of ownership, improve their work-life balance, and make them feel like a valued member of a collaborative group.

The Role of Organizational Culture in Attracting Talent

Talented people have much higher expectations of employers these days, and it takes more than just competitive pay to attract and retain the best. The differentiator is an organizational culture that promotes employee wellbeing, both physical and mental as well as social, and also one that affords the employee exposure to an innovative environment and a chance to make a difference.

The culture of a startup should tell a compelling story to prospective candidates. One of the business strategies and goals that separate your company from others, and paints a clear path forward for both the company and employees. It should reflect the core values of the company and its identity, and align with the values of the candidate to help them see your company as the one they want to work for. And, the cultural aspects of continuous learning, development, and achievement play a critical role in recruiting talented employees and showing them how they will make an impact.

A Clear Path to Innovation

In a world of ever-changing expectations, the company that drives innovation as a core purpose will stand above its competitors. An organizational culture that serves as an incubator for innovation, is a means of success as well as survival.

An essential component of that culture should be the freedom for employees to innovate by challenging preconceived notions and accepted ideas. Create a cultural environment that is open to new thoughts and freely endorses experimentation, failure, and learning from mistakes. It's the knowledge acquired from making mistakes that usually leads to innovation.

Support your talent by offering training and development programs that will lead to an innovative mindset, use goal setting and objectives that highlight innovative performance, and create teams with diverse backgrounds and knowledge that can support each others' skill sets. And, encourage open discussion among your team, and between them and company leadership.

The Startup Leader's Role in Building Culture

In addition to a startup leader's need to identify market demands with thorough research and set goals, they have critical roles in building the organizational culture. It is the leader's responsibility to define the mission and vision that will orchestrate the way the company does business. If these elements are clear to the employees, then they are able to work independently and make decisions that are better aligned with company values.

The leader sets the stage for a collaborative and communicative workspace, and they shape the way teams work and interact with each other. They also provide the safety employees will need to occasionally fail and make the mistakes necessary to learn and lead to innovation.

More than anything else, a leader must embody the core values of the company. It will take time and effort to create a solid culture in a startup, and the employees of the company must be able to look to the leaders for examples when they face a challenging moment.