The three superpowers behind a great company culture

I'm often asked what's the magic formula for creating a successful and engaging culture? What's the fairy dust that needs to be sprinkled? Well, the bad news is that it takes a lot of hard work, it takes a lot of effort and thought. But here’s the good news. You have the power to create a culture that’s truly aspirational and great.

Every organisation has a culture and if you don't focus on it, your culture will be created by accident. Worse, it might be a culture that's created that has a real negative impact on your business. So, what does it take to get it right?

From my experience there are three key elements that every organisation should focus on in order to have a really engaging culture.

Connection. Purpose. Trust. These are what I call your three culture ‘superpowers’. Create these and you’ll become your very own culture superhero. Let’s take a closer look.

Building Connection

It's all about being a part of a team. It's about the camaraderie. In my last full-time role, I worked for a company called Pure Planet, we were a provider of sustainable domestic energy with a strong environmentally friendly ethos. Many felt a real emotional connection, and of course, we're all social beings and this connection also led to a sense of belonging. And, we all want to feel like we belong. Indeed, there's quite a lot of scientific research that shows that being connected is a fundamental need that human beings have, and I think this is crucial to having a really engaging culture.

Finding Purpose

Building on connection is wanting to be part of something bigger. And this for me is all about purpose and our need to find a purpose in what we are doing in our life and work. Many of you will know of Simon Sinek. He says very clearly through his research that a lot of companies can tell you WHAT they do. They can tell you HOW they do it, but very few can tell you the WHY they do it. And it's actually the why that motivates and engages people to put in extra effort.

Feeling Trust

Trust is the third element and kind of underpins it all. It's a very small word, but I think it's absolutely fundamental. When I look back on my career to when I felt I most engaged, most motivated, and where I felt there were the best leaders - it was where I could be myself, I felt trusted, I felt safe. And I think this is absolutely key. In the HR world, we call it psychological safety. It’s that ability to be yourself and to behave in the way that you want to behave.

What’s more, the benefits of a high trust culture have been researched. Psychologist and professor Paul Zak found that the levels of trust experienced directly influences how willing your employees are to go above and beyond in their roles. This data comes from his book, ‘’Trust Factor: The Science of Creating High Performance Companies’. People working in companies in the top quartile of trust are: 76% more engaged, 50% more productive and 50% more likely to stay. I rest my case.

In conclusion

So, in summary, these are the three key ingredients of a great culture: Building a sense of connection, finding purpose and feeling trusted. And, just to emphasize again why getting it right really matters, Gallup found that over half of employees (56%) said company culture is more important than salary when it comes to job satisfaction. So, it’s worth making yours a positive one - and now you know the superpowers you’ll need.

About Richard Roberts

I have over 30 years’ experience of helping organisations establish dynamic people strategies that help to shape culture and build highly productive and engaged teams. If you would like a conversation about how to measure and improve the culture in your organisation, please get in touch via LinkedIn or my website.