Why Company Culture Matters!

Developing a high performance company culture is more important now than ever. It’s not that company culture was ever unimportant, but it’s quickly proving to be a “necessary” to achieve strong results, rather than a “nice-to-have.”

 Five keys to creating a winning culture

• Develop a culture deck.

A culture deck is a series of slides using short phrases, images or examples to define and describe the behavior of your organization. Business leaders should develop this unique to their firm, then share it with everyone on your team, from top execs to new hires.

• Don’t accommodate everyone.

Successful business cultures exist in many unique forms, and what works for one, may not work for another. Be unique, but be true to your values. Attempting to create an all-inclusive culture fit for any personality often leads to an uncomfortable work environment for everyone involved. When you determine what culture is right for your business, stick to it.

• Let your leadership team show the way.

To develop a truly great culture, there can only be one model. This means no special rules or exceptions for any subgroup, including top executives. As such, your leadership team should consist of the strongest cultural fits. Often the faces of the company, they will show others how to live the corporate culture every day.

•  Only hire people that fit within your culture. (Create a disciplined hiring process).

When businesses are growing rapidly, it’s easy to justify hiring candidates with impressive resumes or recommendations, without first considering cultural fit. Under pressure, some may even ignore obvious signs of a potential cultural clash just to get the hiring job done, but this is the beginning of a problem for your corporate culture, as all must buy into the culture, and any people who don’t fit will become a problem later. Develop the discipline to consider new hire cultural compatibility and reinforce its importance to all involved in the on-boarding process.

• Recognize those who live your culture.

The most common mistake in regards to company culture is defining it, only to soon forget about it. If culture is important to your company’s success, address it often and often publicly recognize individuals, teams or units that exemplify or demonstrate what your culture is and what you aspire to be.

 The final word.

Working within an organization of values, character and strong culture will help you be more successful. If you are not there now, you should go find it.

HR Magazine, Forbes, Wikipedia