Ep 32 - The Single Think that Will Ruin Your Culture

As business owner and people leader I am sure you care about the culture you are creating for your team. And by culture I simply mean the work environment that your team experiences every day. 

Welcome to this episode of Power Up Your Team podcast. 

Culture is a big word but essentially is an outcome based on many causal factors. 

Casually, I think of it like baking a cake or making a salad. Have you been to a restaurant where, after you complimented the waitress on the meal, she says: “yes, we use the finest ingredients, full of flavor and they make all the difference? 

That’s how it is with culture, too. So what are the ingredients to your culture?

And in a moment, I share the one ingredient that, I believe, is most important.

Typical ingredients are your purpose, vision and values. And then there are performance objectives, incentives, policies, procedures, processes – in essence all the things we can see or read. And there are so many more things I could list here. 

The point is that it all needs to fit together so that the culture enhances you teams’ ability to create success for your business

For instance: 

Superior customer service may not work well when employees are incentivized by the number of calls they get done in a certain amount of time.  

A learning culture will not emerge If you don’t allow people to take classes or learn by doing through stretch assignment 

A team culture will constantly be suffocated if everyone is incentivized by individual goals which pit people against each other.

As business owner, founder or CEO the sky's the limit for the culture you can create

An important component of culture are the intangible things that people observe when they are at work. They observe leadership behaviors, actions that get tolerated or not tolerated or habits that were created over time that only stick out to people who are new to the company.

When I moved from Illinois to the East Coast I never forget how dumbfounded I was when I noticed that everyone was eating lunch at their desk. I was used to going out with my peers and have an enjoyable lunch. First, I thought it was me. Maybe they don’t like me. But then I realized that it was simply how they had lunch. Had nothing to do with me. It was a matter of culture. 

At the beginning I promised to share the single thing that can tank the culture you want you create. 

And that is if you say one thing and do the other. 

That’s why it’s so important to create a culture that’s aligned to your true beliefs and values so that you can show up with authenticity. 

So, think about your values and create a culture that you can support with your words and actions.

For instance, if you say work life balance is important, then don’t work late or come to the office on Monday with work you completed over the weekend.  

If you stand for a collaborative culture don’t make all important decisions by yourself. 

If you want people to trust each other, you need to be the first one to trust the team.

I once worked for a company who was very high on employee safety. One day, during a heavy winter storm we were hoping the office would close early – like around 3 pm so we all could get home during daylight. Not only did that not happen but the CEO herself stayed late on that particular day working away in her office. 

So what do you think the rest of us did?

Find out at www.powerupyourteam.com/32