Rocking Workplace Cultures Don’t Happen By Accident!
Most leaders understand that their workplace culture is a key driver of success. Or at least, most leaders say that they understand that workplace culture is a key driver of success. But there’s a Grand Canyon-sized gap between knowing and doing when it comes to building a great culture.
Great workplace cultures don’t just happen by accident. You can’t fake your culture or buy it at Costco. You need to be intentional about building a rocking, inspiring, innovative, service-driven, fun culture that drives outrageous results.
Here are some ideas about how to be more intentional about your workplace culture:
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Define Your Ideal Dream Culture! It’s impossible to be intentional about building an inspiring workplace culture if you don’t know what that means! Assess where you are now (honestly) and describe where you want to go. Be bold! Be visionary! Define your ideal values and translate them into measurable, observable behaviors and attitudes. Describe what your ideal culture looks like and feels like? What would a typical day in your office look like? How would your meetings operate? Ask your employees for input – what kind of workplace culture do they want to be a part of?
2. Hire With Your Dream Culture in Mind. Inspiring workplaces hire first and foremost for attitude – they seek out candidates who have a service-first mentality, growth mindset, and a positive attitude. And they hire people who they know will make their desired culture stronger.
3. Get Your On-boarding and Training Right. Everything you do from they moment your on-boarding of new employees begins through to your training needs to have a strong culture component to it. Everything should reinforce your culture so that new employees understand your culture and the role they play in supporting your culture.
4. Make Culture a Part of Everyone’s Goals. Every employee and every manager needs to understand that in addition to the work they are hired to do, a key part of their job is to contribute to a successful culture. Make sure employees understand their performance will be evaluated largely based on how well they contribute to the strengthening of your culture.
5. Include Culture in All of Your Decision-Making Processes. It’s imperative that everyone embeds the notion of culture into their day to day short term and long term decision-making processes. Create a habit around always asking, “How will this decision both contribute to AND reflect our desired culture?”
6. Get Your Meetings Right. Meetings are a microcosm of your culture. Meetings are key times when you have the chance to build your culture and your meetings need to reflect your culture. If you want a creative, fun, inspiring culture make sure your meetings are creative, fun and inspiring! Consider opening your meetings with a “culture moment.”
7. Create a Service-First Mindset. You cannot create a great culture without a service-first attitude wherein every employee understands that some of their most important customers are on the inside of your organization! Inspiring cultures happen when everyone treats everyone else on their team and in their workplace as an important customer.
8. Create Culture-Building Traditions and Rituals. Traditions and rituals are absolutely critical when it comes to building a great workplace. Traditions and rituals give employees something to look forward to and something to reminisce about. Traditions help strengthen your culture by creating shared moments that help define who you are and what your culture is all about.
March, 2018. Michael Kerr is an international Hall of Fame business speaker, trainer, and author who is recognized as one of North America’s leading authorities on building great workplaces. To find out how Michael can help your workplace achieve the results you deserve, reach out to him at mike@mikekerr.com
