3 Steps Leaders Can Take to Build Corporate Culture
/So often, the discussion around corporate culture centers around the employees. How do they feel about coming to work every day? What gets them excited? What are the perks of working where they work?
But today, we’re shifting the conversation to discuss leadership’s role in shaping corporate culture. Here are three steps to building a powerful culture for your team.
Step 1: Write it Down
Culture starts at the top, so leaders have responsibility for setting it and putting it down on paper.
Laying out clear culture directives sends clear messages to your employees, partners, and customers: what their purpose is, what their values are, what behavioral standards they're going to expect, and all of that makes up the culture.
The culture doc should be a living, breathing litmus test to ensure that every action and interaction reflects back to it, and that it’s consistently a part of who the organization is as a whole. Everybody should understand it, from top to bottom.
Your company values should be on your website for everyone to see. And not only should it be in writing, but nonverbal cues should support those. In the age of social media, there’s no way to pretend to be something you’re not. If you say your company is all about diversity, but your LinkedIn feed shows employees who all look the same, people will take note.
On the other hand, if your values are reflected clearly offline, employees and customers will notice, building passion and commitment to your organization.
When your customers, partners, and employees (especially employees) get it and they believe it, they are motivated. They feel like they can really relate to the purpose. They're more engaged and they're more satisfied. All of that delivers and leads to incredible results. It's not just the right thing to do for the people, it's also the right thing to do for the business.
In the end, the culture you establish becomes your legacy. Not only your own, but you team’s and organization’s as well.
Step 2: Measure Your Progress
As Kevin mentioned before, focus on culture can be a powerful business tool. Simply put, happy employees deliver outstanding customer and partner experiences. Those people, in turn, become evangelists, spreading the word. The numbers go up, up, up from there.
If you look at the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For, they actually have higher returns than the total universe of companies. Tere's objective, independent third party data that shows that the best places to work for deliver better business results.
Culture, referrals, revenue - all of this can be measured. And in my opinion, the most important thing you can do as a leader is measure these results so you understand if your culture is positive and leading to the results you want.
If you say customers come first but you're not measuring anything about customer satisfaction (customer retention, customer references, customer listening, customer growth, etc.), you're not measuring the right things. And if you’re not measuring, you won’t be able to create a strategic path to improve.
Step 3: Personalize it for Your Team
Kevin and I both got our careers started at Hewlett Packard, back in the “good old days” when Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard were there. Their leadership stood out to me in many ways, but they were truly ahead of their time when it comes to corporate culture, promoting the idea that it is the leader’s responsibility to create the environment that brings out his or her employees’ best efforts.
I really think that that's the true definition of leadership - when a supervisor moves from solely focusing on getting the task done to developing the individuals on their team.
Yes, of course leaders have to meet those work goals, but equally or if not more important is developing their teams, finding the purpose of their team, and making sure their team works together.
How to do this? First, the leader needs to know what motivates their team. Everybody is different and everybody has different motivators. Ask yourself:
Is your team excited about your vision and strategy? If so, great! If not, ask for feedback.
Is one of your team members doing a great job at work? Tell them.
What skills does each team member need to develop? Help them learn those skills.
Is someone just not a great fit? Determine a better place for them, whether it’s on your team, someone else’s, or maybe even another organization.
A team that’s bought into your culture is engaged, excited, and empowered. They bring new ideas to the table, they’re excited to be at work furthering the vision, they do great business.
Leadership is the key to setting corporate culture. Put your vision on paper, measure your goals, and develop your team’s skills (not just results) to build a culture that will become your legacy as a leader.