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A well-functioning corporate culture is a foundational part of effective leadership. Leaders must recognize their role in defining the culture of their organizations, and organizations must make deliberate efforts to develop their leaders. Leaders can have an enormous impact on the culture of their organizations. They establish priorities, set the agenda, manage, lead, and delegate. Sadly, only 12% of executives feel their organizations are cultivating the ideal culture, and less than one-third of executives are even aware of their company’s culture. (1)

Strong leaders inspire their followers with a feeling of direction, purpose, mentorship, and inspiration. Workplace culture dictates whether a company will thrive in the future. Concepts that shape the organization of culture in an organization play a major role because they directly impact employees. The stronger the culture, the more committed the staff will be to accomplishing the objectives.

Deloitte found that 88% of employees believe a distinct workplace culture is necessary to succeed. (2) In fact, CEOs need not be the only ones who influence workplace culture.  Workers at any level can have a strong impact, both positive and negative, on employee morale, productivity, and employee turnover.

Understanding Company Culture

The interior does not express the organization it possesses, such as the furniture, decor, or expensive showpieces; rather, it is exhibited by the individuals who work there. Organizational culture is defined by the diverse individuals and their unique expertise that make up the workplace.  Education, training, experience, knowledge, previous employment and life experiences, work styles, communication, decision-making, etc., all play a role in organizational effectiveness. The value, determination, and understanding of people are essential to the organization. Employees come from different walks of life, and working together as a team for the unified goals of the company reflects an authentic corporate culture.

Why Is It Important to Influence Company Culture?

An organization can’t attain the success desired until employees are all aligned by having the same objective and with similar levels of enthusiasm. Regardless of title or role, everyone in an organization influences others.  This influence is why attitudes, shared behaviors, and a dedication to the larger goal matter to the overall culture.

It is essential to shape a company culture with good habits, values, and beliefs by providing the best workplace environment to foster positive workplace experiences. More importantly, everyone should have common attitudes about how work is performed, how communication is handled, conflict is resolved, and so forth.  This doesn’t mean everyone has the same style.  However, everyone shares the same concepts about what is or isn’t a healthy culture within the work environment to be highly productive, efficient, and maintain optimum morale.

5 Proven Ways to Influence Work Culture

59% of employees believe that the CEO and other top leaders are accountable for cultural shifts. (3) Below are a few ways to influence corporate culture:

1. Transparency

No matter what, transparency must be ensured at all stages in all departments. It makes you, whether a leader or employee, different from others and helps you grow in the long run.   How can transparency best be described? It’s more than just having an open-door policy. It ensures that all stakeholders are kept informed about what’s going on and engaged with the processes.

Pro Tip: Employees feel respected and appreciated when they don’t feel isolated.  One strategy to improve transparency can be to minimize department silos and get departments working together as groups.  Sometimes this can assist in creative ways, such as when sales, service-focused teams, and marketing work together to refine messages that better resonate with targeted customers.  In other cases, this can minimize conflicting goals between departments.  For example, purchasing has cost containment and reduction, while production may have goals of customer satisfaction and require better quality.  Transparency between these two departments can result in a balance of value-based buying decisions.

2. Accountability

Successful, high-performing teams are directly tied to individual accountability.  Trust hinges on the ability of people to follow through with their promises and commitments.   Accountability is about a set of corporate “norms” where everyone in the organization has a similar set of beliefs about how work is to be done, how it is done, how customers are to be treated, etc.  When people deliver on time, it prevents missed deadlines, minimizes surprises, reduces service complaints, and even capitalizes opportunities before they expire.  When everyone is accountable for their work, it sets a standard of behavior and acceptable work ethic, balances workloads, and reduces blaming among individuals and teams.

Pro Tip: Employees who are experts at accountability can and should be acknowledged and rewarded. Employees should be motivated by encouragement, not by fear, whether it’s a simple thank you for going above the call of duty, recognition for a job well done, or an award for achieving goals.

3. Communication

Communication is essential for high-performing teams, yet underperforming teams often neglect it the most. In companies where communication is poor and the objectives are not clear, the results often reflect the effectiveness of communication.  A lack of clarity or understanding can hinder success, but it also can be caused by workers who aren’t engaged in communication.  For example, they don’t read emails or other documents; they talk more than they listen; they aren’t open to new ideas or simply work in department silos.  Symptoms of communication issues can be seen in increased errors, employee churn, or the need for additional staffing, whether capacity or capability issues are at fault.  Leaders should involve employees in strategy making, specifically top performers with consistent track records, to solve communication issues and create a thriving corporate culture.

Pro Tip:  Healthy corporate cultures aren’t conflict-free.  However, leaders can establish ground rules to strengthen effective communication:

  • Avoid fault-finding in colleagues.
  • Stop controversies, rumors, and gossip.
  • Assume the best of intentions and keep an open mind.
  • Table conflicts where solutions can’t be found.
  • Be willing to take on challenges and do so with a positive attitude.
  • Create options to explore ideas, concepts, and innovative solutions.
  • Solutions should benefit as many people as possible, not just some
  • Eliminate “us” versus “them” mentalities.

4. Collaboration

Knowledge sharing is essential for individual growth, but it’s also vital for workers to feel valued and respected. It’s also critical for organizational growth, innovation, and morale.  However, this isn’t something that just happens. It starts with leaders who trust that workers have the skills, tools, and knowledge to meet the demands and achieve the goals.  In other words, collaboration must be integrated into both the processes and people within the organization.  For example, customer-facing roles (e.g., sales, support, etc.) often have insights critical to other departments.  Unfortunately, this feedback is often left with leaders within the walls of departmental meetings or never addressed by absent or micro-managing leaders. However, giving freedom to workers at all levels to collaborate can build trust and open doors for collaboration.  Cross-departmental meetings regularly can be incredibly fruitful.  They may identify technical or product issues, parts, and outsourcing problems, customer support scripting issues, pricing problems, ideas for products, or competitive insights that can be used to strengthen market share, etc.

Pro Tip:  Whether leaders or workers, all team members need opportunities to spend time in-person, face-to-face, and outside of the confines of the office setting.  When combined with business objectives, shared experiences such as an enjoyable outing, adventure or activity can strengthen and set the tone for highly effective collaboration.

5. Model behavior

People learn by action.  When it comes to influencing company culture, your behavior as a leader towards employees and how you handle crises, decision-making, mistakes, praise, owning your issues, etc., are all under a microscope. Model the behavior you want to see in others and encourage your employees to do the same.

Pro Tip:  Keep your corporate values upfront and personal.  Provide every employee with a credit card-sized reminder of your company’s corporate mission and how that translates to employee expectations.  An example of this can is something such as:

  • We value transparency and are open, honest, and can be trusted in how we conduct ourselves and our business dealings.
  • We take pride in our work, which includes accountability for doing what we say we do, when we say we do it, and how we say we will do it.
  • We believe that actively listening and conveying strong, clear messages are the essential keys to customer satisfaction, innovation, and business success.
  • We encourage an inclusive environment where individuals work together creatively, productively, and openly exchange experiences, ideas, skills, and opinions to achieve new ideas or resolve problems.
  • We collectively share the framework of our organization’s culture by modeling the behavior, values, norms, working language, systems, beliefs, and habits we all desire in the workplace.

Every change, no matter how little, affects and changes organizational culture. According to Forbes, companies with strong cultures saw a 4x increase in revenue growth. (4) To achieve desired outcomes, you must be aware of your influence and behaviors. A strong team fueled by a positive business culture creates a successful organization and attracts and retains top talent.

Discover more inspiring ideas for exciting experiences that boost morale and engage your people. Contact Gavel International for details.

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SOURCES:

  1. https://blog.fivestars.com/26-statistics-that-prove-repeat-business-is-where-its-at/
  2. https://blog.fivestars.com/26-statistics-that-prove-repeat-business-is-where-its-at/
  3. https://blog.fivestars.com/26-statistics-that-prove-repeat-business-is-where-its-at/
  4. https://www.zendesk.com/blog/calculate-customer-retention-rate/
  5. https://www.zendesk.com/blog/zendesk-customer-experience-trends-report-2020/
  6. https://www.zendesk.com/blog/customer-retention-strategies/
  7. https://media.bain.com/Images/BB_Prescription_cutting_costs.pdf
  8. https://newsroom.accenture.com/news/us-companies-losing-customers-as-consumers-demand-more-human-interaction-accenture-strategy-study-finds.htm
  9. https://www.forbes.com/sites/patrickhull/2013/12/06/tools-for-entrepreneurs-to-retain-clients/?sh=5541351c2443
  10. https://www.dnb.com/content/dam/english/business-trends/ebook_anticipate_customer_needs_pt2_retention.pdf

 

 

Jim Bozzelli
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