Culture as the Secret Sauce
As a recruiter, I’ve noticed that our clients who embrace the value of cultivating a specific culture within their company seem to grow more quickly and hire with more ease and efficiency. By knowing who they are AND who they are not, they create clarity, vision, and a sense of identity for the people who work for them. They use culture as a foundation for hiring, training, and developing their teams.
These culture savvy companies have four unique traits that stand out as we work with them:
Their Company Values are clearly stated and known. The vision-mission-values are hung on a wall. They are discussed at meetings. They are incorporated into the job ad. They are reviewed during the interview process. They are discussed when key decisions are being made. They are known throughout the team.
Their leaders are well-equipped. The company realizes that to create a positive culture, they need leaders who are equipped to train, mentor, coach, and develop others. They need leaders who understand the vision of the company and support it. They need leaders who can help others see the vision and adopt the values. They invest heavily in providing training, resources, and professional development opportunities for their leaders.
They don’t let little problems become big problems. The leaders are comfortable with and good at handling confrontation and conflict. They understand that a healthy culture has to be defended and protected. When someone doesn’t fit in, the leadership team addresses it promptly with the goal of helping the person change for the better or managing them off the team. Leaders will even confront each other with the intention and trust that they are all acting in the best interest of the team at heart.
They know what makes them unique. When we ask them “Why would someone want to work here?” They answer easily and with specifics. They want to be a great place to work, and they’ve thought about what that means for their team. They give specific illustrations of how their values influence their culture. For example: We are fun-loving. Sometimes if things are stressful, we all head to the break room and play board games for an hour. OR: We want our employees to take ownership of their work. If a job comes in under budget and without callbacks, we split the extra profits with the team.
Rome was not built in a day and neither is a great company culture. You won’t get your “dream team” overnight—it will take determination and grit and hard work. Great company culture, however, could just be the secret sauce that makes work more fun, unifies your team, and give you the competitive advantage for the future.
For more reading on this topic, check out The Table Group, founded by Patrick Lencioni, or pick up a copy of his book The Advantage. https://www.tablegroup.com/