Every business owner knows creating a winning culture is important to their company's success. But do you know how to get started? You're about to find out!
Company culture isn’t just about quotes on the walls or monthly team lunches. Company culture is the important DNA of a company, where what is expected is communicated and reinforced. While you, as a business owner, might try to put a strong culture into effect, it takes effort and time.
Here are five tips to help you build your own winning culture.
Without a definite set of core values, your company lacks direction. Not to mention, it's also at a high risk of failure.
Having a clearly defined set of guiding principles or mission purpose is critical to having everyone in your company “on the same page.” You, the business owner, must lead by example and live the values out, and in turn, you can expect every member of your team to do the same.
When they live your company values, publicly acknowledge them and reward your team for doing the right things.
(Speaking of company values, learn more about our company values here)
How do you refer to the people who work in and for your business? Do you call them “your employees” or “the team?”
We’ve had success in referring to our team as team members and not employees. While it may be nothing more than a name change, the word member infers belonging and participation. And as a result, it helps us create a team-oriented culture.
A winning team-oriented culture consists of members striving together to achieve goals, with a clear focus on how each member contributes to the company’s overall success.
Does your team trust you to back them? Do they trust each other?
The truth is, a lack of trust will slow down any work that you do and add increased costs as members feel less encouraged and less enthusiastic about the roles they play in the company's success.
Trust is the linchpin that keeps everyone moving in sync. And if you don’t trust your team or they don’t trust each other, every task becomes much harder. Trust is built over time with responsibility and communication. Even if trust doesn't currently exist between your team, it can be built or restored starting today.
It will take time, but it is worth it!
(While you're here, don't miss this post next: 5 Things Leaders Should NOT Delegate to An Assistant)
A clearly defined set of written goals provides all team members with a path to follow for their own growth and how it ties to the company’s success. And remember: goals should be both attainable and yet cause team members to stretch beyond their norm.
Celebrating successes along the goal path is important, and making sure that everyone understands how the smaller goal successes fit into, the larger goal plan. The more the team stretches towards the difficult goals, the more competent they become until the large goals become small. This also gives a big boost to your winning culture.
So, ensure there are always tougher goals to conquer so that complacency does not become an issue.
(A winning culture can also help you reduce employee turnover. Here are some other ways to do that)
With a strong focus on achieving results, every team member needs to be accountable to themselves and hold each other accountable. A winning culture measures performance learns from any mistakes made, rewards successes, and is accountable to themselves and each other and the goals and the company as a whole.
Once you have all of these measures in place, you, your team, and your company will have a winning culture that's unstoppable!
This post was first published in 2013, but it was updated in 2021 just for you.