Create a Better Company Culture and Business

Company culture is a big key to success in business. I have personally seen businesses succeeding beyond all likely parameters solely because of their great cultures. I have also seen incredibly talented teams doing a terrible job at turning a profit because of their negative culture. There is no question: culture is extremely important in business. The question is, how do you improve your culture (and your business)? Here are my top five ways to improve your company culture immediately.

1. Have an Awesome Mission Statement

As an entrepreneur coach, I always tell my clients, ‘If you want great results, you need a mission statement that is truly compelling’. Involve your team in the process to further increase their buy-in and motivation. Here’s how to write your mission statement. Clearly define your:

• “What” – what is it that you provide?
• “How” – in what way do you do/provide it?
• “Why” – WHY do you do what you do, the way you do it?
• “Who” – describe your ideal clients (this part is the only optional piece).

2. Create Compelling Company Culture Statements

Culture statements are a set of statements you use to describe the way things are (or should be) in your business. Involve your team to make the most effective use of this concept, and post them for all to see when they’re completed! Finally, remember to use culture statements as part of staff meetings/training, and as a coaching tool to remind people. Some examples of my favorite culture statements are:

• We are kind, every time.
• We put our families first.
• We are a team, we always help each other out.
• We get it right the first time.
• We are passionate.
• We get great results.
• We are grateful.

3. Make Sure Everyone Has Clear Roles & Goals

When everyone (including owners) has clear job descriptions and goals, a business runs much more smoothly and successfully. If you don’t have clear roles and goals, you can run into several problems:

• Your high performers get annoyed with the people not “doing their part.”
• Your staff doesn’t perform well.
• Your staff doesn’t understand your priorities.
• Things aren’t getting finished on time, or sometimes finished at all.
• People can be frustrated because they aren’t clear on whose job is whose.

To avoid these problems and myriad others, create and update clear job descriptions, including all responsibilities and 1-3 Key Performance Indicators (the most important and measurable goals on their job description).

4. Lead by Example: Role Model the Mission and Culture Statements

You cannot expect your team to live by your culture statements, treat customers like gold, be happy or grateful, or even show up to work if it’s not modeled from the top-down. Make sure that you and other leaders in your organization lead by example in every way. There is a saying: “a leader leads by example, whether they intend to or not.”

5. Ask for Feedback & Listen to the Answers

When you ask for your team’s input and opinions on things, they can tell that you care about and value them. Just make sure to actually listen to the feedback, because asking someone for their thoughts and then not listening is worse than never asking at all. As a reminder, my definition of really listening is to listen with the possibility of having your mind changed.

Here’s a Ted Talk on how changing company culture turned a company around:

For more reading on corporate culture from a slightly different perspective, here’s an article from the Harvard Business Review on what they consider to be the Six Components of a Great Corporate Culture.

If you need more help becoming an amazing leader, contact TMH Business Coaching and Consulting today for a confidential, free, no-obligation consultation to propel you forward. Also, please feel free to add yourself to our weekly coaching tips email!