Foundation of a Successful Culture
Culture is the attitude and behaviors of the people within an organization. The culture drives performance, engagement, retention, and employee well-being. As a leader, your goal is to develop a thriving culture.
A successful culture starts with PEOPLE! Let’s break people down into three parts.
Leadership team - These are the people that are responsible for developing the culture that is ideal for your organization. They need to be able to set a clear purpose, vision, and core values for the organization and then be able to communicate it. With this, they need to get others to buy into it and have the systems in place to make it work. I often say, “Your culture is only as good as your leadership team.” If you don’t have the right leaders in place then eventually your culture will suffer. Usually sooner rather than later. It is about getting the right leaders in place and giving them the training and resources to be successful.
Employees - These are your current employees that are not in a leadership position. They need to be bought into the culture with their words and actions. The key to this is to have both their words and actions in alignment with the culture. Cultures often suffer when one or both of these is missing. If they aren’t in alignment then there needs to be discussions and accountability. If this doesn't improve after those two things then oftentimes a change will need to be made.
Hires - It is essential to make sure that the people that you bring in will be able to excel within their specific job and the culture of the organization. The hiring process needs to be a collaborative effort between the leadership team and human resources. This is one of the many reasons why human resources are so important to a company. When you bring in the right people and you have the right culture in place then that is a recipe for success!!
Remember that your culture is dynamic. It is always changing based on the attitude and behaviors of the people within the organization. As you are developing your culture make sure to pay attention to the leadership team, employees, and new hires!
