How to win at winning creating your corporate culture
A company’s culture is the best indicator of future success. It’s importance rising geometrically as a company grows beyond the reach of top management. There is a lot said in the press about establishing a winning culture. If you don’t think you have one or are worried that you don’t, how do you create one? Isn’t a set of winning actions enough to create a culture?
The chicken and egg scenario, which comes first, isn’t usually addressed.
Does winning create a winning culture? Or the reverse, do you create the winning culture first. I argue for the latter.
Are you satisfied you’re creating a winning culture? What are the components of one? How do you create one if you’re not?
The four elements of a winning culture are instructional directions to the team.
First, what the employee’s attitude or approach should be to their role. The second is how they should treat others. The third is how to treat customers. And the fourth, are the behaviors or moves that will most contribute to a winning effort.
Employee Attitude — “Fight for that inch”
In a start-up, you fight for every inch of progress. You want your employees to do the same. Small improvements don’t feel encouraging on an individual level. They’re small, after all. On an overall measurement, they add up to significant progress.
In the movie “On Any Given Sunday”, Al Pacino wonderfully guided to the desired attitude in a pre-game speech to his players -
“On this team, we fight for that inch. On this team, we tear ourselves and everyone else around us to pieces for that inch. We claw with our fingernails for that inch. Because we know when we add up all those inches, that’s gonna make the f****** difference between WINNING and LOSING, between LIVING and DYING! “
Pacino’s acting brought the sentiment to life. His team then knew that individually and collectively to fight for that inch. That the inches DO matter and they DO add up.
When you’re running a company, you quickly become acquainted with the premise that EVERYTHING matters. Even the inches. Everything, every little detail, every inch, as it relates to the enterprise and its progression is essential.
As the Al Pacino character in the movie went on to say in that speech
“You find out life’s this game of inches, so is football. Because in either game — life or football — the margin for error is so small…. The inches we need are everywhere around us. They’re in every break of the game, every minute, every second.”
The good inches are everywhere; they add up to feet. Support your employee efforts to make incremental progress and communicate that everyone else is doing so as well. Please enable them to see the aggregate value of these little steps. If everyone fights for the inch, the group moves ahead by feet.
How they treat others — “Recognize Others”.
It’s an age-old maxim that people will do more when they appreciated for their contributions. We all expect managers to do this, and they do so in most cases. In practice, they can’t see everything or praise those unseen acts. Peers do see most everything, however, and creating a culture of employees valuing and supporting each other is a powerful addition to performance and morale.
Employee collaboration creates a better work environment, reduces turnover and delivers results. It is not enough to encourage employees to work together. Provide them the currency and tool to facilitate that cooperation.
Enable employees to choose the recipients of awards and, give them ways to call attention to their peers. Something as simple as an employee selected, monthly, departmental Most Valuable Player award reinforces everyone.
Treat customers — “Solve problems quickly, make it easy for them”
The mantra of trying to “delight” customers was trendy in the last decade. The instruction to “delight” customers is confusing to many employees. It is especially true for front line employees. It is clearer and more valuable to prioritize solving problems quickly, make the customer’s life easier.
An article in the Harvard Business Review, states, “When it comes to service, companies create loyal customers primarily by helping them solve their problems quickly and easily.” The referenced article is a great one on customer service, and I’ll link it to the bottom of the section.
Make your business easy to work with by fixing the inevitable problems fast. It is what most customers value the most.
When someone identifies a fast fix to a known problem, publicly praise the contributor while you widely communicate the fix. Take every opportunity to stress the importance of making the customer’s interaction smoother and faster.
Identify winning behaviors — “Be decisive, support good ideas,
Indecision and failure to surface and act on good ideas define losing cultures. The solutions to many of the issues holding you back may be hiding in your company. They commonly reside in the hands of indecisive management, un-united proponents, or both.
Inaction, regardless of cause, won’t move you forward.
The culture must advocate for coming together behind solutions, good ideas, and action to implement them.
I am encouraging decisiveness subject to one limitation. The limitation is well-stated by James Clear, author of the New York Times bestseller, “Atomic Habits,” who notes that “If a decision is reversible, the biggest risk is moving too slow. If a decision is irreversible, the biggest risk is moving too fast.”
Within the above context, create a culture that recruits people to support good ideas. It is very limiting only to address the good ideas of the company’s extroverts. Avoid a culture where the idea’s and their champions compete as individuals. The latter only encourages politics and individuals. The former puts ideas first, which is where they belong.
Upon the implementation of a good idea, reward its’ proponents and implementers. Perhaps, you can establish a good idea, “Hall of Fame.” In the same way, recognize impactful decisions. It is essential to highlight the thinking, process, and outcomes of success for your decision-makers.
