A Little Bit On Culture
Culture. Everyone talks about it. Everyone wants it to be “strong” or “cool”…but what does it really mean? And more importantly, how do you get it? I may not have it all figured out, but I’ve got a few thoughts on the topic.
Before I started UpLaunch, I was a Lieutenant in the fire department. Not only did I truly love my career as a firefighter, but it taught me an incredible amount about culture, leadership, and motivating people to achieve a common goal. It certainly isn’t easy, especially in a job with so many traditions, quirks, and idiosyncrasies. But it’s doable — and the lessons translate very well into the business world.
Here are 3 important things that you can do in your company — TODAY — to create, improve, and get buy-in around your company culture.
Lead From The Front
One of my mentors in the fire department once told me that he would “never ask me to do anything he hasn’t done or isn’t willing to do”. That type of attitude will go a LONG way in business. For instance, I do my best to try out the work that I’m assigning to people BEFORE I actually assign it to them. If you do their job for a bit and it makes you want to jump off a bridge, you’d better find a way to make the work more inspiring before you cause someone else to stop enjoying their experience at your company.
This is especially true for recurring tasks — people want PURPOSE. They want to know WHY they’re doing something, and they want to see the RESULTS of their efforts. As a leader, it’s your responsibility to close the feedback loop and show everyone how their work is affecting the greater mission. If you can’t figure that out, it’s a pretty big clue that you’re wasting someone’s time — and can increase the return on their efforts by assigning more high-value tasks to them.
Of course, it’s not possible to do inspiring, engaging, high-value work all the time. Sometimes we need to do data entry, or sweep the floor, or write documents that are repetitive. It’s not always avoidable. If you want your people to make time for these unpleasantries, you’ll motivate the hell out of them by being the first one to get started. If a thousand records need to be entered in the database, knock out the first hundred real quick before passing it off. If the floor is gross, grab a mop. You get the idea. Be the person you want to hire.
If you personally embody the culture you want to foster, the people around you will naturally follow suit. This holds true for good cultures and for bad ones — so pick your actions carefully.
Set Expectations
It’s completely unfair to expect people to perform to a certain standard if that standard isn’t clearly communicated. In fact, it’s a recipe for disaster. You’ll end up pissed off that your people aren’t doing things “right”, and they’ll be just as angry because they’ll feel like failures. Nobody inherently WANTS to be bad at their jobs; they just need a clear “definition of success” in order to achieve it.
This is where business systems come into play. I get it — as a business owner, time is always in short supply. It’s crucial to look at the return on your actions over the long term in order to prioritize where you spend your time. Will taking 2 hours to write a detailed procedure take more time TODAY than it would take to quickly show someone how to do it in 15 minutes? Sure…but when it’s done wrong, and you have to show them again AND fix the items that were done incorrectly, you’ll quickly eclipse the amount of time it would have taken you to write a procedure in the first place.
There’s another benefit to written communication — it makes you THINK. Write the procedure down, read it out loud, think about it, read it a second time, and then teach it to someone. If you follow that recipe, you’ll be much more likely to remove ambiguity — you’ll also have provided your people with a reference so they can gauge the quality of their own work BEFORE it gets to your desk.
Have Real, No-Bullshit Values
Yeah, I said it. This is the most important out of everything that I’ve written today. People need to know the mission. They need to know why they’re working, who the true stakeholders are, and who they should be thinking about. Your values, ethos, expectations, whatever you want to call them — they should be communicated to EVERY single person who works for your company. And you, as a leader, had better be a walking, breathing example of each and every one of them!
It doesn’t matter if your business is a gym, a software company, a bakery, or a manufacturing plant — every business has a goal, every business has a customer that benefits from its product or service, and every business has a group of people who work their asses off so that it can thrive. Connect those dots together. Let people know what’s expected of them and why those expectations exist.
As an example, at UpLaunch, one of our ethos is about challenging the status-quo. We foster accountability across all channels, regardless of position, job responsibilities, or time in the company. If someone is dropping the ball, or a process of ours can be improved, it’s not only encouraged — but EXPECTED — that someone speaks up and brings it to the team’s attention. No egos, no feelings, no “rank” — the only thing that matters is the improvement of the team, which in turn provides more value to our partners and customers.
Final Thoughts
Culture is important. It can make or break a team. It can empower people to achieve incredible things or demotivate them to the point where they’re barely working at all. As an “intangible”, it can be tough to truly put your finger on what your culture is, what you’re willing to tolerate, and what your non-negotiable values are. To be a true leader, you’ve got to have BACKBONE. You’ve got to stand up for those values and ensure that your people represent your company the right way.
Another good one from my fire department days:
“What you tolerate, you endorse”…
If it’s a non-negotiable, make it non-negotiable. Build teams filled with people that you look up to and who prioritize the values that your company holds dear. It’s incredible what a hard working team of like-minded and mission oriented people can achieve.
