A company culture is the vibe of a company. It sets the tone for how you do business internally and externally. It is a philosophy for how you communicate your brand and how you treat people.
As a solopreneur or a founder with a small team, you may think it too early to contemplate your company’s culture. Not so. Research shows that companies that establish a healthy and positive culture from the start are more successful and sustaining. It is also a well-known fact that fixing a broken culture is a productivity-consuming and expensive overhaul.
As a leader, your team will look to your example as a way to bring mission and value statements to life. So, take a few minutes to envision the ideal culture for your new enterprise:
How would you want to be treated if you were a customer or an employee?
How do you want employees and customers to feel about your product and service?
How can your brand communicate the same intent?
When recruiting team players how will you identify those that align with your cultural vision?
Put your answers on paper and abide by them as you build your startup. Be the culture you want to create.
Need more help in defining and building a successful and sustaining company culture? Contact me at Rebecca@MIndfulCommunication.com
Your team plays an integral role in your success. Research shows that a weak or dysfunctional team can deflate a startup. Patrick Lencioni, founder and president of The Table Group, is one of my favorite leadership gurus. When building a team or keeping your team in check, Lencioni suggests you look for three virtues:
Humility, not to be confused with insecurity or lacking confidence in one’s skills or ability to contribute, is the virtue of putting the team’s interest ahead of their own. Humble players support and encourage their peers. They may go beyond their job description to help another team member in a pinch as it benefits the organization.
Hunger is the desire to work hard and get things done and done well for the good of the enterprise.
Smarts, as Lencioni describes, is less about IQ and more about EI − a team player’s emotional intelligence and interpersonal communication skills.
Most entrepreneurs lack training in hiring employees. Hiring the wrong employees can be a major stressor and a liability to a founder with limited resources and strict deadlines for getting their startup up and running. Here is a primer for hiring right:
1) It is important to hire for skill, but remember that trustworthiness and loyalty to the organization is equally important. Evidence of trust includes visible loyalty, honest collaboration with all members of the team, transparent communication, respectful conflict and staff retention.
2) Don’t suffer a poor fit. As a favor to you, your team and the employee in question, if he or she is not a good cultural fit and continues to buck the system despite reasonable efforts to help them fit in, let them go. Do a post mortem and learn from that failed hiring experience.
3) The company handbook is not enough of a guide for an employee’s success. In a face-to-face conversation clearly define your vision of success to new hires. Point out the company’s core values and your expectations of the role to potential candidates.
Trust is the basis of successful teamwork. Let me give your team the tools for building trust. Contact me at Rebecca@MindfulCommunication.com
Rebecca’s CoreFour Coaching
"It takes more than courage to be an Entrepreneur, it takes CORE." Find out more.
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A company culture is the vibe of a company. It sets the tone for how you do business internally and externally. It is a philosophy for how you communicate your brand and how you treat people.
Your team plays an integral role in your success. Research shows that a weak or dysfunctional team can deflate a startup. Patrick Lencioni, founder and president of The Table Group, is one of my favorite leadership gurus. When building a team or keeping your team in check, Lencioni suggests you look for three virtues:
tressor and a liability to a founder with limited resources and strict deadlines for getting their startup up and running. Here is a primer for hiring right:
"It takes more than courage to be an Entrepreneur, it takes CORE."