I have been focusing a lot on company culture recently so I just loved this quote from Richard Branson as a company’s culture can be a severe constraint on its success or alternatively a source of strength and competitive advantage.
The culture of a business describes the character of a group of people and how they think and act as a collective. A company with a strong character will have a culture that promotes caring and treating all people well, regardless of rank and role in the business. Team members will feel protected within the company and know that colleagues have their back. This contrasts with a culture of weak character, where people feel that any protection they have comes from their ability to manage politics, promote their own success and watch their own backs.
The purpose of a healthy, high-performance culture is to support the long-term success of the business. Culture drives business results and a healthy culture creates a fulfilling place to work. In shaping culture, it is important to know what strategies, business goals and initiatives the business’s behaviours are there to support
Culture can often be viewed as just something those large corporates do but every business has a company culture. Typically in smaller businesses the company culture reflects the values of the business owner. Their values determine the activities and type of environment that the business creates. The owners values reflect whether the business is say fun and quirky or professional and serious. There is no magic formula when it comes to creating your company culture except that a great company culture focuses on the team members. Keep the team members happy. Reward and empower them and they will deliver amazing customer service, which in turn will translate into greater productivity and profitability for the business.
So how do you treat your team members? Remember you are part of your own team. Are you rewarding yourself and taking care of yourself just like you would a team member or are you being hard on yourself and beating yourself up with a stick? Be kind to yourself and remember the adage: “how you do something is how you do everything”.
What are you doing in you business that is getting mirrored in other areas of your life?
Julia Felton (aka The Business Wrangler) is the founder of Business HorsePower. Business leaders, entrepreneurs and executives hire her to accelerate their business performance by harnessing the energy of their people to work more collaboratively together. By aligning purpose with actions the team achieves exponential results as everyone starts pulling in the same direction.
Julia believes that business is a force for good and through designing purpose-driven businesses that leverage the laws of nature, and the herd, you can create businesses founded on the principles of connection, collaboration and community that make a significant impact in the world.
