I once worked in a company where the company culture was like a revolving door. Turn up one month and we were driving collaboration and the next it was some other industry trend that we just must try!

My advice, if you are going to see the evolution and embedding of your culture over time you have to be consistent and in it for the long haul! Once you have identified the right culture, behaviours and rituals for your company you have to be committed or in the words of my favourite Diana Ross track believe there….

 Ain’t no mountain high enough, ain’t not river wide enough to keep you from your desired culture!!

•  You have to be consistent, with habits and rituals that are driven by great leadership.
•  You have to be committed, and believe that the result is worth the sometimes hard work ahead.
• Strategic and motivated by the right things, which will get you aiming for the right balance for your people and organisation.

The importance of company culture is no secret. Employees who don’t like their company culture are 23% more likely to quit and 58% of employees would stay in a lower paying job if it meant they were working for a great boss. The morale, corporate social responsibility and ethics of a business plays an increasingly important part in attracting and retaining talent.

If that is not enough remember this….as Simon Sinek says

“Customers will never love a company until the employees love it first.”

Not convinced, well ask yourself this?

Are your employees happy?

Are your staff retention figures going in the right direction?

Are your people engaged and bought into your key projects and vision?

Now you understand the benefits….

Let’s be honest!.  Implementing culture can be hard, lack of leadership alignment, contradictory behaviours and poor diversity strategies see cultures impacting the business negatively. Humans naturally resist change gravitate to what is familiar and routine so if you are just starting out on this journey, it is time to get serious and do it right for your business and your people.

How to bring the team along with you as you make change.

1.  Effective and clear communication on the purpose; The last thing you want are employees who are confused as to the reasons for new changes. You may already have ERG’s (Employee Resource Groups) in place, this is a great way to get people up to speed. Go on, promote it, get people involved and then spread the message.
2.  Loosen the reigns; Rigid organisational structures can stifle innovation and freedom of thought. As a leader your job is to encourage your teams to feel involved and actively participate in rebuilding the process and structures that restrict. Facilitate 2 dimensional conversation and ideation to ensure that what is decided is co-created and not pushed down from the top.
3.  Checks and Balances; Decided on the way forward? This is where the process, governance and rigour will take it to the next level. Without this, you will see momentum start to wain, people lose trust in the process altogether and you will find yourself further back than when you started.!

Make it stick, regardless of who leads.

Once you have taken action on the above and you have a team that fully embraces the goals and purpose, a team that has been actively engaged in initiating the changes and follow through activities, here are three tips to ensure your culture sticks like the good old faithful sticky note.

1. Write it down: Yes! It sounds cliché and obvious, but something as simple as a company mission statement has been shown to go a long way to inspiring companies as they traverse the change curve. Create a repository where your people can see the commitment to your new way of working, processes that live and breath as well as success stories along the way.
2.  Measure it: What are those indicators that measure your success against your ethics, goals and purpose? Celebrate your milestones, increase motivation as well as flex and adapt when the numbers reflect a less than positive story. We all love an employee of the month reward or a voucher to our favourite store. Use your dashboards to drive inspired people who love to work for you.
3.  When it gets tough and you want to give up:  Culture change is not easy. You will be faced by challenge and sometimes opposition. As a leader it is your responsibility to remember the vision and strategic direction, be firm and respectful, bold and courageous. You got this, and if you need support the Startup Culture Code team are here too!

We partner with organisations like yours to help make the transition easier and help put process, measures and education around your corporate culture roadmap. Want a culture assessment to get you moving in the right direction then get in touch?

Want to have a consultation and talk through your current challenges then email info@startupculturecode.com. I am excited to talk you through the tool I use to identify your business priorities, assess current culture and the behaviour change required to make change. All supported by myself and my team.

And if it is time to grow your team but you need to decide on the best person to hire then here is my hiring video tutorial to help you define your recruitment process if you are at that stage.

Mandy Tucker is a corporate leader and qualified executive coach using her consultancy to help founders and CEOs lead from the front, build their teams and irresistible culture. She helps “Start Up” companies who are ready to scale. She will arm you with the best leadership coaching, techniques and frameworks to educate your teams on how to work together and build a culture they do not want to leave. Emotional Intelligence, Positive Psychology and Psychological Safety practices are the bedrock of Wellbeing and organisational success in the new Start Up era. 

#culture #corporatechange #diversity #leadershipcoaching #ERG #startupculture