Wikipedia defines company culture as:
Organizational culture encompasses values and behaviors that contribute to the unique social and psychological environment of an organization…
Throughout my career in large and small organizations, I’ve seen the best and worse of the impact of culture to the morale of employees. It’s common perception that larger companies have a harder time defining culture, while smaller ones have it easier. I disagree.
There is one thing that no company culture can change in their employees.
Behavior.
I’ve been giving this a lot of thought.
The word; culture; is a widely used word in interviews, executive meetings, team building seminars, new hire orientation, start ups, and more.
We expect and want to make sure new hires comply with the way things are done. Short of being robots, we still require some personality from new hires, to a certain extent until it conflicts with the culture.
After working in various roles and companies, I was exposed to different ways employees behave, interact, resolve conflicts, and collaborate. Also how employers manage their employees within the parameters of their culture.
But who determines if these elements define culture? Who sets the guidance on what culture is. Should there be a culture police?
Large corporations have Chief Culture Officers, who’s duty is to ensure positive growth in individuals and across teams within the organization. Smaller companies don’t have such a role, so it’s up to the founders to create the culture.
Needless to say, as we continue to grow our ad agency, culture is something we think about a lot. It’s not easy, I can tell you that.
I am not an expert in company culture, nor do I profess to be one. But something I read (you’ll see at the end) inspired me…
…to talk about the 8 Secrets I found in culture.
Let’s dive in.
Compassion
It starts here.
Every employee you hire, every team you work in, every manager you work for, and every customer you serve; are humans with real feelings. Sometimes they feel joy and success and thankfulness, other times anxiety or low self-esteem or frustration.
People in the position of leadership and power (from CEOs to shift managers to team leaders) — you’re responsible for demonstrating an extraordinary level of compassion to your team and peers. There’s no compromising on this characteristic if you truly believe in empowering your employees.
If your sales person is not meeting their quota, instead of reprimanding your sales person and threatening job security, invest time into finding out if there’s personal life struggles that’s prohibiting your sales person from doing their job. That’s compassion. Go beyond your numbers. Be human and reach out.
This does not require you to be the next Mother Teresa, bless her soul.
But if you have time to judge others, then you have time to be compassionate. If you have time to pressure your team into performing, then you have time to show compassion and offer a helping hand instead of being a spectator.
Showing sincere concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others is a lost art in many companies.
I can understand why this trait gets lost in the shuffle. We’re all busy AND there’s no time to get soft AND there are too many priorities and objectives AND sales plan to meet, bonuses to get, AND, AND, AND…
There will be no one to help you achieve your goals if you don’t show compassion. Why? You lose talent. Your company’s reputation gets tarnished. You start attracting the wrong hires. You fade away over time and become the company or team nobody wants to join.
Find time to show compassion. It gets easier with practice.
Understanding
When someone comes into work and fails to deliver a report, many of us jump to conclusions by nature. It’s our natural instinct to react.
We go into rapid fire mode and that usually compounds on the frustration. Our minds have been conditioned and trained to reject any notion of failure and under performance.
I’m guilty of this as well.
When I was managing a team many years ago, I would be so focused on executing that I lacked understanding of my team’s situation at their individual level. One of my employee needed time off because family was visiting from out of state. While I was fine with the individual taking the week off, I was extremely anxious about work getting done.
I sent this person a number of emails knowing that they had the time off. But when I didn’t get the response quick enough, I was frustrated.
The truth? I was absolutely inconsiderate of me for my lack of understanding.
But I’ve also been on the receiving end of this.
I called in sick, lying in bed with a fever — only to receive an email from my manager asking me “How are our campaigns performing today.” I guess that’s what they call karma.
The show must go on, as they say, but exercising understanding can mitigate animosity. Don’t let resentment build up. If you want to build a company that’s worthy of your employees then practice understanding in every facet of your job.
Your employee will suck it up and get the work done because they need the job and money to pay their bills. But don’t take their submission as a sign of their loyalty. You’ll be gravely mistaken.
I believe one’s ability to understand is tied closely to their emotional intelligence (EQ), not IQ.
When you understand and appreciate the other person’s mindset, you humanize the conversation. You react constructively and find solutions to problems.
Understanding opens up doors and mitigates ill-feelings.
Love
Many of us love what we do. Otherwise we wouldn’t be doing it. We’re passionate about our work. and do not consider working 15-hour days work.
When you love the company you work for, you love team you work with, or the leader you admire; you develop a sense of ownership, pride, and love for them.
You are able to forgive quickly and embrace everything that makes you smile. Because you are not holding grudges or animosity; the poison of souls. Creating a culture that is loving in any company sounds practically impossible. Right?
You’re right in most cases. But there’s one thing that can unite employees that is often neglected.
Purpose.
We hear people say it all the time – “This team is like family to me,” or “I really believe in what my company is doing.” This resonates with many of you because chances are you are working in a company that is driven by a purpose beyond selling their products or services.
You experience what it means to truly care for what you do what who you do it with.
Your work day becomes enjoyable, time flies, you go home and can’t wait to get back to work. When companies are unable to channel the love and passion correctly – teams and individuals fall apart one puzzle piece at a time.
When you love what you do, you will feel the same for your customers. And it will translate directly into the your interaction with your community.
Love moves mountains.
Trust
Every company starts at Day One.
Even those that have received tens of millions in venture funding. Having money sitting in the bank just mean you can afford to hire people, lease new office space, offer health insurance benefits, and other employee perks. It doesn’t go further than that.
The tough part starts next. Your first hires, your co-founders, or your executive team — how do you know if you found the right founding team?
Do you trust the people you hire? If so, how? How can you trust someone you interviewed for an 1 hour (or 2), looked at his LinkedIn profile, stalked their social profiles, and chatted with a few references for 10 minutes?
Let me be honest. I have interviewed many people, been interviewed more…and reality is; either side of the table have not the slightest clue if the other person is trustworthy.
But because we like to think the best in people, we give them the benefit of the doubt about who they portray themselves to be. Most people turn out to be who they say they are.
You need to hire, the applicant needs a job. A transaction is complete; at this point. There’s all there is. Let’s not try to pig lipstick on a pig here.
But yet, trusting someone is so critical to the growth and long term success of your business. If you have worked for a micro-manager before, then you have tasted what the opposite of trust is. No one likes a micro-manager. And everybody loathes a narcissistic one.
When you see a company thrive or when people surround their leadership team with unconditional support, that’s a healthy sign of reciprocal trust in that relationship.
Trust drives progress.
Unconditional
High performance teams can produce phenomenal results for your business; as long as no one is self-serving.
When you’re part of a team, you support each other unconditionally. Sounds too altruistic? Perhaps. But not impossible or impractical.
First, I believe to achieve success, no one should be devising shenanigans to one-up the next person or throw someone under the bus.
Whether you want to admit it or not, people throw others under the bus every day this is a widespread behavior that kills teams. The effects of this is not immediate, but a lingering disease that spreads over time into the culture.
As a community, and as a team, we need to learn how to give, give, give…and expect nothing in return. Because your are investing your energy, time, and expertise to reach the same finish line.
This extends to helping a customer as well. No one should ever be too busy to offer help. Just because you’re the CEO, doesn’t mean anything. Just because you have back-to-back meetings, no one cares.
Your acts of unconditionality (yes it’s a word), should be the glue that holds your organization, managers, employees, and vendors together.
People make mistakes. We all screw up. Let’s just get that out of the way. But the difference between great companies, and the ones that struggle is, the companies that do great have the ability to nurture unconditional forgiveness.
Unconditionally care for humans.
Respect
There’s a song we all (most) know about.
If I asked you when was the last time you felt disrespected? Your answer could fall somewhere in between “I don’t give people a chance to disrespect me,” and “Every single day, there’s just no winning with my manager.”
Better yet, do you remember the last time you disrespected someone? Chances are you won’t. Many of us find it easier to stand on a pedestal, internalize things and project our view on others.
Whatever your answer is; the absence of mutual respect is disastrous. Instilling a sense of mutual respect doesn’t necessarily have to come from leaders, or Vice Presidents, or managers – even though leading by example is tried and true.
Individuals play as huge a role, especially in larger companies, to evangelize the importance of respect.
We are more concerned about the people who do not respect us than how many people we do not respect.
Let me say this again. We are infuriated when we get disrespected, but justify how righteous we are when we disrespect someone else. We’re so flawed.
Respect is a two-way street.
Empathy
You noticed that your project manager, Rick, has been screwing up for a couple of weeks. The client has called to complain a few times. One day you decide to have a meeting with Rick. But your intentions are from empathetic.
“Rick, the client called and complained that your work is not up to their expectations. You need to figure it out now. If you lose this client, I cannot guarantee what the future holds.”
If you had empathy, your opening line would sound more like “Rick, are you OK? I noticed you might be having some trouble with your work…want to talk about it?” Period.
You have no idea why Rick’s performance has deteriorated. You have no idea if he’s going through a divorce, or lost a loved one, or anything. Simple – you have no idea.
As a manager, your job is to listen, listen, listen. Managers feel they need to talk because, well, they are suppose to “manage.” Quite the opposite. There is no way on earth for you to manage someone if you don’t know what is bothering them.
Here are five things you can do to show empathy:
- Listen – observe their body language, and listen to every word they say without interrupting.
- Recall – can you remember a time when you felt the same way?
- Imagine – validate the spectrum of emotions by imagining yourself in the persons’ situation.
- Ask – how they feel, avoid condescending questions that sound like statements.
- Show – words and actions of caring.
Empathy breaths life. Do the right thing.
Summing it up with awesomeness
The perfect example of CULTURE. This was the incident I saw that inspired me to write this article about culture.
I witness a recent action taken by the CEO of T-Mobile and its SVP of Retail Jon on Twitter. They both personally reached out an individual to offer help and solved a problem. Neither of them HAD TO…but they WANTED TO.
Some would call it a marketing stunt. But if you knew anything about John’s consistent engagement with his employees and customers, you would wish you could be like him.
Just through the act of reaching out, they demonstrated the 8 points of C.U.L.T.U.R.E.
