No matter how many businesses I have worked with as a business consultant, whether it is a very small company or a large corporation, the business always seems to reflect the personality of its owner, CEO or leadership team. Sometimes that demonstrates a very healthy and constructive culture and sometimes it can be a very toxic one!
Sadly, the old saying “the fish rots from the head” is unfortunately true!
Your business’ culture is developed and sustained by the moods that govern your thoughts and your actions. This makes you the ‘deal maker’ as far as attracting and keeping the best people, maintaining high levels of productivity and ensuring that people are happy to continue working for you. Your business’ culture, or the ‘way we do things around here’, will develop anyway; it will take the path of least resistance and organically grow. Or you can choose to be intentional and work towards developing a desirable and healthy business culture. It’s up to you! The people who work for you will always be happier, motivated and more productive when their work environment is fun, fruitful and inspiring. Your staff will be motivated to contribute more and work harder when they believe in your ‘cause’ or ‘vision’. They will be more engaged and satisfied if you enable them to:
- operate autonomously
- achieve mastery in their role(s)
- feel appropriately challenged and
- know that their efforts make a difference!
As the leader, or CEO, you “can not not impact” on your peoples level of commitment and motivation!
So you might ask yourself:
- How am I impacting on the people around me?
- Am I impacting in ways that inspire commitment, loyalty and productivity?
- Am I causing my people grief, frustration, pain or resentment?
Three Simple but Powerful Tips for Building an Engaging and Satisfying Business Culture:
- Pay attention to your moods and thoughts. If you notice that perhaps you are feeling angry, down or frustrated, take responsibility for these thoughts and feelings and see if you can manage them effectively so that no-one else notices or is affected by them.
- Spend as much time as possible communicating and listening to your people. Always see and communicate the positive side of things, pay attention to what people say, evaluate and not diminish or discard their ideas, or complaints. Don’t be afraid to ask them the hard questions.
- Be clear about roles and responsibilities. Ensure that everybody knows exactly what they are responsible for, their function and how they will be measured. Always acknowledge their contribution and efforts and provide useful feedback to focus and correct efforts.
Focus on being the best you can be by being a positive role model to your people — you never know, they might also become the best they can be and facilitate your business’ success!
