We all know culture is everything in creating our corporate image. How do you score on what your people are saying, staying, or striving to do?
Two common and emerging messages I hear from leaders across a range of sectors every day are, “We are constantly under the microscope from both our clients and employees”, and “How can we create the culture we want?”
It can be an arduous process to move from “the culture we have” to the “culture we want”, but it is one we all need to address if we want to retain and grow our client base and be employers of choice.
So how do we create the culture we want?
I have developed six simple steps to help guide you through the process.
1. Define what you stand for – these are your core values. Keep it simple and easy to understand, and make sure they resonate with both your clients and employees.
2. Explain what you want – your employees need to know what you want them to do and how you want them to do it. Keep it clear, concise and easy to understand. Keep explaining until you are sure they get it. Get them involved, ask them what the new values mean to them and how they can implement them into their work.
3. Model your values – this is crucial. You need to walk your talk if you want your employees to take up the baton. Your leaders and informal leaders set the example for your employees to follow, and if you can’t get them on board, chances are you won’t succeed.
4. Communicate successes – communicating what each division is doing to successfully implement your new values to the whole organisation creates a sense that we are all in this together and we will make it work together.
5. Recognise and reward – recognising and rewarding those that exhibit the behaviours you want lets your employees know they are important and what they do is important.
6. Reinforce the message – you want to make it “business as usual” so keep communicating the message. Make it a cornerstone of all training and coaching. It’s all about “this is how we do things around here”.
Creating the culture we want may seem like a road that never ends, but the rewards are great.
Remember - Happy and engaged employees lead to discretionary work effort, and this leads to happy customers.
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