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The Benefits Of A Winning Company Culture

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StrategyDriven Corporate Cultures ArticleA company’s culture says a lot about who they are, what they value, and what their beliefs are. For this reason, any business should take the time to really think about what their company culture is and how to ensure it’s pervasive throughout their business operations and employee behavior. You may be thinking about your company’s culture presently or whether it’s worth revisiting as well as improving. The good news is that you may find this article insightful as it’s going to explore the benefits of a winning company culture.

Employee Satisfaction

When thinking about the benefits of a winning company culture, one of them is employee satisfaction. When employees are a part of an admired company that’s sought after, they’re more likely to take pride in this, and it should show through their team spirit and the work they do. Also, when there’s a winning company culture, employees are also more likely to relate as well as connect with it. This means that they’re less likely to want to wake up and decide to quit and are more likely to show loyalty.

Brand Identity

Another benefit of a winning company culture is how it can positively affect your brand. Whether you realize it or not, your employees are brand ambassadors that represent you and emulate your company’s culture everywhere they go. For that reason, when you invest in creating a winning culture, this is beneficial for your business in the long-run. It can help influence the way people see your brand as well as spread your brand message.

Better Performance

Sometimes, the standards that you set in the workplace can be a benchmark for how well your employees choose to perform. In this respect, if excellence is a key characteristic of your company culture, then you’re more likely to see better performance from your employees. Employees will see opportunities to showcase their talent and will, therefore, give their all to every opportunity. By offering incentives and benefits, these talented employees will see a company culture offering opportunity, growth, and awareness of well-being. By offering some of the best employee benefits in the UK, you’re more likely to see a willingness to work hard and grow your company. Most people want to be part of a winning team, so if you make winning part of the culture, you’re more likely to see a positive output.

Increase Loyalty

As briefly mentioned above, when there’s a strong company culture, it can increase the chances of creating loyal employees. This is because they’re less likely to dread waking up to come to work in the morning and are likely to feel motivated that they’re contributing to a mission they believe in. Ultimately, culture has a way of giving employees goals and helping them find purpose in what they do as well as connecting and binding them with a set of shared beliefs.

A winning company culture is key if you want to create a well-branded organization as well as one employees enjoy. There are numerous ways that you can create this winning culture, which includes reinforcing your values, making your expectations clear, continuously sharing your mission statement as well as leading by example. By doing so, you should see immense benefits and exponential growth with time.

5 Strategies, Tactics and Traits to Support Diversity in the Modern Workplace

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StrategyDriven Diversity and Inclusion Article
 
Whether it’s embracing differing cultural backgrounds or bringing in workers from abroad, modern businesses are becoming more diverse than ever in terms of talent.

However, bear in mind that today’s companies aren’t adopting a sort of “melting pot” mentality “just because.” In fact, there’s a strong argument to be made that embracing more diverse backgrounds is a net positive for modern businesses.

Think about it. Beyond data that supports that more diverse companies reap higher profits, casting a wider net in terms of backgrounds and culture means dipping into a deeper pool of talent. In other words, hiring the absolute best people possible to meet your business’ needs.

Also consider the need to expand into new markets and connect with other cultures from a business standpoint. The more diverse your team, the easier it is to tap into those markets.

And if nothing else, diversity can ultimately lead to a more connected, open-minded workplace. Fresh ideas and perspective can be powerful motivators, if nothing else.

That said, it takes a thoughtful leader with strong attention to detail to ensure a positive, diverse work environment that products results. Below we’ve broken down a list of strategies and traits necessary to make sure that your team thrives while also supporting workplace diversity.

Conduct Individual Check-In’s

Perhaps one of the most important aspects of creating a stronger team is taking the time to understand your workers on an individual level. This is especially true of workers who are coming from abroad.

According to Gallup’s most recent State of the American Workplace, many employees feel like their concerns, strengths and needs completely go over the heads of higher-ups. On the flip side, having stake in your workers’ personal lives alongside their professional ones ultimately makes you more approachable in the long-run.

In other words, take the time to have one-on-ones to understand the motivations of your employees. Perhaps they could only climb the career ladder in a new country. Maybe they regularly send remittance payments to family back home and therefore have a huge stake in their jobs. Either way, regularly one-on-ones create that ever-so-important bond in the office.

Collect Frequent Anonymous Feedback

Consider that not all workers will be so forthcoming in one-on-one meetings, particularly those who might be nervous about concerns over discrimination or bullying.

To address such concerns, collecting anonymous feedback is a must-do for any office. Providing multiple avenues for feedback gives you a more comprehensive view of your teams’ strengths and weaknesses, while also holding workers accountable.

Whether through anonymous email surveys, engagement surveys (think: a employee net promoter score) or a digital suggestion box, you’d be surprised at what you can by asking the right questions. Feedback received from workers serves as valuable insight as you strive to continuously improve your company’s working environment.

Encourage Group Collaboration

Allowing employees to frequently work in groups, whether through an open office setting or on their own terms, is a smart move. This does double duty of helping people from different backgrounds assimilate while also driving home a “team” mentality. Rather than allow departments to become siloed, collaboration can be the catalyst your company needs for fresh ideas.

Be Aware of Bias

The epidemic of unconscious bias in the workplace is a serious issue that is overlooked simply by nature. In short, people don’t realize that they might have biases against someone’s background until it becomes an outright problem. This not only opens companies up to legal trouble, but could ultimately lead to improper treatment of workers which is unacceptable.

Acknowledging bias is a must-do, and anyone found to display bias should be held accountable. A company culture of empathy and open-mindedness is a good starting point, yet also think about biases that occur during hiring such as disregarding someone for their background or perceived lack of experience.

Rethink Your Onboarding Process

A huge factor in making any team member feel welcome and comfortable is how you onboard them. There is no “right” way to onboard employees, but there are ways to ease people into your company without overwhelming them, all the while celebrating their diversity. For example:

  • Introduce your new hires to current team members in “waves,” ideally allowing them to mentor or be shadowed by someone who they can form a working relationship with
  • Convey your company culture of acceptance from the word “go”
  • Make their success a priority, with frequent check-in’s as per usual in addition to giving them multiple points of contact for questions and concerns

While the concept of diversity in the workplace is nothing new, many companies struggle when it comes to adapting to new backgrounds, cultures and experiences. By emphasizing these tactics and traits, you can manage your team with more peace of mind while also embracing diversity.

The Big Picture of Business – Pave and Refine the Company Way, Corporate Culture

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StrategyDriven Corporate Cultures ArticleI was at a service counter, and the clerk was bad-mouthing the customers. “I don’t know what their problem is,” he declared. “Every one of them has a problem today.” He then pointed to others standing in line, not yet having been served. He added that “every one of them has a problem.” No, he has the problem and is projecting it on the paying customers. Each clerk at that company makes their personal behaviors the norms at their desks, and this is one of the largest organizations in America.

As customers, we smile and give positive strokes to those serving us. When you say to a clerk what a beautiful day it is, the lazy ones will reply, “Yes, I can hardly wait to get out of here and enjoy it.” The better response would be: “It is a glorious day because customers like you choose to visit us.”

Customer service must be constantly addressed and improved. Above that, Customer Focused Management needs to be implemented, meaning that all actions and decisions should be tied to customer outcomes. Above that, corporate cultures need to be fine-tuned, in order to avoid situations where customers are put on the defensive or made angry.

Corporate cultures are rarely nurtured. They evolve, meander and veer off course. Biggest cause of the problem is where individuals bring certain demeanors and behaviors to the company, and these traits often erode the positive and pro-active actions.

Warning signs for sluggish corporate cultures:

  • Where people take on negative attitudes.
  • Where employees spend too much time on what is best for them, instead of the customers.
  • Where mid-managers buy the hype of the marketing slogans but stonewall the progress that would enable the company to live up to its claims.

A company’s way is built, nurtured, recognized and implemented. In steering company cultures back on course, I recommend several steps in the process:

  • Discourage street talk, slang and trite phrases out of the mouths of your staff when interfacing with customers.
  • Write your company’s own service lines. Do not harass customers with tired questions like “are you finding everything.” Instead thank them more often and early in the transactions.
  • Declare personal cell phones, on-line shopping and the like to be off-limits in locations where customers are. They cannot see distracted employees, nor should your company tolerate it.
  • Hold training about personal demeanor.
  • Show individuals how they embody the whole of the organization.
  • Cut the weeds who will bring down the standards of the company and cast doubts on your team.
  • Celebrate great customer outcomes.
  • Honor the employees, who in turn honor the organization.
  • Since 92% of all problems in companies stem from poor management decisions, do a better job of training managers to be leaders.
  • Always recognize the Big Picture aspect to all business decisions. Each one influences the other and the whole of the enterprise.
  • Always remember and trust that the customer is king.

Everything we are in business stems from what we’ve been taught or not taught to date. A career is all about devoting resources to amplifying talents and abilities, with relevancy toward a viable end result.

Business evolution is an amalgamation of thoughts, technologies, approaches and commitment of the people, asking such insightful questions as:

  1. What would you like for you and your organization to become?
  2. How important is it to build an organization well, rather than constantly spend time in managing conflict?
  3. Who are the customers?
  4. Do successful corporations operate without a strategy-vision?
  5. Do you and your organization presently have a strategy-vision?
  6. Are businesses really looking for creative ideas? Why?
  7. If no change occurs, is the research and self-reflection worth anything?

Failure to prepare for the future spells certain death for businesses and industries in which they function. The same analogies apply to personal lives, careers and Body of Work. Greater business awareness and heightened self-awareness are compatible and part of a holistic journey of growth.

About the Author

Hank MoorePower Stars to Light the Business Flame, by Hank Moore, encompasses a full-scope business perspective, invaluable for the corporate and small business markets. It is a compendium book, containing quotes and extrapolations into business culture, arranged in 76 business categories.

Hank’s latest book functions as a ‘PDR of business,’ a view of Big Picture strategies, methodologies and recommendations. This is a creative way of re-treading old knowledge to enable executives to master change rather than feel as they’re victims of it.

Power Stars to Light the Business Flame is now out in all three e-book formats: iTunes, Kindle, and Nook.

The Big Picture of Business – How Business Advice Turns Into Company Strategy

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StrategyDriven Big Picture of Business ArticleWithin every corporate and organizational structure, there is a stair-step ladder. One enters the ladder at some level and is considered valuable for the category of services for which they have expertise. This ladder holds true for managers and employees within the organization, as well as outside consultants brought in.

Each rung on the ladder is important. At whatever level one enters the ladder, he-she is trained, measured for performance and fits into the organization’s overall Big Picture. One rarely advances more than one rung on the ladder during the course of service to the organization in question.

  1. Resource: equipment, tools, materials, schedules.
  2. Skills and Tasks: duties, activities, tasks, behaviors, attitudes, contracting, project fulfillment.
  3. Role and Job: assignments, responsibilities, functions, relationships, follow-through, accountability.
  4. Systems and Processes: structure, hiring, control, work design, supervision, decisions
  5. Strategy: planning, tactics, organizational development.
  6. Culture and Mission: values, customs, beliefs, goals, objectives, benchmarking.
  7. Philosophy: purpose, vision, quality of life, ethics, long-term growth.

7 Levels of Authority Figure

  1. Self Appointed. Flash in the Pan. What they were doing five years ago has no relationship to what they’re now marketing. They reap temporary rewards from momentary trends. They’re here today, weren’t an authority figure yesterday and likely won’t be tomorrow. Yet, today, they’re demanding your complete trust, respect and allegiance.
  2. Temporary Caretakers of an Office. Public officials. Appointed agency heads in a government bureaucracy. Respect is shown to the temporary trust they hold.
  3. Those Who We Think Control Our Destiny… for the Time Being. Caretakers of corporate bureaucracies, departmental supervisors, short-term clients, referral sources for business development and those who dangle carrots under people’s noses.
  4. Those Who Remain Through the Peter Principle. Supervisors and public servants who made fiefdoms by outlasting up-and-comers. Longevity is due to keeping their heads down and noses clean, rather than excelling via special talents-achievements. Still living on past laurels.
  5. Those Who Really Empower People. These are a rare breed… the backbone of well-run organizations. Some do what they do very well in poorly-run organizations. They may not be department heads, but they set exemplary standards and inspire others toward positive accomplishments. Category 2, 3 and 4 authority figures either resent them and try to claim credit for what they do… or are smart enough to place them in effective, visible roles. Some advance into management and encounter similar situations there too.
  6. Have Truly Earned Their Position-Respect. Also a rare breed. Those who excelled at every assignment given and each stage of their career. Never were too busy to set good examples, share ideas with others and help build the teams on which they played.
  7. Never Stop Paying Dues, Learning, Sharing Knowledge. The rarest breed of all. Distance runners who created knowledge, rather than conveyed that of other people. Though they could coast on past laurels, for them, the best is yet to come.

7 Levels of Advice Given

  1. Answers to Questions. There are 7 levels of answers which may be given, depending upon how extensive one wants: Easy and Obvious Ones, Knee-Jerk Reactions, Politically Correct, What People Want to Hear, Factual and Complete Explanations, Answers That Get Them Thinking Further and Deep Wisdom.
  2. Observations on Situations. These take the forms of “When this happened to me, I did X,” or “If this occurred with me, I would Y.” It’s often good to see things through someone else’s perspective.
  3. Subjective Viewpoint. Friends want what is best for you. This level of advice is usually pro-active and is influenced by the advisor’s experiences with comparable situations.
  4. Informed Opinion. Experts have core-business backgrounds upon which to draw. Advisors bring facts, analysis and methodologies of applying their solutions to your case. Niche consultants provide quality viewpoints… as it relates to their talents and skills. Carefully consider the sources.
  5. Researched Options. Investments in research (formal, informal, attitudinal, demographic, sociological) will avert unnecessary band aid surgery expenses later. Research leads to planning, which is the best way to accomplish tasks and benchmark success.
  6. Discussion of Outcomes-Consequences. Most actions and decisions in an organization affect many others. At this level, advisors recommend that sufficient planning be conducted… please take their advice. The more strategic and Big Picture in scope, then planning reaps long-term rewards.
  7. Inspiring Directions. This gets into Visioning. Planning and going to new heights are stimulating. The mannerisms and substance by which any organization achieves its Vision requires sophisticated advice, deep insights and creative ideas.

7 Levels-Tiers of Qualifying Consultants

  1. Wanna-be consultants. Vendors selling services. Subcontractors. Out-of-work people who hang out “consulting” shingles in between jobs. Freelancers and moonlighters, whose consultancy may or may not relate to their day jobs. (26%)
  2. Entry-level consultants. Those who were downsized, out-placed, retired or changed careers, launching a consulting practice. Prior experience in company environment. (19.5%)
  3. Grinders. Those who do the bulk of project work. Conduct programs designed by others. 1-10 years’ consulting experience. (35.49%)
  4. Minders. Mid-level consultants. Those with specific niche or industry expertise, starting to build a track record. 10-20 years’ consulting experience. (13.5%)
  5. Finders. Firms which package and market services. Most claim they have all expertise in-house. The more sophisticated ones are skilled at building and utilizing collaborations of outside experts and joint ventures. (3.5%)
  6. Senior level. Veteran consultants (20 years+) who were trained for and have a track record in consulting. That’s what they have done for most of their careers. (2%)
  7. Beyond the strata of consultant. Senior advisor, routinely producing original knowledge. Strategic overview, vision expeditor. Creativity-insight not available elsewhere.

About the Author

Hank MoorePower Stars to Light the Business Flame, by Hank Moore, encompasses a full-scope business perspective, invaluable for the corporate and small business markets. It is a compendium book, containing quotes and extrapolations into business culture, arranged in 76 business categories.

Hank’s latest book functions as a ‘PDR of business,’ a view of Big Picture strategies, methodologies and recommendations. This is a creative way of re-treading old knowledge to enable executives to master change rather than feel as they’re victims of it.

Power Stars to Light the Business Flame is now out in all three e-book formats: iTunes, Kindle, and Nook.

Strong Leadership Is the Foundation of Any Successful Business Strategy

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StrategyDriven Management and Leadership ArticleWhile your company may have a think tank of brilliant strategists devising new inroads into your market, what you will soon learn is that any strategy is doomed to fail if it isn’t executed as brilliantly as it was conceived. It is at the point of execution that most strategies begin to fall apart, and a huge part of the problem is a lack of strong leadership. If you have sat by while strategy after strategy failed to hit the mark, perhaps you failed to recognize the importance of leadership training.

Do you have strong leaders in key areas within your organization? If not, it’s time you invested in your key players to raise up a leadership team by department. This is where you can see the benefits of several leadership courses that will offer a bigger return on your investment than you can imagine. Don’t let another strategy fall by the wayside when it may only be a matter of giving your team leaders the training they need.

Great Managers Are Not Always Strong Leaders

One of the problems which many corporations encounter is in thinking that great managers are also strong leaders. Actually, the two are not always synonymous. A manager is able to deliver results but isn’t always going to offer any major breakthroughs other than an occasional new product line or finding a new market.

A great manager will also be effective at reducing production costs, but they aren’t necessarily strong leaders. Leaders, on the other hand, are able to drive strong performance at all levels of the operation and that is what fuels a strategy forward – performance. Bear in mind that great managers are not always strong leaders and every company should have a good assortment of both.

Leaders Are Needed at All Levels

Another key area which is often misunderstood is that leaders don’t reside only at the top of the corporate hierarchy. Strong leaders are needed at all levels of an operation because each level is a link in the chain. In fact, any company should have approximately 5 percent of their employees in leadership positions. These are the key players that will drive performance upwards and onwards to bring strategies to fruition.

This is why you are apt to hear so much emphasis being given to appointing team leaders. These are the key people who are able to motivate their teams. Why settle for team building exercises and events if they return to their posts without a strong leader to guide them ever forward? It makes more sense to budget some of that money towards professional leadership training courses once you’ve identified your employees with the potential to be strong leaders.

Who Are These Future Leaders and How Can You Identify Them?

A big part of the problem in trying to identify future leaders is that management tends to look at performance rather than potential. While past and current performance are, indeed, an important factor, there is much more to leadership potential than historical data. The first thing to be accomplished is to define specific roles your company needs leaders to fill. Then you can begin matching skills and personality traits to those roles.

Assessing leadership potential should always be focused on the future and whether the individuals you are rating have the ability to execute strategies within each predefined role during the assessment period. It is suggested that you use an assortment of personality assessments, questionnaires, and simulations which can help you replicate a variety of scenarios a leader might be confronted with on the job.

Coaching Skills Are a Top Priority

In her book, Dare to Serve: How to Drive Superior Results by Serving Others, Cheryl Bachelder says that coaching is one of the most important competencies for today’s leaders. Since Millennials are looking to leaders who are able to coach them along to success, this is a skill which every leader should exhibit. As the CEO of American chain restaurant, Popeye’s Louisiana Kitchen, Bachelder found that today’s leaders are often looked to as mentors.

Is there anyone in your company not already in a leadership role that other employees seem to seek out for advice or help when needed? These are often the people with the inherent coaching skills who can benefit from leadership training. These are the ones you will surely want to assess going forward for leadership potential and will offer a high ROI on the cost of training them for their future roles as leaders.

In-House Talent Is Where Your Search Should Begin

Another of the major problems many companies face is employee retention. This is one area you should take the time to analyze. Sort through your HR records to find those employees who have been with the company for any length of time and exhibit a high level of loyalty in keeping with the company’s mission.

Not only is it cheaper and more cost effective to train in-house personnel for leadership positions, but they have already proven to be valuable company ‘lifers.’ These are the leaders who believe in what it is you are doing and are willing to bring others along with them. Leaders need to be loyal to the company’s goals.

Interview Anyone Who Has Worked Closely with Your Potentials

As you begin to identify those employees who you believe have the potential to be trained as leaders, it’s always a good idea to see what others say about them. This is the time when you speak with present and past team leaders, bosses, managers and directors who have had direct contact with your prospective leaders. Also, talk to their peers who have worked side-by-side with them over a period of time. You are looking for honest input from those who know them best.

Give Them an Opportunity to Expand

One of the ways in which many of the major corporations assess potential leaders is to give them the chance to prove themselves on the job. These possible leadership candidates are rotated through various departments and jobs within the company.

Not only can you see how quickly each person adapts to new roles and tasks, but you are also giving them a better background into the corporate machine. Few departments really understand what it is that a company does as a whole, and since they are only one cog in the wheel, it pays to show them other cogs in a well-oiled machine. This can be huge in driving them forward as future leaders.

Seeing Leadership Training as an Investment in Your Company’s Future

In the end, it is surprising just how many companies out there have all the talent they need to raise up a team of leaders from within their own walls yet fail to see it. Altogether too many seek outside talent who may be better educated but don’t have what it takes to step into leadership roles in line with the company’s vision.

Many of these new recruits will leave within the first few years while there are key people from within who could easily step into leadership roles with a series of leadership training courses. If you are seeking to grow your company beyond your current capabilities, you might look in the direction of investing in leaders from within. They are there. Isn’t it time you sought them out?