COMPANY CULTURE IS YOUR SECRET WEAPON FOR SUCCESS IN THE MODERN ECONOMY
You might think that technology or finance is the key to running a successful business in the modern world, but that’s only part of the story. While those things are essential, they don’t form the bedrock of your firm. For the most part, they’re merely the effects of the people you employ.
In modern businesses, company culture is the keystone that binds the entire operation together. It’s the decisions that people make that tend to steer a firm in one direction or another - not the capital or assets on which it can draw. Culture undergirds the entire operation.
Successful Business Leaders Focus On Culture First And Foremost
Most successful business leaders are preoccupied with culture and spend most of their time trying to cultivate it. The reason for this is simple: they want to put people in a state of mind that will encourage them to do their best in every endeavour. When firms have a positive, constructive atmosphere, magic happens, and incredible things result.
Developing company culture, though, is a massive challenge. It’s not something that follows a set formula. Instead, it tends to emerge organically from a set of preconditions.
Kettering University recently published a list of books for people who want to learn more about the topic of operations management. Over the years, experienced authors have tried to capture in words what successful businesses are doing when they build productive cultures. And they’ve done an excellent job, for the most part.
But how do they build a positive company culture?
They Remove Transactional Interactions
First, these authors remind business leaders that the best way to build a positive company culture is to eliminate transactional working practices. It might, for instance, sound logical to pay people a bonus for doing great work on a project. But, ironically, that approach doesn’t produce the best outcomes or the most profits.
In this situation, people still want something in return for their efforts. They put in the hours, simply to get the reward. The same, however, isn’t true when you move away from transactional interactions and get people to internalise the values and mission of the company. In this scenario, working hard towards a goal is a joy in itself and something well worth doing. People are often willing to work longer and more joyfully when they believe that there’s meaning in what they’re doing.
The Understand How Culture Affects Talent Acquisition
Company culture tends to feed on itself. When companies have poor attitudes and relationships between staff members, they tend to suffer. The work becomes shoddy, and the first starts to lose valuable people to competitors.
The opposite happens when the company culture is good. Jobseekers hear about the firm and want to be a part of it themselves. They would much prefer to work for an exciting employer than one where they’re just going through the motions.