Excerpts from The Gevity Answer Book
Contributed by Larry Fehd, CEO & Founder, HPS
Set a positive tone
In small to mid-size companies especially, leaders set the tone for practically every aspect of the business, which is why it's critical for owners and managers to set the right tone. According to Larry Fehd, CEO and founder of Human Performance Strategies, LLC (HPS), when it comes to forming your company's organizational culture, perception is reality:
"Leaders need to realize that 'the audience is listening' at all times. No matter what they do, employees are observing everything," he explains. If leaders don't communicate their intentions, employees are left to form their own opinions.
"Culture is like granite," Fehd says. "Once it's formed it becomes a huge mass. If we aren't deliberate about forming it, then we spend years and years chipping away at it. That's an expensive and time-consuming process. A company's culture will evolve randomly if leaders aren't deliberate about their intended objectives."
To ensure you are creating a positive culture by setting the right tone, Fehd suggests the following:
- Communicate honestly and openly - Whether it's good news, bad news, challenges, customer gains or customer losses, make sure your employees know what's going on.
- Create a compelling vision, mission, goals and metrics - Convey your company's vision and mission in simple terms so employees can fully understand them and remember them. Also, provide a clear idea of how the company is doing.
- Make sure employees understand how they impact success - All employees must fully understand the significance of their contributions to the success of the business.
- Focus on the strength of individuals and their unique talents Often, managers focus on what people aren't doing. It's more effective to focus on what people are doing well. Rather than focusing on weakness, make sure employees are in positions where they can excel.
- Challenge mediocrity - A culture can only be positive if it is fair. You need to be able to hold people accountable.
- By taking these steps, you'll be well on your way to creating a positive company culture where employees and your business thrive.
Encourage innovation to promote growth
If growing your business is a goal, you'll need to cultivate not only a positive culture, but an innovative one. What makes a business culture innovative? It's defined by attitudes toward creativity, risk-taking and failure.
To promote growth, make sure you create an environment in which employees feel safe to share new ideas and express them openly. Let employees know that coming up with new ideas and expressing them is a desirable and welcome behavior, not something that will reflect negatively on them.
For example, in a meeting, make a point to listen closely and consider others' ideas. You want to make sure that if someone on your staff has a great idea, he or she feels free to share it without worrying that if the idea doesn't pan out, his or her career may suffer. This will allow you to fully leverage your employees' knowledge and skills.
Learn from experience to grow your business
Another way to create a growth culture is to allow employees to learn from experience:
"In a culture where risk-taking is encouraged and safe, employees who take smart risks should be acknowledged rather than penalized, even if the goal was not completely achieved," explains Larry Fehd of HPS. "Risk-taking and the inevitable mistakes in the process should be acknowledged, and the learning should be leveraged, no matter how small the gain."
Fehd suggests that to encourage learning from experience, leaders communicate an understanding that errors sometimes occur and are just part of the process. However, they also need to emphasize that repeating errors is not. These messages ensure that creativity and innovation will continue to thrive, even if some ideas miss the mark, and also that employees will be held accountable for learning from their mistakes.
Encouraging creativity, innovation and risk-taking within your organization starts with effective communication practices:
"Inspiring and inviting creativity, innovation and risk-taking from your employees can be achieved and sustained if they understand and are recognized for their strengths and unique contributions to the company," says Fehd.
"Whether you're encouraging creativity or risk-taking, the bar has to be set reasonably high, and employees must be in a position (that is, equipped with the knowledge, skills and abilities) to offer practical and meaningful ideas," says Fehd.
When you clearly communicate expectations, employees experience their work as a challenge that is combined with a realistic opportunity to achieve the goal. "This is a great way to tap into your employees' natural competitiveness as well," says Fehd.
Improve your company culture and get set for growth
If you think your company's culture isn't as positive as it could be or that it lacks innovation and creativity, remember that it's never too late to make changes and improvements. Fehd believes every company is capable of changing the existing culture for the better:
"If you are going to ask employees how they feel about the current state of things, you must be prepared to hear and consider their answers," he says. "Owners must be willing to release and consider a shift in the culture, or nothing will change. If they can put egos aside and look at their culture objectively, they will succeed."