How important is company culture and why
Your company culture is unique to your business and it’s, in fact, what defines it most adequately. Your products and services might be duplicated, your techniques might be borrowed but what remains a distinctive feature of your company throughout the years is its personality – its “culture”.
In short, your company culture defines how your organization will interact with each other, and how your teams will communicate with the outside world. This also includes your partners, business relations, and suppliers. Company culture includes but it’s not limited to management techniques, work ethic, shared values and common goals, daily work practices and language.
Company culture motivates people, it makes future employees excited about the opportunity to be part of your business. A company with a strong culture will inspire your current workers and will attract new candidates, which makes it a long-term investment of your time and money.
Shared purpose and mission is an essential feature of the good company culture. Everyone in your business venture needs to understand the value system and the purpose of your company. Bear in mind that everyone would view these common values or mission through their own sets of lenses. To ensure success, you need motivated workers that would put all of their efforts into something they believe in.
Effective Communication is very vital to a strong company culture. In fact, research suggests that communication or people skills are the mainstay and most important feature of great leadership. You need to be able to communicate your strategy and mission to your coworkers or employees, but you also need to establish excellent relations with your clients and suppliers. When talking about communication, this doesn’t only mean conveying clearly your goals and mission. Of course, that’s vital, if you want your employees to share your values and believe in the common goal of the company, but it doesn’t end there. A good leader needs to be able to address any problems – with the company or within the team – that might arise and be prepared to offer solutions to even the more trivial ones.
Well-established company culture means retained (and newly attracted) employees and more productivity. But first you need to ensure that the people you hire actually fit into your already established culture. An excellent way to make sure of that is to invite future employees for a “training week” into your company – see if they’ll fit your brand image and would feel like they belong.
To achieve strong company culture, you also need to be aware that you’re a team. Some CEOs tend to believe that their “team” is nothing but a bunch of individuals, gathered in one place. That’s wrong and can severely impact your company’s culture and future success. The difference between being an “employee” and being “part of a team” lies in the sense of commitment. Teams work together on a given task, and everyone does their part, because they believe in the common good. It doesn’t matter who gets the credit, as long as the job is done is the results are outstanding. Sounds like a good plan, right? Try to create this sense of commitment and belonging within your team – you can start by simply referring to them as team, rather than employees.
A well-established company culture means positive and inspiring workplace. And such an environment produces long-term vitality, sense of commitment and future successes. Ensure that you pay attention to your company culture and inspire your team to continue their growth and success.
