Photo by Arlington Research on Unsplash
Innovative marketing accounts for 50 percent of the reasons why companies are successful and enjoy strong continuous growth.
The other 50 percent: Equally important for high performance is a healthy internal business culture.
If you’re convinced that your marketing is top shelf but your business is not enjoying its full potential, chances are you need to evaluate your culture.
Metrics are needed to assess the culture and it can be a daunting task to quantify. But it’s possible with metrics.
So, create a tool for evaluation purposes.
Ask stakeholders at every level to rate the company on values and programs. Not the least of which should be focus groups to help understand the results of the evaluation and to look into any inconsistencies.
Senior management should analyze and draw conclusions such as:
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- Who we are
- What makes us who we are
- What action plan is warranted now
At the minimum, here are key areas to evaluate:
1. How effective is the organization’s vision?
Leadership must analyze the organization’s capabilities and craft a dynamic set of strategies for a higher sense of purpose.
The leader must have enough emotional intelligence to link the organization’s purpose to performance. (Hint: See the Habits of Leaders Who Have Positive Workplace Cultures.)
So, exemplary communication for enhanced motivation is of key importance between management and staff. Employees must be inspired to adopt the leader’s vision for a clear sense of purpose.
As a result in the aggregate, a culture becomes confident after employees understand their short and long-term goals, are motivated to execute strategies, and they are motivated to engage their team members and customers for scalable growth.
After financial performance improves short term, the organization enjoys exponentially higher growth long term.
2. How efficacious is the communication throughout the organization?
There are multiple characteristics to consider.
Successful companies have assertive communication with transparency. Assertiveness is not the same as aggressiveness. But proactivity with courtesy without fear of repercussions is being assertive.
Therefore, the focus should be on principles, not personalities or egos.
Information must be relayed back and forth clearly, concisely and fearlessly but with enthusiasm, diplomacy and respect to invite engagement.
A simple yardstick: Walk the floor of your business twice a day to observe and engage your team members.
Keep score: Look for people who listen well and solve problems tactfully. In the majority of conversations, you should hear the keywords: Yes, please, thank you and you’re welcome.
3. Is feedback contagious?
If management and employees are eagerly engaging one another, as well as employees to employees, you obviously have people who are more driven to perform well.
This is also critical for success.
It makes for more positive communication when the team is feedback-oriented no matter what the situations or who the personalities are.
Also, it spawns deep employee engagement and loyalty.
4. What is the level of tolerance and acceptance of others for teamwork?
Genuine sensitivity must be given to differences in race, creed, color or gender. A culture of sincere collaboration enhances teamwork for high performance.
That means approaching one another with tact without an attitude of discrimination, judgment or stereotyping.
If you have a culture of teamwork, it means failure or success stems from your structure. There needs to be a focus on achievements by the team and inspiration for collaboration.
5. What are the opportunities for growth and development?
The company can’t grow unless the culture fosters opportunities for encouragement and employee growth.
Ideally, you’ll have employees who are leaders in-the-making. They are already focused self-improvement. Those are the people to consider for management.
Others will need your help via training opportunities or to learn new technological skills.
All the while, supervisors should focus on motivating employees for their highest-possible performance and to encourage them grow professionally.
It all starts with employee engagement.
Non-financial incentives are great for employee morale, but financial growth is important to them, too. In all cases, employees want to feel valued.
From the Coach’s Corner, here’s more on culture:
Inexpensive Ways to Create a Fun, High-Performance Culture – Here are ways that will accomplish more than you dare even to hope to improve your culture – maximizing employee morale to inspire them to outstanding performance and loyalty to your organization.
Best Strategies in HR Training to Fix a Company’s Culture – If your company is lacking in teamwork and morale is poor it follows that profits will be weak. Chances are you need to change your organization’s culture.
Welcoming New Hires the Right Way Enhances Your Culture – What is your plan for welcoming new employees? If you don’t plan well, you risk alienating your new employees, your organization’s culture and ultimately hurting your business performance.
Manage Health Costs by Improving Your Culture 3 Ways – Is your company saddled with high health costs? By improving your culture in three ways to minimize stress, your company will improve performance and long-term sustainability.
Optimize Talent Management with 5 Coaching Culture Tips– When managers become coaches, you get a higher-performing workforce. You will have replaced mediocrity with strong performance. Here’s how to develop a coaching culture.
“Leadership is not about you; it’s about investing in the growth of others.”
-Ken Blanchard
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