Spoiler: It’s not about napping pods, ping pong tables, or free beer.
Ask the average person to describe a great company culture, and you’ll probably hear about nap pods, ping pong tables, and kombucha on tap. Fun? Sure. Meaningful for building great culture? Nope – about the same impact as Casual Fridays had in the ’90s.
The truth is that great culture isn’t built on perks—it’s built on principles.
At BetterCulture, we’ve partnered with over 100 organizations across industries using our Seven Principles of Leadership© – an expansive training curriculum to help them create and protect outstanding workplace cultures. We’ve also collected robust data through our BetterCulture Survey. So, if a CEO asked us where to begin, we’d offer four practical insights to focus on first:
1. Make This Your Audacious Goal: Every Employee Will Report to an Outstanding Supervisor.
This may sound lofty, but it’s the holy grail of cultural health. To make it happen:
- Define what great leadership looks like in your company – BetterCulture’s Seven Principles of Leadership© provide an ideal framework.
- Put the right people in leadership roles by avoiding the common pitfall of promoting based solely on technical skills or seniority.
- Invest in high-quality leadership training and never overlook your frontline managers. That’s where culture lives and dies.
2. Protect the Right of Good Staff to Work with Good Staff
This one’s simple: great people don’t want to carry poor performers and they don’t want to work with pains-in-the-rear. Our data shows that working alongside toxic co-workers or underperformers is a major source of frustration for higher-performing, engaged employees. You must balance fairness with accountability.
- If poor performance stems from knowledge gaps, teach.
- If it’s due to lack of effort, address it firmly.
- If it’s a lack of ability, don’t delay making a change. Sometimes culture is built via smart subtraction.
3. Embrace Participatory Decision-making.
Most employees crave input and transparency around decisions. While easy in small startups, this becomes challenging as organizations grow.
We could share dozens of practical tools here to help leaders improve communication around company decisions, and all of them would be worthwhile. But to keep this short, we’ll share just one of our favorite practical tactics. It’s called the “Second Ring.” Here’s how it works. When planning a decision-making meeting, do the following two steps:
- First, invite those most essential to making the best decision (this is the obvious step that everyone does).
- Second (this is the missed opportunity step that almost no one does), invite a few additional employees to observe – and learn from – the decision-making process. They don’t have to actually sit away from the table along the outside wall of the room…but inviting this “second ring” of less-experienced employees to observe and learn accentuates transparency, fosters understanding, and helps to develop future leaders.
4. Build Pride—Constantly
If there’s one cultural factor that’s predictive of nearly everything else, it’s this: Do your employees feel proud of where they work? If pride is lacking, fix it first.
Pride grows from knowing your company’s history, connecting with its mission, celebrating wins, sharing compelling stories that set your organization apart, and feeling connected to something special – something elite. Make it a priority to keep these factors woven into your culture’s fabric.
Bottom Line
Perks may create moments. Culture creates momentum. Want to build a culture that endures? Start by embracing these four practices – and make them real with a clear, actionable plan.
