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Thursday, March 28, 2024

How to Build a Strong Company Culture from the Ground Up in 2023

Building a strong company culture is essential for any business that wants to attract and retain top talent, foster innovation, and achieve long-term success. A positive and inclusive culture can inspire employees to work together towards a common goal, improve productivity, and increase employee satisfaction. However, building a company culture from the ground up can be a challenging task, especially for startups and small businesses with limited resources.

In this article, we’ll explore some practical steps for building a strong company culture, including defining your values, hiring the right people, fostering open communication, and promoting work-life balance. We’ll also discuss the benefits of a strong company culture and how it can impact your bottom line. Whether you’re starting a new business or looking to improve your existing culture, this article will provide you with valuable insights and actionable tips for building a positive and productive workplace.

1. Know What You Want To See Grow

Company culture is ever-evolving, depending on the people you hire, fire and promote. Make sure you know what you would like to see grow: What kind of behavior and values would you like to nurture? Make it clear to everyone what your core values are, and ensure that everyone knows the do’s and don’ts when it comes to living those values. Make sure to hire, fire and promote accordingly. – Pernille Hippe Brun, Session

2. Be Clear On Your Core Values And Walk Your Talk

Be clear on your core values and walk your talk, period. As an entrepreneur or senior leader, demonstrating that you can embody the company’s core values, especially under pressure, ensures that the culture can thrive and evolve in today’s unprecedented environment. This alignment internally strengthens your connection to the vision, mission and all stakeholders, internal and external. – Bree Luther, Inspired Science Coaching

3. Establish A Behavioral Contract For Leadership

Be conscious and intentional about the culture you want to create. Co-create this with your senior team so that everyone owns it. Make sure you detail the atmosphere you want to feel when you walk into the office. How will people interact, solve problems or address differences? Then, consider how you and your team need to behave in order to create this atmosphere. Establish a behavioral contract and hold each other to it. – Mary Gregory, Mary Gregory Ltd

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4. Clarify How You Want People To Feel About Your Brand

Get very clear on how you want employees, clients and the general public to feel when they interact with your brand. Build your culture around the values that will evoke those feelings. Find ways to incorporate culture into daily, monthly and annual events to fully celebrate and live it. Doing this will help with decision making and future course-correction if the culture gets off-track. – Lindsay Miller, Reverie Organizational Development Specialists


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5. Link Desired Cultural Behaviors To Business Results

Directly link the cultural behaviors you most want to see to the execution of your desired business results so that they will always be relevant, whether the business is strong or weak. This way, you use your culture to solve your biggest business challenges. Set clear expectations for leadership to be effective role models by fostering collaboration, inclusion, transparency and collective problem-solving. – Mark Samuel, IMPAQ Corporation

6. Align Your Structure With What You Value

Think about the work culture you want to build as a foundation that supports your business’s mission and vision. When I incorporated my company, I created a health benefits package. My attorney said I didn’t have to do that until I had 50 employees. As a health access advocate, I wouldn’t hire a single worker, even part-time, without offering it. Align your structure with what you value from the start. – Nadine Hack, beCause Global Consulting

7. Reward The Appropriate Behavior

Culture is the character of an organization. Character is simply one’s values in action. When building an organizational culture, it is vital to define organizational values as well as the expected behaviors associated with those values. Culture will develop based on the behavior that is rewarded within the organization. If you want the right culture, reward the appropriate behavior. – Dennis Volpe, LRI

8. Focus On Building Trust And Respect

Build both trust and respect. Without a foundation that is built on both, whatever is built will be shaky at best and will crumble at the first challenge. Trust and respect build a safe, positive working environment where everyone feels valued for who they are and a sense of belonging, so they will be at their highest productivity levels. – Sahar Andrade, MB.BCh, Sahar Consulting, LLC

9. Be Mindful Of Your Own Words And Behaviors

You are the culture, so be mindful of everything you say and do. What you permit, you promote; what you allow, you encourage. I see signs hung in schools that read, “No bullying,” yet I watch as some teachers bully the students. You can’t simply choose a culture and buy a banner—culture must be lived; it must be felt. Pick five core values and ask all employees to weigh in on how those are personified. – Beth Fitzgerald, Fitzgerald Coaching and Consulting

10. Ask Yourself What The Core Of Your Culture Is

Company culture has been popularized and lost its core meaning. It’s simply how people think, feel, behave and act. Always ask yourself, “What is the core of our culture?” If you stick to the core and don’t make it too complex, people will easily pick up on it and remain consistent with it. When company culture becomes “fluffy,” people stop living it. – Purdeep Sangha, Sangha Worldwide

11. Always Communicate Transparently

One of the most important traits of a great culture is transparency. Issues that organizations hide are typically found out, and it is better to own a failure than to avoid one that rears its ugly head later. Great cultures also encourage frequent communication and may even overcommunicate. It can feel repetitive sometimes, but make sure people hear the message you want to communicate, often and clearly

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