What shapes a company’s culture? Have you found out yet? Earlier this week I wrote about the top three keys I think make and shape a company’s culture. The first post was about values. I had so much to say about it because I believe it makes a large portion up of how it shapes the culture. Have you found out what the values of your business or organization are?
The second key that makes the culture of a company is vision. We have to have an aim and believe ourselves going for it. When we have no vision of where we want to go, we become lost. Everyone that is on board will dive out because there is no direction.
When vision is planned, don’t get too carried away with the dream that it starts to look as a fantasy with the rest of the team-members. I think it should be reachable, consistent, and realistic.
Churches for example tend to set a vision but may never achieve it. Reasons because those visions are far out of reach and unrealistic.
Before we made huge changes, my church tended to fit in the category. We had a vision. Our vision was to get a bigger building that everyone could attend. The size of this place was seen as having 100 acres. I’m thinking to myself, is that even possible? Of course the leader always has to share his vision with his members in order to move forward, but this casted vision seemed out of the ball park. I think we had to be realistic here and cast a more reachable vision. The members all agreed, they all believe in this vision and hoped on board. Throughout the year it was mentioned consistently, and people were motivated by it. They kept inviting other people to hear the greatness. They were excited knowing that their vision was such a positive feeling.
As we got through the year we kept on hearing what we were aiming for. A downside started turning, people were starting to get tired of it. In my opinion, I think most of these members started getting frustrated of the usual hearing and the leader never taking any action for it. The reason being because the vision felt like a direction that isn’t reachable. People started to hop out of the boat, we had to look at the vision the church was aiming for. Dramatic changes had to be made and the vision had to be re looked at.
The third and final key that shapes the culture of a company I think is to invest in your team. When we invest in our team we are showing them that we care for them, they mean a lot to us and they are our assets. Now I know some of you may say, “But why should I invest in my team when they don’t do nothing on their part?” Well you hired them, doesn’t that make you a fool for that process?
Investing in them brings loyalty, it’s similar to recognition towards them. So you may ask what I mean by investing? We don’t invest in them by inviting them to barbecues or giving them discounts from our own company, that’s relevant to taking advantage. We invest in them with ways they can improve their skills being used at work. Meaning we send them off to seminar or courses and we pay for them. This type of investment towards them acknowledges that the leader cares for them and wants their strong qualities to be improved.
In organizations, when the leader cares, he doesn’t fear the risk of regrets. You are family, and when the leader sees you having a difficult time, he will see that. Example being the leader at our church. He invested in our musicians. Hired a music teacher to further improve them. When those musicians gain more skills, they invested back into the leader by bringing loyalty and commitment. However, not all of them had that in thought. One of the members was having an awful time. He was struggling financially. There was a day where we went grocery shopping and left those purchases on his door step. It felt really good that we made that happen so he had food to feed his kids. Closer into the year he made the choice to leave the organization. He took those skills gained and left nothing behind him. Asked if the leader regrets giving him the time and investment, he said no because he knew in the future it would pay off. The whole congregation took notice and respect for the leader grew at a high level. The culture in the air felt warm and loving. They all were taught that when we give, we may not expect nothing in return, but our lives are that much better each and every day.
Values, vision, and investment are what make the culture of a place. What has your company visioned striving for? Has the leader invested in their team? Going back to our precious post, how were you valued at a company? And lastly what makes the company culture where you are at?
Kev’s Response Blog 