A strong company culture is essential for organizational success. It fosters a positive work environment and helps in attracting and retaining the best talent. But how can someone develop and maintain a strong company culture? In this blog post, we will explore the insights shared by Mike, a seasoned leader, on understanding culture, its importance, and how to build and maintain it in an organization.
Understanding Culture: Before diving into the process of building a strong company culture, it’s crucial to understand what culture is. Mike defines culture as the summation of the automatic thoughts and reactions that people have based on a set of core beliefs about their organization. It is the unwritten rules that define how employees relate to each other and the outside world.
Changing Core Beliefs: If you want to change the culture in an organization, you need to work on changing the core beliefs. Modifying these beliefs is not an easy task, as it involves rewiring people’s brains to perceive, think, and value things differently. However, it is doable over time. To change behaviors and culture, leaders should celebrate the aspects they like and quietly extinguish the ones they don’t without punishing them.
Celebrating Success and Telling Stories: Building a strong culture requires celebrating successes and sharing stories of employees who exhibit the desired behaviors. Telling stories of success and reinforcing positive actions helps establish the desired culture. On the other hand, punishing undesired behaviors can reinforce them by drawing attention to them. Letting those behaviors die quietly on the vine is the best way to extinguish them.
Developing and maintaining a strong company culture is a continuous process that requires a deep understanding of what culture is and how it influences an organization. As the leader of the team it’s also critical to understand your leadership point of view and how this impacts the direction and beliefs you are promoting. By changing core beliefs, celebrating success, and sharing stories of positive behaviors, leaders can foster a strong culture that contributes to the overall success of the organization. For more insights on leadership and company culture, explore the “A Leader Worth Following” development model and learn valuable lessons from experienced leaders.