Company Culture is never static; it’s always evolving. Wether you like it or not the culture within your team and organization is in motion doing something. This can be either a good thing or a bad thing. It will either underscore what you’re trying to accomplish or undermine what you’re trying to accomplish.
Depending on how you approach
So how do you forge culture within your team and organization? I want to share a few over the next few weeks…here is the first…
Reward What You Want
When you catch people doing things right reward it immediately. Where your focus goes the energy flows. Every time you see something done the way it should be done make sure you acknowledge it and make a big deal about it. People calibrate their behavior based on the feedback they get. The more you reward the right culture the more your people will align with it.
Rewarding can come in the form of many different ways. Here are a few thoughts:
Verbal Rewards
Sometimes simply praising someone for doing things the right way is powerful in itself. Never underestimate verbal recognition and encouragement. And the more public you can go with your praise the more powerful it becomes. It’s one thing to tell someone how great of a job they did personally, it’s a whole other thing to tell others in front of that person how great of a job they did. Words are extremely powerful. Leverage your lungs and use your words wisely. They can make or break the culture you are trying to build.
Visual Rewards
I am a big fan of having fun as a leader. Find meaningful or even humorous gifts you can give team members when they do a great job that reinforces culture. One organization I’ve worked with gives financial rewards to employees for every leadership book read and reported on. In an effort to foster personal growth, they also rewarded team members who attended leadership conferences. Another organization I know gives professional development credits for any extracurricular programs their employees accomplish, knowing these programs expand skills within the company. The more credits received, the more incentives there are to cash in on. These incentives come in the form of extra vacation time, special bonuses, an assortment of gifts, and so on.
However you choose to reward, just remember to do it. What gets rewarded gets repeated. If you want to shape your culture into a healthy productive one, you have to spend time making it right.
