The soul of your company, the culture, is limping along. Business is good and your headcount is exploding but you are struggling to keep up with maintaining a sense of cohesion between your vision and the actions of your employees. The elephant in the room is a tension that no one has named but you sense an undercurrent of friction among employees. Where could you have gotten so off-track? Lately you’ve been thinking a lot about how to promote a culture for sustainability rather than satisfy immediate gratification and tawdry perks. The gesture has to be authentic and cannot be forced. So you’re torn between growing your culture in an organic fashion (think laissez les bons temps roulez) and abandoning all attempts to control it (think laissez-faire). Wait, there’s a third option! You could take another look at your values!
1. [Re]Define your values. Stop herding cats. Of the countless startups I’ve interviewed and surveyed, a recurring theme has been scattered values. If your leadership isn’t spending any time to understand the organization’s cultural values, then your culture becomes vulnerable. Even a well-intentioned employee can be severely misled and cause damage by trying to compensate for a lack of guidance in the values department.
2. Communicate your values to everyone on the team. Reach a consensus about WHY you hold these values to be true. When I ask folks to recite their company values, they often respond with their mission. On a good day, I receive values that aren’t forced or committed to memory but they’re common concepts that come to mind among most team members. If you all see eye-to-eye about your values you’ll improve your ability to solve problems and make measurable progress.
3. Show everyone what you value and why you value it. The number of companies that struggle with demonstrating their values is greater than stars in the sky. Does your team value straight-talk? Well then, tell ’em how it is and show them WHY. People want to understand the basis of decisions, they want to be in on the process of contributing to a successful team and they want consistency. Oh, and they also would like you to stock the kitchen with pretzels again (nothing to do with values, just a reminder!).
