How to build a company culture that sets you apart
Company culture gets talked about a lot, but who actually gets it right?
PUBLISHED FEBRUARY 5, 2020 INTEAMWORK NATALIE MENDES
Managing Editor, Work Life
In December of 2001, Enron made history by filing the largest bankruptcy claim of all time.
In the months and years that would unfold after this claim, the scandal of Enron’s business operations became a national conversation that revealed accounting blunders, lies, and obstructions of justice that landed several top leaders in jail.
Since then, Enron has become a case study in what-not-to-do in many areas, including company culture. Many blame the company’s ruthless and aggressive culture for their inability to course correct when things started to go awry.
Since then, corporate America has started to see the importance of culture upon good business outcomes. According to research done by Deloitte, 94% of executives say a distinct workplace culture is crucial for business success. And employees say they are 24% more likely to quit a company whose culture they don’t like.
So while you may not ever become like Enron, it is supremely important to make sure you truly understand company culture, and how to build a good one.
First up, what is company culture?We like how Katie Burke, Chief People Officer at HubSpot, summarizes it:
“Company culture is the promise you make to your candidates and employees about the environment they can expect to work in and the values upon which your business operates.”
It’s a system of shared beliefs and the behaviors that determine how an organization’s members interact and make decisions. In the case of Forever 21, that meant checking employee bags for stolen merchandise. But hopefully in more positive cases, it means trusting employees and seeking their good.
But it’s not just about what management sets the culture to be. Each member of an organization ends up influencing it. This is reflected in things as small as what you wear to work and as large as how people treat each other.
Overall company culture is also influenced by other more tangible factors, such as operations, office layouts, and customer support. It’s a subtle and complex mix that’s about more than just who you hire and the perks and benefits you offer.
While a culture has strong roots, it also evolves organically over time. Its resiliency should be based on firm core principles or company values that will help the culture remain true to what’s most important even as it changes.
Elements of company culture
According to Katie, some of the ways that culture is lived out is influenced by three overlapping layers: global, location, and team.
1. Global culture
This is the overarching culture of a company. It’s the big-picture view, made up of the values, principles, and working environment you and all your employees will hold fast to. Global culture is typically identified and championed by leadership, but ideally lived out by every individual employee. At HubSpot, their global culture is clearly outlined in their Culture Code.
2. Location culture
If your company has more than one office, you have location culture. Says Katie, “This has to do with many inputs: the physical location of the office (the city, state and country it’s in), the local language spoken, and the holidays, customs, and characteristics of that place.”
Especially for those developing culture at the global level, it’s important not to try to fit the same exact culture into every single location, but allow for the culture to adjust to the local customs.
3. Team culture
At the smallest and most personal level, you have the culture of the teams that make up your company. With their different members, stages of development, and functions, each team will have their unique rhythm and way of relating.
The importance of company culture“It’s really important that companies define their company culture with input from their employees. Otherwise, it becomes a game of telephone about what I mean or what you mean by something like humility (another company value),” says Katie.
This sort of positive culture that’s rooted in authenticity can have a number of benefits for both employers and employees, including:
- Higher productivity: With reduced workplace stress and better employee engagement, research links a strong company culture to increased productivity.
- Better employee recruitment and retention: Culture matters for both attracting talent and keeping your current employees around. 47% of active job seekers cite company culture as their driving reason for looking for work, and toxic workplace cultures have reportedly driven 20% of U.S. employees out of their jobs in the past five years.
- Improved company performance: One survey found that companies with strong cultures experienced a four times increase in revenue growth.
Building a good culture
One question that comes up over and over again in the conversation about company culture is: whose job is it? As Chief People Officer, Katie often has people bringing her new ideas, and then asking her who will take care of it.
RELATED ARTICLE
The 4 types of company culture, explained BY KAT BOOGAARD IN TEAMWORK“There are a few ways I could react here,” says Katie. “I could take the request on personally, or I could assign it to someone on my team. Instead, when someone comes to me with a request I usually turn back to them and ask how they would want to address it, and then I offer my team’s full support.”
The great thing about Katie’s approach is that it empowers individuals to solve problems and innovate upon the culture, instead of waiting for management to do it, which makes everyone feel like they own the culture. But of course, leadership still plays a big role. It sets the tone. When leaders are standard-bearers it makes the culture much more apparent. Here are a few steps leaders can take:
1. Ask for feedback
You can’t improve what you can’t measure – and nobody has greater insight into your culture than your employees.
You can easily use tools like Culture Amp or even a Google survey form to get regular pulse checks on how people are experiencing your culture. Try to do something quarterly or twice yearly. It’s much better to get feedback this way than to see it end up in a poor rating on Glassdoor.
2. Provide recognition
40% of workers say they’d put more energy into their work if they were recognized more often. So, make sure that you’re remembering to recognize people for their contributions. Encourage everyone at your company to express their gratitude for each other. It goes a long way.
3. Lead by example
When leaders they fail to uphold the culture, things fall apart. Research shows that bad managers are one of the main reasons that employees quit. That means leaders need to act in alignment with the company’s cultural values. After all, if an organization says that it prioritizes work-life balance but bosses are sending emails at 2 a.m, that value will be nothing more than lip service.
Your company culture can be your greatest asset
Company culture is one of the greatest determinants of overall employee happiness at work, so it’s vital that you get it right. But of course, culture doesn’t end when the company handbook is produced; it’s something every employee should own, too.
https://www.atlassian.com/blog/collection/company-culture
5 easy ways to boost your team’s morale
5 easy ways to boost your team’s moraleHelp your team thrive – win or lose.
PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 11, 2020 INLEADERSHIP MOLLY HELLERMAN
Head of Strategy and Programs
Imagine two soccer teams. The first is a professional team and extremely skilled. They know every technique, they practice endlessly, and they win most of their games.
The second team has never actually played soccer before. They show up to practice in sandals, fumble to get the ball across the halfway line, and mostly lose every game.
Which of these teams would you say has higher team morale?
The answer might surprise you. It’s the second one – and I know this because I’ve been a part of both.
The first was a team I played with during my professional soccer career. We were all talented players, but our coach was never satisfied with our effort. And the second? It was a team of seven-year-olds I coached that focused on simply enjoying the game rather than beating every competitor.
I love this anecdote, because it shows just how powerful team morale is.
Team morale is the spirit of a group formed by their mental and emotional state that motivates them to succeed. If a team is satisfied and optimistic, morale is high. But if a team is disengaged and frustrated, morale is low.
And that matters a great deal. Positive morale leads to an increase in productivity, satisfaction, and retention, while negative morale typically has the opposite effect. Here are some strategies I like to use with my teams at Atlassian that I think will help yours, too. Much of this advice has come from the world of psychology research and my involvement with the Positive Coaching Alliance.
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5 strategies to improve team morale
1. Emphasize learning over winning
Let’s look back at the team of seven-year-olds I coached. They were all newbies on the soccer field. So, rather than placing our emphasis on winning, we focused on learning and celebrating the fundamentals of the game.
For example, we set an objective of getting the ball across the halfway line at least seven times. We didn’t even think about scoring goals. As a coach I knew that as we built that muscle of working together to move the ball down the field, the goals would come.
The players and the parents cheered loudly every time the ball made it past that line, which fostered a positive environment that wasn’t solely focused on winning. Plenty of research backs up the power of this positive approach:
2. Choose to be a “tank-filler”
Imagine that everybody on your team has an emotional gas tank that they carry around with them. When a team member’s tank is full, they’re recharged, excited, and ready to get to work. But when their tank is drained? It’s tougher for them to muster up motivation and enthusiasm.
You can’t always do something about the external factors that deplete people’s emotional tanks (whether it’s dealing with a personal challenge or a bad night’s sleep). However, you can focus on being someone who helps fill tanks back up.
How fill your teams’ tanks:
3. Identify and celebrate little victories
RELATED ARTICLE
Celebrate those little wins to keep your team motivated BY LAUREN PARKER IN TEAMWORK
Your team has a lot going on, which means that oftentimes your smaller wins slip by without the recognition they deserve. But taking time to celebrate even little achievements helps to boost team morale.
It all ties back to something called the progress principle. This states that, of all of the things that can boost emotions and motivations during the workday, the most important is making progress in meaningful work.
So don’t forget to celebrate the fact that your team is moving in the right direction. As my soccer team of seven-year-olds will tell you, making it over the halfway line is a big deal – even if you haven’t made it to the goal line quite yet.
4. Make sure the positives outweigh the negatives
You’ve experienced how quickly negativity can infiltrate your team. Your to-do lists are too long. People are drowning in endless video calls and meetings. That other department is always so slow about getting you and your team what you need.
In order to keep morale high, positive interactions need to outweigh the negative ones on your team. This is supported by a study conducted by psychologist, Dr. John Gottman. He was able to predict with 94% accuracy whether newlywed couples would stay together or get divorced after observing them for a 15-minute period.
How could he tell? He would count the number of positive and negative interactions they had with each other. He used this information to define what’s called the “magic ratio.” This states that for every one negative interaction or criticism, there should be five positive comments or interactions.
For every negative interaction, aim to create five positive interactions
5. Encourage psychological safety
Google’s Project Aristotle set out to understand what makes for the most effective team. They identified five specific traits, and the number one norm they found among the most successful teams was psychological safety.
When a team has psychological safety, they feel comfortable taking risks and trying something new – without fearing that other team members will embarrass or reprimand them for stepping outside of the box. Here’s what this concept means to me: a team with a high degree of psychological safety is a team of tank fillers. They celebrate risk-taking and respect it as a learning process.
Team morale matters (and you can improve it)It’s easy to think that peak performance automatically equals high morale. But, if my soccer experience can teach you anything, it’s that this just isn’t necessarily the case. Just because your team is winning doesn’t mean they’re enjoying doing it.
That’s why these tactics are so important. They’ll help you elicit enthusiasm, strengthen commitment, and foster a culture where your team can thrive – win or lose.
PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 11, 2020 INLEADERSHIP MOLLY HELLERMAN
Head of Strategy and Programs
Imagine two soccer teams. The first is a professional team and extremely skilled. They know every technique, they practice endlessly, and they win most of their games.
The second team has never actually played soccer before. They show up to practice in sandals, fumble to get the ball across the halfway line, and mostly lose every game.
Which of these teams would you say has higher team morale?
The answer might surprise you. It’s the second one – and I know this because I’ve been a part of both.
The first was a team I played with during my professional soccer career. We were all talented players, but our coach was never satisfied with our effort. And the second? It was a team of seven-year-olds I coached that focused on simply enjoying the game rather than beating every competitor.
I love this anecdote, because it shows just how powerful team morale is.
Team morale is the spirit of a group formed by their mental and emotional state that motivates them to succeed. If a team is satisfied and optimistic, morale is high. But if a team is disengaged and frustrated, morale is low.
And that matters a great deal. Positive morale leads to an increase in productivity, satisfaction, and retention, while negative morale typically has the opposite effect. Here are some strategies I like to use with my teams at Atlassian that I think will help yours, too. Much of this advice has come from the world of psychology research and my involvement with the Positive Coaching Alliance.
SUBSCRIBE TO WORK LIFE
Get stories like this in your inbox
5 strategies to improve team morale
1. Emphasize learning over winning
Let’s look back at the team of seven-year-olds I coached. They were all newbies on the soccer field. So, rather than placing our emphasis on winning, we focused on learning and celebrating the fundamentals of the game.
For example, we set an objective of getting the ball across the halfway line at least seven times. We didn’t even think about scoring goals. As a coach I knew that as we built that muscle of working together to move the ball down the field, the goals would come.
The players and the parents cheered loudly every time the ball made it past that line, which fostered a positive environment that wasn’t solely focused on winning. Plenty of research backs up the power of this positive approach:
- Psychologist Barbara Fredrickson says that positivity builds and broadens, and makes us more open to learning and taking on new challenges.
- Sports and performance psychologist, Charlie Maher, found that negativity hampers performance and distracts people from what they’re trying to do.
2. Choose to be a “tank-filler”
Imagine that everybody on your team has an emotional gas tank that they carry around with them. When a team member’s tank is full, they’re recharged, excited, and ready to get to work. But when their tank is drained? It’s tougher for them to muster up motivation and enthusiasm.
You can’t always do something about the external factors that deplete people’s emotional tanks (whether it’s dealing with a personal challenge or a bad night’s sleep). However, you can focus on being someone who helps fill tanks back up.
How fill your teams’ tanks:
- Offer truthful and specific praise and appreciation
- Provide recognition for a job well done
- Actively listen to people
- Use positive non-verbal communication (such as smiling or providing your undivided attention during a Zoom call)
3. Identify and celebrate little victories
RELATED ARTICLE
Celebrate those little wins to keep your team motivated BY LAUREN PARKER IN TEAMWORK
Your team has a lot going on, which means that oftentimes your smaller wins slip by without the recognition they deserve. But taking time to celebrate even little achievements helps to boost team morale.
It all ties back to something called the progress principle. This states that, of all of the things that can boost emotions and motivations during the workday, the most important is making progress in meaningful work.
So don’t forget to celebrate the fact that your team is moving in the right direction. As my soccer team of seven-year-olds will tell you, making it over the halfway line is a big deal – even if you haven’t made it to the goal line quite yet.
4. Make sure the positives outweigh the negatives
You’ve experienced how quickly negativity can infiltrate your team. Your to-do lists are too long. People are drowning in endless video calls and meetings. That other department is always so slow about getting you and your team what you need.
In order to keep morale high, positive interactions need to outweigh the negative ones on your team. This is supported by a study conducted by psychologist, Dr. John Gottman. He was able to predict with 94% accuracy whether newlywed couples would stay together or get divorced after observing them for a 15-minute period.
How could he tell? He would count the number of positive and negative interactions they had with each other. He used this information to define what’s called the “magic ratio.” This states that for every one negative interaction or criticism, there should be five positive comments or interactions.
For every negative interaction, aim to create five positive interactions
5. Encourage psychological safety
Google’s Project Aristotle set out to understand what makes for the most effective team. They identified five specific traits, and the number one norm they found among the most successful teams was psychological safety.
When a team has psychological safety, they feel comfortable taking risks and trying something new – without fearing that other team members will embarrass or reprimand them for stepping outside of the box. Here’s what this concept means to me: a team with a high degree of psychological safety is a team of tank fillers. They celebrate risk-taking and respect it as a learning process.
Team morale matters (and you can improve it)It’s easy to think that peak performance automatically equals high morale. But, if my soccer experience can teach you anything, it’s that this just isn’t necessarily the case. Just because your team is winning doesn’t mean they’re enjoying doing it.
That’s why these tactics are so important. They’ll help you elicit enthusiasm, strengthen commitment, and foster a culture where your team can thrive – win or lose.
