YOU ARE THE CHIEF CULTURE OFFICER

Whether you like it or not, your business has a culture. Beliefs, norms, customs, acceptable behaviours all evolve over time. They are introduced, refined and nurtured by individuals and groups – either subconsciously bringing their own preconceived ways of interacting into a workspace, or by proactively setting out to design and nurture an “ideal” culture.
 
The only thing up for grabs is whether you, as the business owner, want to have the major influence on how your company’s culture develops. My strong advice is that you do just that – as I wrote two months ago, culture is a combination of an organisation’s ideology and personality. “The way we do things around here.” Your business culture determines how your people interact with customers and with each other, and what things get prioritised. In other words, when you are not there, your business culture helps to keep everything going the way you want it to. 

Culture is not just one aspect of the game – it is the game. Lou Gerstner

In a recent interview Tom Peters said, “CEO job No. 1 is setting – and micro-nourishing one day, one hour, one minute at a time – an effective, people-truly-first, innovate-or-die, excellence-or-bust corporate culture.” He also reminds us that Lou Gerstner, the CEO who saved IBM, said, “Culture is not just one aspect of the game – it is the game.” That’s how important your business culture is.
 
This is not to say that you should design and mould your business culture alone. Consulting with your people about the best cultural attributes to emphasise is a wise move. They will have great ideas.
 
A Harvard Business Review article from May 2013 was entitled “Creating the Best Workplace on Earth.” It reported on the “six common imperatives” that described a business operating at its potential. They were:

• Let people be themselves
• Tell them what’s really going on
• Magnify their strengths
• Make them proud to work there
• Make their work meaningful
• Don’t hinder them with stupid rules

 
If you were to consult with your team and adopt core values that supported those imperatives, together with some specific cultural attributes that describe how the company would achieve those “six common imperatives,” you would be well ahead of the game. 60%-70% of employees report that their company is not doing enough to engender a positive culture. Now all you have to do is that micro-nourishing that Peters was on about.
 
Take control of the environment in your business today. Promote yourself to Chief Culture Officer