Cultivating a Workplace Culture to Continue Growth

Joe Weinlick
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Learning how a new business works is difficult enough. Then, rapid growth occurs as the startup takes off, and managing new employees, more customers and more products becomes more challenging. One thing you may miss during this growth is how to manage your workplace culture. Your team must be agile, but at the same time, it must exude the company's brand.

The Basics

You must cultivate workplace culture to continue growth of the company. Without a defined culture, your team lacks direction and motivation to perform everyday tasks and accomplish major goals. Without customers, your business never gets off the ground. Put customers and people first before your technology and see what happens.

A company's culture continually evolves. What you started with when you made your mission statement or values statement may not be the same after six months, a year or five years. The key to adapting your workplace culture is to make intentional changes with the team's goals and direction if you see the need.

Seven Things to Know

1. Determine Your Primary Customer

There are varying levels of customers in a business, including internal customers, external customers and stakeholders. Which one of these comes first? The primary customer helps focus your workplace culture.

2. Manage Pressure

To continue growth, you have to make decisions under pressure. Market forces may drive you to certain choices, but everyone around you must understand why things happen and why you're changing something. You have to learn to manage the pressure put on you from your staff members so you can reassure them why the company is moving in a certain direction.

3. Plan Ahead

Figure out what your company wants to be when it grows up. Once you make a plan, stick with it as much as possible even amid changing market forces. That way, everyone knows what to expect from the company.

4. Focus on One Thing and Do It Well

Become a market leader in your niche by focusing on one thing and doing it very well. This drive serves as a way to focus your workplace culture.

5. Understand Nature vs. Nurture

Your corporate culture happens whether you are intentional about it or not. Consider finding your company's ToMo score, or total motivation score. This serves as a way to identify what motivates employee's work and why they work for your company.

6. Talk About It

Talk about company culture and how the leadership team can make changes to align the company behind a singular purpose. This helps the leadership team communicate this aspect of your company to everyone else.

7. Stay True to Yourself

Part of a corporate culture means staying true to the company's foundation. Once you determine the culture, stick with it and make sure everyone is on board for future growth and follows the main philosophy of the company.

Workplace culture is intangible, yet every employee should understand why the culture exists and how it operates. Try to make concerted efforts to convey the company culture as you grow to ensure your team stays on the same page with the same mindset.


Photo courtesy of stockimages at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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