While “corporate culture” is a term that means many things to many people, it is clear that a strong, healthy and collaborative corporate culture is a crucial component for yielding success. In his book Fueled By Failure, author and business leader Jeremy Bloom discusses six things that companies can do to help create and sustain a healthy, thriving business.
I’ve summarized his 6 Key Steps for Creating a Strong Corporate Culture in the list below.
1. Be transparent.
At his company, Bloom discusses the key metrics of the organization with all employees. His goal is to ensure the employees understand the thinking and strategy at various levels of the organization and feedback and ideas are welcomed and encouraged. Understanding that some individuals may feel intimidated asking questions in a public forum, Bloom built a private forum where employees can ask questions anonymously.
2. Take time to disconnect.
Bloom wants his employees to have the same work-hard mentality as he does as the founder, but also realizes that his staff cannot come in early and stay late every single day without getting burnt out at some level. As such, he realizes the work-life integration that exists and how significant it is to make sure he has personally and professionally fulfilled employees.
3. Allow for empowerment and a sense of freedom.
Bloom empowers his staff by not micromanaging them and errs on the side of giving general guidelines rather than explicit, detailed directions. The more freedom people have to take on tasks, manage them, find solutions and execute them, the more connected they feel to a company’s culture.
4. Consider physical space.
In Bloom’s opinion, the floor plans of his office are incredibly important. Although open spaces are great for some, others need to be able to close the door to be at their most productive level. He highly considered the comfort level of his employees before he decided to lay out space or what type of office space he leased.
5. Ask for feedback from customers and employees.
Per Bloom, at different points in a company’s maturation process, you will almost be guaranteed to go through weeks or months where you feel lost. When you’re having challenges relating to your product or corporate vision, the natural tendency is to turn your attention to where things went wrong. Another way to attempt to solve these problems is by talking to customers and employees. In Bloom’s opinion, “making personal connections makes such a difference.”
6. Clarify your organizational design.
Simply put, organizational design is the processes, structure and hierarchy you put into place that allows you to put your culture into practice. If designed well, everyone in the business can do his or her job more effectively. Your business culture will significantly be enhanced if the organizational design you put into place clarifies the authority, responsibility and accountability.
What are some other aspects of a business that are important for corporate culture? Use the comment section below to share your feedback.