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Let’s dive in….Culture is CRITICAL to business success.
I think any of you that have heard me speak will know my views on that. If you look at sources like Forbes magazine, Harvard Business Review and many others, you will see that they all highlight the importance of culture within business.
People talk about culture all the time, however very few people know what it means, or what to do about it. It’s like some mystical thing just happens, however, its effects are much like an old poem: “When it is good, it is very very good and when it is bad it is horrid.” I’ve spoken to numerous elite performing sports coaches, business owners and even community groups around the world that are of an exceptional standard, and they all confirm that they spend a significant time on building a desirable team culture.
It is probably also true that if you speak to any business owners in our industry that they will also say they know how important it is.
The problem is that when the pressure is on, do we make the right decisions? Do we prioritise what we believe will be ‘revenue generating’ over the ‘nice stuff’?
What I want to try and do in this post is really highlight three concrete reasons how it can help your business to grow and be more successful.
Atmosphere
A good culture will enhance not only the image of your business but will mean that the atmosphere inside your business will be a positive one. This is something that patients consistently comment on in client feedback (both when it is working and when it is not). Afterall, a returning customer is one of the best compliments any business can receive, and this will often come from the environment that we have created through a positive culture.
Staff Retention
One of the biggest challenges many business owners talk to me about is the ability to hire staff.
Not only can it be challenging, but it can be very costly with regards to; your time, advertising and most of all in the process of ‘winding down’ your current employee and getting the new employee full. In total this can add up to 10k, 20k or more to the business. Therefore, if at all possible, we need to maximise staff retention.
There is a tonne of research out there that show how culture affects the decisions of where someone works and when someone may leave a job. Three quick stats to back that up:
- 72% of people leaving their job cited culture as a factor in their decision to leave
- 33% of candidates would pass up on their ideal job if they felt the culture was a bad fit
- 32% of people leaving a job in the first 90 days listed culture as the reason why
So, if we want to avoid the expense and the hard work of recruitment then culture is key.
Staff Performance
We are mostly trying to encourage staff to perform at a certain level, to work in a way that is aligned to the business and often to make changes to the way in which they work, communicate and act.
To do this we must have a strong culture in place that not only creates the enjoyable environment that makes people want to come to work, but that defines our expectations of a team member. When we do this upfront, we find that the resistance to change that we will all have experienced in our career will be significantly diminished.
Summary
I hope that in this post I have outlined things that you already know and that you have a strong and positive culture embedded within your business. So often is culture something that’s value is understood, but that often gets ‘done’ and then put away in a cupboard for the next team meeting.
Creating a positive culture is more than just having Friday night drinks, or a get together over a pizza every month. To come back to a principle: “If you expect a certain behaviour, you need to be able to inspect it, and if you want to inspect something, you first must define it with clarity and transparency, so everybody involved knows exactly what is expected of them and who is accountable for delivering what.”
Culture is something that has to be embedded into every aspect of your business from visuals, to team meetings to quarterly reviews. When you can do this, you will find that you have achieved the goal we are all striving for; having a high performing team that is excited to work for you and your business.
Charge on!
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