A positive company culture proves integral in cultivating an effective and productive work environment. Conversely, a company culture that is negative or inconsistent can have consequences for business and impede workplace growth and efficiency. While culture determines the success of a company, it is often influenced by the leaders within the company. If you’re looking to develop a positive company culture, changing your leaders is among the first steps; reevaluating leadership will help to improve company culture from the top down.
What is Company Culture?
Company culture encompasses the beliefs, habits, and systems that contribute to the company’s vision and values. When it comes to cultivating culture, your company must prescribe a meaningful purpose and ensure the systems and beliefs in place actively promote that purpose. It’s important for companies to solidify company missions and values, as well as short- and long-term goals, and work toward consistently refining such values.
How Does Culture Benefit a Company?
Culture is beneficial to a company as it establishes a purpose and encourages engagement. Employees are more likely to believe in and support a mission when it is significant and placed at the forefront of company systems and behaviors. This allows employees the opportunity to actively engage with the company and feel empowered to fulfill their roles and contribute to the company at large.
Culture specifically cultivates loyalty, as employees are more likely to be diligent and remain with a company if they feel as though they’re an important asset to the team and treated with respect. This loyalty also contributes to greater employee morale, promoting higher levels of productivity. Motivated and satisfied employees are more dedicated and willing to invest in their job and company.
A positive company culture that promotes satisfaction and productivity also benefits company recruitment. Cultures can contribute to a positive company reputation, which gives businesses a competitive advantage in the hiring process.
How Reevaluating Leadership Can Improve Culture
When it comes to cultivating culture, company leaders prove integral. Culture-driven leadership not only promotes leader loyalty within the company but also encourages other employees to invest in the company as well. Leaders who align with company values help improve culture from the top down, establishing and contributing to systems and behaviors that promote and further the company’s mission. By serving as role models for the company, leaders help define and refine company purpose and explore ways the culture can better serve the company and its employees.
Leaders also have the opportunity to further cultivate culture by listening to and responding to feedback. While culture often serves as the foundation for a successful company, it is unhealthy for culture to remain entirely stagnant. Feedback involves employees and helps ensure the culture is promoting the company mission and appropriately adjusting to better encompass collective missions and goals. Employees who feel as though their leaders are supportive are more likely to contribute to company culture and become leaders themselves.
When it comes to consistently promoting company culture, leaders should help oversee all company functions and structures. By contributing to on-boarding, employee engagement, and performance management, leaders can help refine company culture and ensure all employees feel prepared and empowered to further the goals of the company.
As culture determines the success of a company, it’s important leaders whose goals align with company missions help establish and further company culture from the top down.