By Bob Brandon, Talent Corps Vice President | Sales & Marketing
At Talent Corps, we are continuously looking for ways to cultivate “the perfect company culture” so no employee ever feels disconnected or dissatisfied. Our team and the effort they put forth every day inspires this pursuit.
What is company culture?
Culture is a word we hear and read about online and in management articles. But what exactly is it?
Simply put, a company’s culture is its foundation for future innovation. An entrepreneur’s job is to build the foundation. Leaders use that foundation to pave the way for the team to understand and embrace the culture. Then, with everyone’s effort, the company culture will either drive new and innovative ideas throughout the organization…or cause those same ideas to be buried or hidden.
The right culture will inspire behaviors that lead to success up, down, and across the organization.
Importance of high-performance company culture
Top performers – the “A players – look to join companies whose culture motivates them to excel. They look forward to going to work and are more likely to shine in an environment where the culture is exciting, aspirational, and matches their personal work ethic and goals.
How to Create a High-Performance Culture
Everyone on the team has a role in building a high-performance culture. Here are six steps to move a culture forward.
1. Clearly communicate core values, every day
Living your core values and adding them to your work will take a work environment to the next level, achieve goals, and produce more profit. As a reminder, Talent Corps’ core values are Teamwork, Adaptability, Loyalty, Endurance, Nobility, Transparency. Together, they spell TALENT.
2. Reinforce positive behavior
By removing negativity, people will automatically gravitate toward positivity. Are we all doing our part? As leaders, our job is to recognize and reward positive behavior, represent our core values, and motivate others to mirror that behavior. We rely on everyone on the team to do their part. Winning is the culmination when all of us do the little things well, on a daily basis.
3. Encourage open communication
At Talent Corps, we believe open communication creates a vibrant atmosphere. We support fluid lines of communication, with unbiased and open conversation no matter what the topic is. Our goal is to ensure that the flow of information from the executive team to entry-level employees and back the other way is smooth and consistent. Ask yourself, are you utilizing every opportunity to communicate openly?
4. Empower each employee
The most successful leaders enable and inspire employees to reach their full potential. They create an environment where the team trusts that decisions will have a positive impact on the company and on them personally. It’s equally important that leadership at all levels empowers the team to make decisions that directly and indirectly relate to them. We can all improve on “letting go” a little. Try focusing on these simple areas to help others around you grow:
- Show them your trust
- Provide the required training
- Communicate the vision clearly
- Make time for small talk
- Allow freedoms within parameters
5. Appreciate the value of feedback
A feedback-rich environment is a key ingredient for positive company culture. Talent Corps team members are encouraged to provide transparent feedback throughout their careers. That feedback help leadership find out how employees are feeling about culture and if there is anything that needs improving.
Talent Corps supports a feedback culture by:
- Motivating employees to give feedback correctly
- Providing an open environment to do so
- Taking all feedback seriously
The value of feedback – the positive and the negative – is that it lets us know whether we are supporting our employees in the right way so that together, we can achieve our business and individual goals.
6. Focus on what matters
At Talent Corps, our focus is on what matters for our culture. However, our goal and commitment to everyone on the team is to not sacrifice culture for short-term perks and incentives. Though they are important and a great complement to an organization’s success, there are many more things that matter, like:
- Providing room for personal growth
- Showing appreciation for a job well done
- Enabling a high level of transparency
- Treating everyone equally – no favoritism
- Inspiring a sense of purpose in the work
- Demonstrating support from leadership
Conclusion
We’re off to a great start on building a high-performance culture at Talent Corps but we’re not where we want to be – yet. Our pursuit is to create an environment and a company that is sought-out, preferred, and desired.
We won’t rest until we’re known as the #1 employer in our industry. We’re committed to making this happen!