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Culture Through It

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For some companies, culture has become an important differentiator to attract and retain quality people. Culture is also a key component to maintaining confidence through times of turmoil. We talked with business leaders on the topic of culture through the lens of business disruption. Read on to find out what this group of leaders had to say about company culture as being a factor in staying strong as a business in times of triumph and times of turmoil.

Culture is a driver of business. Business is a driver of culture.

The CEO of a Minnesota-based engineering and architecture firm holds culture to a higher standard and in doing so places a premium on his company’s ability to foster culture and use the strength to drive success in the organization. 

“I think culture is always a factor. You hire employees for your space and encourage collaboration among team players, people that want to be there, doing the right things for the right reasons, these are our fundamental drivers. That culture reinforces itself, so you certainly want to always focus on maintaining that productive, in-focus, value-focused mindset.”

Creating Culture out of Thin Air

Knowing culture is important and being able to create it are two different things. So how do you build it? Another CEO from an agriculture company in North Dakota spoke with us about how you go about building a very welcoming culture that makes you unique or attractive to the people who work there.

“We’re a family business, and we try to promote a culture that’s a family. So, that’s a real important thing. We have a vision of being the premier agriculture producer in the world. And so, with that, yeah, we’re a family, but we’re a family with high expectations. This family, hey, we’ll all help each other when we need to aspect is really important to us. And oh, by the way, nobody’s feeling sorry for ourselves when we’re facing major headwinds, because that’s what we signed up for. That’s the type of work we sell in, and so that’s the real important thing to embrace and understand is the culture.”

Maintaining Culture Under Pressure

The same leader also stressed the importance of taking specific steps to try to maintain the company culture that you’ve built, even in a disruptive environment. 

“What we’ve done to make sure that we’re doing everything we can so we don’t have headwind is just communicate, communicate, communicate. And you can’t communicate enough, and make sure people trust that we understand what’s going on, number one. We appreciate the complexities of what’s going on. And we’re going to be there to support them, whatever happens. I think that as long as people feel confident with that, it’s going to go a long way.”

Culture, like any living organism, needs nurturing.

In the best cases, you can’t just talk about culture; you have to continue to nurture it through communication, values and putting people first. Not just as an ideal but as a living, breathing, actionable part of your organization, just as the CEO of an HVAC company discussed.

“We are fortunate we do have a strong culture. Our company president knows everyone by name. The caring nature of the leadership team is a key driver. They care about their employees and want to make sure it’s a nice environment with new uniforms, new vehicles in rotation. It’s the things like that, that I think make a difference. It’s driving what we learn from your mom and dad, your grandmother and grandfather on how to behave. We translate that into the business environment.”

In a time of disruption, the smallest stress fractures can split wide open and expose weaknesses. In these times some of the practices we value most become even more critical. Even the most successful companies in time of glory will be those with a strong culture. And guess which companies will be in the best position in a time of uncertainty? Again, it will be those who value, grow and maintain a strong culture. 

It’s fascinating how overcoming disruption as a team has a way of strengthening culture in the long-term. Likely because everyone can collectively come together and say, look what we did, despite all we’ve been through, we came out on top.

Here’s to keeping your culture strong under fire.

Thanks,
PRIME46


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