Most business owners recognize the importance of a strong business culture. Few know how to keep it strong once they’ve built it. Here are five key checkpoints you can use to create awareness and reinforce the culture you’re trying to build.
Focus on these, and your business culture will stay strong and aligned with your core values.
Core values are the foundation of your business culture. They should be clear, memorable, and actionable. Ideally, you want three to five core values that guide your organization. Too many can dilute their impact, while too few might not cover the essentials.
Your core values need to be visible and constantly reinforced. You can do this through activities and communication. When core values are strong, they become "leader-sourced and crowd-enforced." Leadership drives them. Everyone in the company upholds them.
The leadership message is your 30,000-foot view of the business culture and vision. It combines where the business is heading with how your core values will get you there. As a leader, it’s your job to communicate this message regularly, making sure it resonates and stays top of mind for everyone.
This message can take many forms. A “What It Means to Work Here” document. A speech. A series of emails reinforcing the same values and vision.
The key is to embed this message in every aspect of how you operate your business.
The hiring process is a critical checkpoint for embedding your core values. Every interview and onboarding session should emphasize them. You can even conduct a dedicated culture interview to assess the alignment.
During onboarding, share your leadership message. Make sure new hires understand what it means to work at your company. Discuss core values in behavioral terms and build them into the expectations set for new employees from the start.
Performance reviews should include a thorough evaluation of how well employees embody the core values. Quarterly reviews can include self-ratings, peer feedback, and manager evaluations.
Treat repeated failure to demonstrate the core values as seriously as performance issues. Consider a quarterly core value development plan, just like you’d use a performance improvement plan. It keeps everyone accountable to understanding the values and adopting them.
The culture infusion cycle is how your core values reach every level of your business. It’s a consistent cadence of activities that demonstrate, remind, and reinforce the values and culture.
✔ Daily: Make core values visible daily. Call out specific examples of someone doing a great job during meetings.
✔ Weekly: Ask for core values recognition nominations. Let team members nominate each other. Share the compiled recognitions with the team weekly.
✔ Monthly: Roll up the weekly recognitions into a monthly report and share it during monthly meetings.
✔ Quarterly: Vote for a quarterly MVP based on the monthly recognitions. Reward the accomplishment with plaques, gift cards, whatever your employees will appreciate.
✔ Annually: Host an annual core values awards event. Create a culture book that includes the year's recognitions, comments, and stories.
Do this consistently, and you move from merely stating your values to making them a tangible part of your operations.
A strong business culture takes ongoing effort and intentionality. Focus on these five checkpoints (core values, leadership message, hiring, performance reviews, and the culture infusion cycle), and you'll build a culture that actually holds up.
Set expectations. Be consistent. And keep the values top of mind. If you don’t, the culture will erode. Every time.
Nick Berry is an American entrepreneur and business advisor, whose track record includes founding, leading, and advising award winning small businesses since 2002. He has built companies in multiple industries, hosts The Business Owner’s Journey podcast, and created the Business Alignment System™ framework that helps owner-operators scale without burning out.
After his most recent exit he founded Redesigned.Business to advise and coach to other entrepreneurs and business owners who are looking for a trusted (and proven) advisor.
Among peers, colleagues and clients, Nick has been referred to as 'The Anti-Guru', due to his pragmatic approach and principled leadership. He shares his thoughts, experience, and lessons learned each week in The Golden Thread newsletter.
