Your Corporate Culture Can Make or Break Your Business

Sometimes people equate corporate culture with “feel-good” activities and meaningless gestures that may be fun but don’t really make a difference. But there’s a lot more to corporate culture than “Casual Fridays” and having an air hockey table in the break room. Your corporate culture can make or break your business. You may need to transform your corporate culture to reflect your core values.

Does Your Corporate Culture Reflect Your Core Values?

Again, I want to emphasize that healthy corporate culture isn’t about getting everyone in the company to sing Kum Ba Yah, or wear the shirts with the corporate logo on them. It’s really about creating an environment that’s conducive to creative thinking, bold ideas, and productivity. Does your corporate culture reflect your core values? What are some signs that your culture isn’t cutting it?

Core Values Not Aligned with Strategy: Sometimes there is a big “disconnect” between values and strategy. For an example; you may have a corporate value that says you honor and respect employees and want to help them be all they can be. But how do you actually treat employees—especially in difficult or stressful times?
Lack of Clarity About Corporate Vision: Too often companies create a beautiful sounding corporate vision that’s typed up, distributed (on coffee mugs or plaques), and then forgotten. Can your employees actually articulate your corporate vision? Do they understand how it affects their daily lives? Can you explain your corporate vision to a stranger in 30 seconds or less?
Employees That “Talk the Talk” but Don’t Execute: You may have a company with employees who are eager to please. They know all the right buzzwords. They know the company line. But that’s as far as it goes. They haven’t internalized the mission or vision. And when it comes time to perform, they just don’t execute the way you expect them to.
An Organization That Doesn’t Influence Anyone: One of the biggest tests as to whether your company or organization is really successful is whether or not others emulate you. Trend-setting companies tend to get copied. Many organizations have looked at things that groundbreaking companies (Apple, Google, Amazon, etc.) do and try to replicate them. Is anyone imitating you? Does the way you do business affect your vendors and clients?

Here’s How We Do It

At the Transformation Company, we use a tested, best practices process to discover, assess, align and bring to life your most significant core values. These aren’t superfluous things; they are important things that represent the very heart and soul of your organization and your culture. Your corporate culture (the values that drive you) is the foundation for everything your company does: Goals, strategies, execution, and how you treat both employees and customers.

Next Steps

Corporate culture is often a reflection of leadership. It really does “begin at the top.” That’s why you may want to take a look at your leadership style before trying to “fix” your corporate culture. Click on the Assess Your Leadership button below to take a very short (2-3 minutes) assessment that can give you a snapshot of how your leadership affects your culture. A next step would be to contact us and set up a more thorough (complimentary) 60-minute culture assessment with us.Once we’ve uncovered what those things are, we help you bring that culture to life in everything that you do: Recruiting, hiring, orienting, developing and promoting your people. We also help you develop programs and themes that will keep your culture alive and thriving.