Is your company culture fear-based, trust-based, or strengths-based? Take a few moments to think about it. How would you know the difference? It’s vital information that reflects the personality of both your business and brand.
In a fear-based culture the traditional hierarchy dominates. Managers tell uninspired employees what to do and how to do it based on the assumption that the company is a machine that needs willing servants to function properly.
Does this sound overly simplified? In reality, the fear factor might express itself with more subtlety but it always comes down to a one-way communication channel. It is no surprise that creativity and innovation suffer while productivity slows down when fear is the motivator.
The deep human desire to contribute in a meaningful way is put aside on a regular basis. The paycheck mentality prevails in a fear-based culture and the Monday through Friday 9-5 feeling is the norm.
In Trust-Based Cultures, You Know it When You Feel it In his book The Speed of Trust, Stephen M.R. Covey describes in detail how trust is the most important catalyst for business.
Superstar CEO Jack Welch said, “You know it when you feel it,” when asked about trust-based cultures.
Trust accelerates business interaction and team communication. It is the main reason behind successful companies worldwide.
Trusting relationships, as the core of a culture, makes a company agile and innovative in the marketplace. On the inside, happy employees inspire clients to do more business with your company.
Managers on all levels take pride in being true leaders and inspire their employees to do their best.
Strengths-Based Culture Raises the Bar Higher A strengths-based culture goes one-step further. It leverages trust on all company levels to bring out the best and achieve excellence from everyone.
Every member of a strengths-based culture has a deep feeling on a personal and interpersonal level that “there must be more than this.” As a result, they always seek out better answers and focus on producing exceptional results.
True excellence is an open-ended system. It is based on the fact that human beings have a bone-deep desire to constantly grow and expand.
Highly successful teams know how to build on each other’s strengths instead of focusing on fixing weaknesses. Stronger workers show weaker counterparts how to improve so they can keep up and expand.
Google is a brilliant example of a strengths-based culture.
In its March 2008 issue, Fast Company recognized Google as the most innovative company in the world.
The recognition comes from their ability, after 10 years, to continue to instill a sense of creative fearlessness and ambition in workers, even as the company has grown to more than 16,000 employees.
A strengths-based culture on this scale is something unheard of and sets new standards in professional human development.
By focusing on ambition and intensity and genuinely caring about individuals as well as global concerns Google’s profile of performance breaks the traditional bell curve model.
They have set new standards of constant upward movement and expansion on all levels. Google has also profited enormously from focusing on their investment in human capital.
Movement, action, implementation, and heated discussions with respect and intensity are hallmarks of this culture. Their record of speed to market, brand presence, recognition, and success on all levels speak for themselves.
A Day-to-Day Lesson To translate this to a very practical day-to-day lesson you need to consider the following ideas.
With your manager hat on, think about how much you would enjoy supervising people who are consistently exceeding their goals instead of just meeting them.
When employees are highly motivated to work at their personal best consistently, the quality of every facet of your organization increases. This drives higher profits with less effort.
It bears repeating: The real resource of any company is the talent of its people. Your company earns more money when employees perform at their peak.
When employees see a greater role in the organization and that vision is aligned with other departments and the overall company vision at the same time profits soar. Your organization retains and recruits top talent easier as well.
Satisfied clients willingly spread the word about the excellent results your company gave them. This cycle of success gains momentum daily in a strengths-based culture.
In a fear-based culture, on the other hand, these ideas could sound like lip service. Uninspired workers and managers view them as a nice insight without any practical application.
In a trust-based culture, the same insight would be widely recognized as a common denominator.
Only in a strengths-based culture does the explosive truth of this idea unfold and resonate with inspired employees.
When workers are fully engaged they will show a strong desire to make a difference within your company and beyond. The only question that remains is how far are you willing to take these proven concepts?
Company Culture the Personality of Your Business and Brand - To learn more about this author, visit Susana Lange's Website.
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