7 Strategies For Creating a Culture of Excellence
By: Rebekah Miller, Director of HR at Text In Church
As a business leader, your success is directly related to the team you build and the culture you create. Successful companies are always looking for ways to improve their culture to attract and retain top talent. Energetic teams are vital to any company’s success. Still, it is not easy to create one from scratch. Building an awesome team takes time, energy, and patience. I’m going to share seven strategies we use at Text In Church to help you on your quest for excellence.
Create An Atmosphere of Trust and Respect
This is the foundation for every other strategy. Without trust and respect, you cannot create an inviting culture. People have an innate desire to be a part of something that feels good and where they feel welcome and valued. Be intentional in creating ways for your team members to interact with each other in personal ways with team-building activities.
Hosting weekly meetings with your entire team provides space for them to share their successes and even allowing them to be honest about their daily hassles can set the tone for a trusting and respectful space. Lead by example in your reactions to their experiences and be willing to share your own vulnerabilities. You want your team to work together to bring out the best in each other, learn from each other, and create an environment where they feel supported.
Promote Innovation, Creativity, and Risk-Taking
Hosting weekly team meetings where your employees are encouraged to speak up and share ideas for improving current processes creates opportunities for transparency. To do this, we’ve also created an annual PitchFest where all of our employees come together at our annual retreat and are encouraged to share their best ideas for the company’s future.
These ideas can be as simple as stopping a specific process and as extravagant as tapping into a new market. We’ve found this event can inspire and challenge your employees to innovate and think through their roles and your company’s mission more creatively. You’ll generate excitement for your company’s road map and create a deeper investment from your team.
Develop Shared Vision and Values
Creating guiding principles can help define your company and shape what you do now and in the future. For many leaders, this means creating a vision and values you and your team are passionate about so your entire team can enjoy their work more and be successful at it.
Having a clear vision means making your vision-specific and tangible. Our vision at Text In Church is to serve 20,000 churches by 2025. It’s clear about what we want to accomplish and the timeline to do it.
With values, we’ve found having no more than three is best. Keeping it to three short, simple values makes them much easier to remember. It’s pointless to have values you want your employees to live into if they can’t even tell you what they are. Our company’s values are to dream big, create impact, and prioritize people.
Take the time to meet with your team to chat about your company’s vision and values. Employee involvement will lead to employee buy-in. Be purposeful by going over the vision and values of your company regularly once you’ve established them. When your team has a clear vision and the values for what the business is all about, they can get more done with less effort.
Encourage Open Communication
Weekly team meetings promote an inviting company culture where team members can interact regularly. Regular meetings also help establish relational foundations and allow you to routinely discuss the company’s vision, values, and objectives. You should also remind your people about your open-door policy and encourage questions from your team members to prevent miscommunication and keep ideas flowing. We’ve found that practicing open & effective communication when things are going well prepares our team to communicate effectively when the proverbial roof is on fire.
Provide Clear Expectations
People thrive when they know their role and have clear expectations because they are empowered to manage their day and time. We’ve found having an official document and reviewing them often set a precedent of clarity. This gives you the freedom and peace of mind to clearly define responsibilities to prevent confusion, frustration, and lower productivity for you and your team.
Seek Out Opportunities For Professional Growth
Invest in your team’s professional development through formal training and delegating new responsibilities. Encourage team members to refine their talents and try new things by volunteering for new projects. Find ways to educate them in their field and make them experts in their positions. When you invest in your people with training and development resources, you always get a positive return on that investment.
Celebrate Successes
As the saying goes, “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Never take for granted the power of feeling valued. At Text In Church, we use the saying “known, noticed, and loved.” Set aside time to be creative with how you celebrate your team members’ success, from a special gift box for team awards to a Slack channel dedicated to team shout-outs and victories. People will feel known, noticed, and loved when they know you’ve taken the time to celebrate them individually and publicly in creative ways.
Conclusion
Building an excellent team takes time, effort, and commitment. These seven strategies will help you get there faster by focusing on creating a positive environment within your organization from the ground up to nurture collaboration and innovation. If you want to build an amazing company culture with a motivated staff that thrives in their roles, then providing clarity around your company’s vision, values, and expectations is how you get there.
