Business culture is the bond that keeps the two kinds of intelligence (the human and the machine) working in sequence. Even without making any deliberate effort, your startup already has a business culture – however ill-defined.
Whether your company culture is positive or negative depends on you, as the founder.
Company culture isn’t just about free snacks or casual Fridays; it’s more about how well your team performs together.Your workplace culture should embody the beliefs and value of your team.
Below, we have highlighted five steps to help you understand and cultivate your business culture from its early startup stage, through to an established organization:
Five Steps to Build Your Startup Culture
1. UNDERSTAND YOUR PURPOSE
It’s necessary to understand the purpose of your organization.
This goes beyond creating great products or making truckloads of money; think deeper than short term, shallow goals.
Ask yourself questions like ‘So what? And ‘How does this actually help people?’ Be sure to get a central response to your questions.
Let’s say you’re launching a tech startup which allows users to locate rental properties that are nearby – you may discover that your business purpose is ‘helping people discover their dream homes.’
Your business purpose really matters; but only if you share and explain it with the team.
2. EXPLOIT YOUR STRENGTHS
Business owners shape workplace cultures. If the founder is a salesperson, the business will value sales primarily.
The owner will recognize the best salespeople and customer-oriented staff to employ.
The success stories spoken of within the company will undoubtedly be the huge sales that were made.
The company heroes will be the employees who signed on the biggest customers.
As the founder, you must appreciate this and develop your startup culture based on such strengths.
3. TRANSPARENT COMMUNICATIONS
You must always be understandable and transparent when relating to your team.
They should know when the company is thriving, the efforts that will be rewarded, or if their career path is clear.
4. TREAT YOUR EMPLOYEES RIGHT
Not necessarily with perks – although those can be great – treat everyone with personalized care and respect.
5. REVIEW YOUR CULTURE CONSTANTLY
Establishing a good company culture is not about written documents or ticking off checkboxes.
Company cultures evolve with time, and it should be reviewed regularly based on how productive your current team and culture are together.
