about improving culture, start by documenting what’s
expected of managers in a way that is clear, inspiring and
measurable. How do you want them to respond to difficult
events? What’s your approach to performance management?
How much feedback do you expect them to give to the team
and in what way should that be delivered? Make a simple list
of three to five key manager values, with three to five specific
behaviors for each one.
Bringing People Together
Every good dinner party includes some form of
prepping and planning—and the same runs true
for your culture as well. This is where you
start to get specific about the kind of
place you are trying to create and
start to define what that looks like
so other people can help keep the
party going. This is where you
focus on your vision.
It makes it a lot easier for your
team to execute the big plan
when they know what it looks
like. Imagine your team is in a
car and pulls up to a stoplight.
They can continue ahead, make a
U-turn, turn left or turn right. Each
of those is a good choice—depending
on where you want to go. For them to
make the right choice, they have to know
where they’re going; in order for your employees to
drive the company culture in the right direction, you’ve got to
have a clearly defined vision that properly sets the table for
success. If you were to ask each of your employees to define
what success looks like for your company, for your customer, for
a great experience, for a good shift—would they all say the
same thing? Or would their answers lead you in drastically
different directions?
To get started with crafting a vision for your team, schedule
20 minutes alone outside of your normal day-to-day; grab a pen
and paper; put a future date on the top of the page, like “end of
this year” or “five years out”; then, start describing what your
spa will look like at that point in time. Imagine you’ve hopped
in a time machine into that future date and are describing what
you see happening. How are people interacting? How are
decisions being made? What things are going on in the
business? How are your guests responding? What kinds of
people are working there? What are they doing? Get specific
about defining what matters, what you want to happen and
what exactly it looks like if everyone is successful. Once you
have this drafted, share it with a few people for feedback before
finalizing it. The final version can be included in hiring and
orientation information as a reminder of what everyone is
working toward.
Letting Others Contribute
Each person who shows up to a
party contributes in some way.
Some of it is positive, some
of it is negative. But each
person has an impact. The
same is true of your
culture. Every person
you hire, promote, keep
and even terminate
dictates what your
culture is—and
ultimately how your
brand will be remembered.
You have a big opportunity in
tuning in to what is going on
more often.
The easiest way to get started is by
doing a short and simple survey that gives
you a list of what’s working and what areas might need some
attention. You can extract tremendous value even from the
simplest of employee surveys. To get started, find a
convenient way to survey your team and ask, “what do you
like best about working here?” and “what would make it even
better?” Use their responses to make some decisions about
ways to improve your culture in 2019.
As you think about your plans for 2019, in what ways will
you make culture a priority? Will you use the ideas above to
create an intentional culture built by design or leave it up to
luck? Make this the year that you create a culture that engages
your team, creates a remarkable experience for your guests and
makes your brand stand out. n
“A positive
culture at your
business will make it
easy to recruit top talent,
generate employee
engagement, boost
sales and create
a buzzworthy
brand.”
MIKE GANINO is a culture and storytelling expert who helps leaders, teams and organizations
communicate, connect and engage. He’s the author of Company Culture for Dummies, a how-to book
that links a strong company culture to positive results in almost every area of business.
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