Positive corporate cultures naturally grow empowered employees. They typically breed positive experiences that transcend beyond the borders of a company. These employees self manage the vision of the company by treating their role in the organization as a critical component to the company’s success. While in most cases these employees are not shareholders or owners but rather stakeholders that act as if they were real owners of the company. When company’s have outstanding corporate culture it really shows on the outside. And the most wonderful thing occurs when employees feel a part of the vision of the company – they are more energized and they also build more cohesive teams.
It’s hard to crack the code of what mix actually makes for a healthy culture. What I do know is that companies with a culture for excellence tend to have a natural selection process for moving out those individuals that don’t fit in the jet stream. In business, a good healthy culture facilitates an easy execution of corporate strategy as companies benefit from the consistency of shared values to the greater good.
Many business leaders of companies with excellent cultures speak of their teams in terms of ‘rowing in the same direction’. It’s an easy visual and quite an agreeable one. Anyting less is dysfunctional and inefficient. From my time on a high performing rowing team in University I can wholeheartedly agree with this wisdom. Give a team vision, strategy and most importantly a real sense of purpose and then all you need to do is have them set their sights on the finish line. And like all top level athletes, they practice and reflect. As teammates in corporations we too need to follow this rigorous training to stay healthy and to reach our finish lines.
