8 Rules For Creating A Passionate Work Culture. Several years ago I was in the Thomson Building in Toronto. I went down the hall to the small kitchen to get myself a cup of coffee. Ken Thomson was there, making himself some instant soup. At the time, he was the ninth-richest man in the world, worth approximately $19.6 billion. Enough, certainly, to afford a nice lunch.
I looked at the soup he was stirring. Thomson understood value. In 1976, Thomson inherited a $500-million business empire that was built on newspapers, publishing, travel agencies, and oil. He left both a financial legacy and an art legacy, but his most lasting legacy might be the culture he created. For the long-term viability of any enterprise, Thomson understood that you needed a viable corporate culture. Thomson created a culture that extended out from him and has lived after him. 1. Hire for passion and commitment first, experience second, and credentials third. 2. The art of communication tends to put the stress on talking, but listening is equally important. Culture management Archive. Recognize This! – Social recognition has most impact when it touches all employees frequently, wherever and however they work, to drive the data needed to make smart talent and business decisions. During my career as an employee recognition strategist and consultant, I’ve had the honor and privilege of working with many truly innovative and forward thinking company leaders who want to do right by their employees.
These people, and the companies they work for, are deeply invested in the helping their employee engage more fully in their work, thereby delivering a more satisfying experience for their customers and communities. JetBlue is an excellent example of this attitude and approach. Mike Elliott, JetBlue’s vice president of crew relations, was recently interviewed by Erin Osterhaus for Software Advice. In the interview, Mike shared three tips to get the most out of social recognition.
(Quoting below) Be sure to read the full article for the complete Lift story at JetBlue. Work Culture: What’s All the Hoopla About? Popular Today in Business: All Popular Articles With every generation comes a Corporate Culture evolution. As technology facilitates logistics and streamlines work processes, so too must corporate culture evolve. Every generation brings its own brand of innovation to culture. But Corporate Culture is not a one-way street.
As corporations strive to accommodate the changing dynamics of the workforce, the workforce must step up to the plate and perform to deliver on productivity and profitability. I recently read an article citing that work culture was an important element in the decision-making process of Millennials to accept a job. The concept of organizations modifying corporate culture and work models is nothing new. Having run an organization for over 20 years, I have come to realization that any solid business relationship, whether it’s client relationship or employee-employer relationship, is very much a two-way street. So… am I right, or am I wrong? What Do You Do When You Don’t Fit In Your Company’s Culture? I know this won’t be shocking to regular blog readers, but I write fairly often about company cultures. Usually, I write for leadership – what their role is in creating a strong culture, how to do that, how to proactively manage culture based on core values.
This time, however, I’m writing for the average employee, because employees also have a direct responsibility in building a positive culture of recognition by actively acknowledging and appreciating the efforts and achievements of their colleagues. What do you do when you don’t fit in your company’s culture? That’s the question asked in this Forbes article, which gives several good examples. 2 options when the “problem” is you What do you do when the “problem” is you. You don’t fit in for whatever reason. Change to fit the culture – Perhaps you’re more of a “heads down, get the work done” kind of person in an office that enjoys lunches as a group, birthday celebrations, etc. You can find more from Derek Irvine on his Recognize This!
Book review: “Delivering Happiness” by Tony Hsieh. (Editor’s note: Javier Rojas is a managing director leading U.S. investment activities for Kennet Partners. He submitted this story to VentureBeat.) Tony Hsieh has founded two very successful companies. Along the way, he has learned innumerable lessons and develop a model for creating intensely passionate corporate cultures.
In “Delivering Happiness,” he gives insight into both.Hsieh is the first entrepreneur I have seen to take many of the tenets from the emerging field of positive psychology (a.k.a. how to be happy) and apply them to a business, ultimately making his customers, partners and employees work together for a great, shared outcome. In 1998, he sold his first business, LinkExchange, to Microsoft for $250 million. Today he continues to run Zappos, which he sold to Amazon in 2009 for $850 million. Big ideas from “Delivering Happiness”: Develop core values – Even after building a successful startup, Hsieh realized he wasn’t happy with the culture he had built. Applied knowledge. Corporate culture should be a top priority. You might have read our review of Zappos CEO and founder Tony Hsieh’s recent book “Delivering Happiness” a couple of weeks ago. Hsieh’s a fanatic about building a strong company culture, where each department understands the other. And his book is a fascinating study in insisting on more from your employees and making them happier at the same time.
Now you can learn more about this philosophy from Hsieh himself in this entrepreneur thought leader lecture, given last month at Stanford University. See if you can determine how many brand new hires take the company up on its offer of a $3,000 bonus to quit after just a few weeks on the job. VB's working with marketing expert Scott Brinker to understand the new digital marketing organization. Advice on Building Company Culture. People spend a lot of time talking about "company culture" in Silicon Valley. What does it take to create the right kind of culture? How can you maintain that culture? Do you need a mission statement? Should you have a mascot? At first blush it sounds like a bunch of mushy-gushy nonsense. But every great company I've had the good fortune to work with has maintained a strong, independent, identifiable culture.
And that culture has served to unify and energize the company and its employees. One thing that is certain, no two company cultures are the same. So what does it take to build a strong culture? Interview every new employee (until 50 then interview everyone that will manage others) Spend 30 minutes per week on Mondays talking to new employees as part of their first day. I couldn't agree more with Scott's suggestions. Great advice all around. Team & Culture Guide for Early Stage Startups. Cult Creation. Business Culture that Inspires Your Consumers - Samir Balwani. January 11th, 2011 by Samir Balwani Often overlooked, business culture can be one of the most effective ways to increase a business’ bottom line.
Exciting, inviting, cultures make consumers feel part of a group and inspire them to share with their friends. Most businesses ignore the idea of culture because it can be a difficult strategy to execute. Small businesses depend tend to mold themselves based on the personality of the owner, whereas most larger brands are too bureaucratic to create a consistent corporate culture. Nonetheless, there are a number of ways to inspire a successful business culture. Case Study: Zappos One of the most well known corporate cultures’ is Zappos. Here’s an example of the appreciation consumers have shown towards Zappos: When I came home this last time, I had an email from Zappos asking about the shoes, since they hadn’t received them. What Zappos Does Well Zappos invests in its employees and puts customer service above profits. Credit Don’t believe me? Credit. Culture Counts in Every Business, Large or Small. By Roger S.
Robinson, Ph.D. Can an intangible like a company’s culture make a difference in your business? That is a tough question. After all what is culture? And can it impact your bottom line? The concept of culture really entered the world of business through Peters and Waterman’s “In Search of Excellence.” They defined it in terms of successful organizations permeated with strong and sustaining systems of beliefs. Perhaps a simpler way to think about culture is to think of it in terms of how an organization makes choices, how it develops its values, its ethics, how it trains, recognizes and rewards its associates, its spirit, and not to be overlooked, how it treats its customers - both internal and external.
Clearly this concept sounds good, but does it really matter. The airline industry is one example that comes to mind. Southwest’s success is based on many things, not the least of which is that it is a place where there are a lot of people who take pride in what they are doing. Hw to create the best place to work. A couple of weeks ago we had a great Seedcamp Breakfast at Return Path‘s London offices. Matt Blumberg, founder and CEO of the global leader in email deliverability gave us some great insights into how he grew his company to more than 200 employees since the founding date in 1999. His story was especially interesting because Return Path is now active on multiple continents – a very difficult challenge for some of the Seedcamp companies who are spreading to different geographies already early in their development.
Matt took us through his 7 ideas and provided a lot of background and good anecdotes to support his theses: Surround yourself with the best and brightestThe first and foremost lesson was to hire the smartest and best people -and you should not be afraid of being less smart than them. As soon as you compromise on the quality of your colleagues and employees, the quality of work will slip – after all, they will be even more afraid of being surpassed by smarter hires. 5 Keys for Promoting Honesty & Transparency in Your Company. Skip Advertisement This ad will close in 15 seconds... Young Entrepreneurs Today's Most Read 9 Proven Ways to Get People to Take You Seriously 4 Intangibles That Drive CEOs What It Takes to Go From Dead Broke to 6 Figures in 6 Months The Mentality of a Successful Career 4 Big Challenges That Startups Face These Siblings Are Cooking Up America's First Meatless Butcher Shop Kim Lachance Shandrow 3 min read News and Articles About Young Entrepreneurs Failure 6 Stories of Super Successes Who Overcame Failure They're perfect examples of why failure should never stop you from following your vision.
Jayson DeMers Podcasts Top 25 Business Podcasts for Entrepreneurs Podcasts are as easy to use as old-school radio but as specialized as blogs. Murray Newlands Entrepreneurship Programs Saxbys and Drexel Team Up to Promote Entrepreneurship Saxby's founder Nick Bayer talks about the one-of-a-kind program and why he wishes there was one for himself years ago. Carly Okyle Presented by Young Entrepreneurs Laura Entis Fear. Organizing for joy. Traditional corporations, particularly large-scale service and manufacturing businesses, are organized for efficiency. Or consistency. But not joy. McDonalds, Hertz, Dell and others crank it out. They show up. The problem with this mindset is that as you approach the asymptote of maximum efficiency, there's not a lot of room left for improvement. Worse, the nature of the work is inherently un-remarkable. These organizations have people who will try to patch problems over after the fact, instead of motivated people eager to delight on the spot.
The alternative, it seems, is to organize for joy.