Contrary to what many Founders believe, ‘Culture’ doesn’t just happen. I mean, it can, but if you leave it to that, you’re very unlikely to have a positive one 👎 . Culture has to be designed and nurtured, and built with intent. Setting things like Purpose, Mission, Vision, Values is a starting point, and these feed into your culture, but there are so many other things that contribute.

A few people out there advocate the idea of treating ‘Culture as a Product’. Something I agree with wholeheartedly. However, this can get pretty deep and complex for some, so I like to get Founders to consider ‘Culture as a business’; it requires a strategy, plan, and all teams working as one to contribute to success, with everyone playing a part. Understanding what part your different teams can play is important, and thats something I personally try to focus on with early-stage founders. The product analogy is a great one, but for Founders going through the journey of building a company, I find this resonates well.

In this instance:

🧑 Your Employees = Your Customers - They’re the users of your culture. Building something for them is absolutely vital. Any good business listens to their customers and understand what they want before building it. In this sense you must also make sure you include your team in the culture you build; listen to them, and build it for them.

🤝 Your Talent Team = Sales - They’re selling your culture to new ‘users’ all the time, attracting new employees to the business. If they don’t have a good enough culture to sell to these users they’ll struggle. Arm them with the best possible arsenal you can, and they’ll be superstars.

🤗 Your People Team = Account Management / Customer Success - They’re there to nurture, and grow and retain current users (employees) and make sure they’re the happiest in the world. Minimising churn is a key metric for them, and they’ll rely heavily on the strength of the culture and support offered to users to make this happen. Your duty is to make sure this team is well equipped enough to make this happen.

🌟 You / Leadership = Marketing / Brand - You are responsible for how your customers (employees) perceive you. You set the example, the tone, and play a huge part in informing what your wider brand looks like.

I find thinking of culture in this way encourages founders to not only be more proactive in actually setting a strategy, much like they would a business plan, but to better understand in business terms how they can approach culture builds, and the importance of the wider team in helping to achieve that. This makes it easier to operationalise your culture, when you understand what roles people can play and how they can contribute tangibly.

I work with founders on:

📌 Understanding where you are on your culture journey, and what type of culture you are striving for

❓How you can achieve that culture, by putting in place rituals, cultural codes, do’s / dont’s and operationalising your values throughout the business

⭐ How to use culture as a competitive advantage when hiring, building your employer brand

🌱 How you continue to nurture, and review your culture as you grow

🆘 How to troubleshoot any cultural issues you may already be having across the business

If you’re a Founder / company working with me now, you can access my resources and workshops on this here

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