4 Critical Steps to Creating A Strong Corporate Culture — Success, Financial Freedom & Building Wealth

Mar 18

Mar 18 4 Critical Steps to Creating A Strong Corporate Culture

There are four critical steps in the creation of a strong corporate culture:

Authenticity,
Commitment to people,
Commitment to the business and
Continuous effort.

Attention to these foundation elements allows the kind of culture in which your internal force of committed employees can grow and thrive.

Step One Is Authenticity
Your first step is to demonstrate that no matter what has come before — in this job or in other jobs — you are for real. You are serious about your commitment to creating an Army-ready culture. You believe it, you are willing to live and breathe it and you want, expect and trust that everyone in the company will do the same. In other words, you must make the system into a star. How do you make this authenticity pitch read authentic? Here are three key tips:
• Work hard at it yourself. Nothing kills a culture faster than CEOs and managers who fail to live by their own rules.
• Adopt transparency and honesty in all aspects of the business. If what you really want is to
empower your people to be entrepreneurial in their thinking and in their actions, you must give them what the entrepreneur naturally has: knowledge of what’s going on in the company.
• Strive for over-communication. When you’re trying to create a culture of entrepreneurialism, you can never communicate too much.

Photo by Minerva Studio/iStock / Getty Images

Step Two Is a Commitment to People
The treatment, care and training of the human beings are critical to the culture’s success.
How do you show your commitment to people in your organization? Try the following:
• Institutionalize celebration. In a strong culture environment, successes are noted, celebrated and set as standards for continued excellence.
• Offer professional development. It is unreasonable to demand excellence without providing the tools necessary to achieve it. One of those tools comes in the form of training.
• Encourage autonomy. Commit to trusting your employees to do their jobs, even when it seems they are wandering outside the lines of their job descriptions.
• Provide challenge. Complexity is not a barrier to success — it is an inspiration to action.

Step Three Is a Commitment to the Business
Ultimately, it is all about the success of the company. Attention to people, attention to authenticity, all must be in service to the ultimate goal: the growth and achievement of the firm. This is why we’re all here. This is what will make all our efforts worthwhile. What can you do to make this happen?
• Present financial rewards that match contributions. Individual success must be tied to
company success.
• Insist on deal-breakers and zero-tolerance. If you’re committed to creating a system that trains and nurtures star performers, ethics must be an ongoing commitment.

Photo by gustavofrazao/iStock / Getty Images

Step Four Is Continuous Effort
When you are building a corporate culture, your work is ongoing. You are always looking for ways to improve communication, improve training and provide more challenge. You are constantly evaluating the strength of the culture and what it may need next to continue to provide the right environment for your your internal force of committed employees .