Cultivate Your Culture - One Conversation At A Time
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“Company culture is a work of art where each person leaves their mark on the community canvas to make something beautiful that belongs to everyone. What I think people want is a place where their work matters. A place where they get to make decisions, build, invent, innovate, all with an amazing team at their side. People want to leave at the end of the day feeling good about what they do. Even when they make mistakes.” -- Jaime Bancroft-Gennaro, Managing Director, Neologic PDX
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When I work with companies in shaping their culture, one of the first places we look is how effective and authentic are the conversations between colleagues in various departments, between the office and field and between leadership and their teams. Regular, honest, respectful and direct dialogue fuels trust - which in turns feeds performance; initiative, accountability - even creativity.
If your organization is not where it wants to be, examine the culture of your communications:
- How do you interact?
- How do you speak to each other?
- How do you speak about each other?
- How are decisions made and communicated?
- How do you run your meetings?
- How aligned and informed are your team members?
- How clear are expectations?
- How do you recognize contributions?
- How do you give constructive feedback?
Improving in this one core competency - communications - can help craft the kind of culture the drives performance. It can also have people leaving at the end of their day feeling a sense of satisfaction about their role in the company's success.
Keep the conversation alive. And keep it real. Cultivate your culture - one conversation at a time.
