5 Drivers of Great Company Culture

What makes great company culture?

Company culture is often documented in an attempt to create it, define it, shape it. It's talked about at company events, circulated in emails to employees, prominently displayed on t-shirts and posters. It is frequently demanded from 'the top' - a manufactured definition of what culture should be.

In my experience, however, company culture builds itself over time, good and bad. It's a combination of elements - actions, decisions, people - that come together to create culture. As a Manager, it's critical to have a strategy and set the tone for what you want culture to be. When it's all said in done, however, culture just IS. 

So what is culture? Why is it talked about so much? What are the components that contribute to creating a company or team culture? I interviewed my network to find out what's top of mind.  

1. The management team and the people  Every team member, at every level of the company contribute to company culture. From a productive, cohesive management team, to each individual contributor.
   
   It's important for team members to see a productive management team that work together, support one another and are aligned on strategy. This is critical to setting a consistent tone and foundation. Team members want to see a management team that treat and speak of one another, as well as their team members, professionally and with respect, regardless of disagreement, personal dislike or other. This is important for also building trust (#2 below).
   
   Hiring in positive, hard working team members at all levels is crucial in any business. That said, you don't have to hire the 'perfect person' who fits some consistent mold. Finding people smarter than you, challenge you, have different backgrounds, personalities and experiences. It's the best way to build a unique and diverse team - and teams at all levels directly make up the company culture.
    
2. Honesty and trust  As a management team or a Manager, it's important to be honest and familiar with what's really going on in the company. This requires being in touch with your team, understanding what's happening at all levels. If not, it can breed resentment and mistrust, which can be toxic to any company culture. Spending quality time to get to know team members from every department, listen closely and ask questions in one on ones, taking the time to do skip-levels, saying hello at the water cooler - addressing important successes and key challenges openly - these are all important to building company awareness and ultimately internal trust.
   
   
3. Cohesive company goals and vision Clearly communicating short and long-term goals and vision for the company is another important driver of culture. Each team member at every level should understand how their role contributes to achieving the overall company goals, with their individual goals aligned directly to them. It's critical for team members to understand this and feel as though what they are doing every day is directly contributing to the overall company success. Feeling part of the bigger target helps teams to be focused and prioritize their day to day activity.
   
   It's also important to share goals across teams. Understanding how other teams are being measured and prioritizing toward the company targets helps to create cross-team unity. Successful cross-team collaboration is a key component to building a positive company culture. 
   
   
4. Exciting product or technology  Passion about the product or technology is another key driver to culture. Individuals want to be excited about what they are working on. This applies to pitching a product in Sales, promoting the product in Marketing, building it in Development. Being excited about the product today and where it's going in the future creates a buzz within the company, and keeps a steady forward motion. If the product isn't where you want it to be, sharing a realistic roadmap helps drive this further. Teams need to be bought in to the product they are working on every day, and even more, excited about how it applies in the market. This can build a real seed of passion in the company and build both momentum and positive culture.
    
5. Winning  There's just no substitute for winning. Often this is looked at as driven by Sales - new customers, new revenue, new logos. It's equally as important to celebrate winning across departments, from successful product releases, new Ops security certifications, a satisfied customer quote, etc. There's nothing more exciting than the company growing and winning in the market. This naturally builds positive culture and excitement in any company. Then again, positive culture absolutely helps with winning.
   
   

 What did I miss that's critical to company culture? Is culture important to company success? Share your feedback in Comments below.

Experience is the most valuable tool - share it.