Cultural Revolution

Are your sales uninspired? Revitalizing your company culture is the kick in the fanny it needs. Your ops unorganized? An emphasis on corporate culture will get everyone on the same page. Are you understaffed heading into next winter? Promote your culture to attract and keep quality candidates.

I was talking to my buddy David Lammers from Garden Grove Landscape Management in Ontario about this very topic. David and his team have accomplished some amazing things by establishing, nurturing and promoting a unique company culture rooted in its Garden Grove University. We’ve written about it in the past, and if you wanted to learn more just reach out to David, who’d be happy to talk about it. Anyway, David swears by the power of a healthy, well-managed company culture to drive overall success. Culture gets everyone on the same page, it aligns core values, it emphasizes workflow, processes and procedures, and it ultimately is reflective in the who you’re doing business with.

I recently struck up a friendship with Joshua Gamez, the CEO of East Coast Facilities, and he was telling me about the impact culture has had on his company’s unprecedented success. He explained to me that culture is everything because he is completely focused on his people. In fact, most strategic decisions weigh heavily on how they will ultimately impact East Coast workers. I’m not doing Joshua or his management philosophy justice because he has such incredible passion for the people he employs. Reach out to him on LinkIn if you want to know more.

A word of caution, though, about company culture, or any management elixir that touts itself as a miracle cure-all. Individual company cultures are as unique as fingerprints. Therefore, you can’t expect adopting any one style or philosophy will fit your business or that it will reproduce the intended results.

Instead, as a business owner or top manager wrestling with this concept of culture within your own organization, first take a close look at the culture already in place. It may not require a massive overhaul, but rather it can be rejuvenated through some minor tweaks here and there. Identify those individuals who reflect or practice the best values of your culture, and then bring them into the conversation. And if you feel your operation is devoid of any culture, then start out by establishing your company’s core values and develop ways to reinforce those values throughout the organization. Lastly, review your hiring practices because culture directly influences attraction and retention.

Without a doubt, a thriving culture influences whether a company is successful or not; and operating with a difunctional culture is a one-way trip to the unemployment line. Instead, provide your workforce with meaning and purpose and they’ll handle the rest.