You absolutely do.  And there are real statistics to back the relationship between a good corporate culture influencing business results favorably.  A 2012 Deloitte LLP report titled “Culture in the Workplace” shows that exceptional organizations think about their business as a two-sided ledger: strategy and culture.  Some of the report’s findings include:

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• 94% of executives and 88% of employees believe a distinct workplace culture is important to business success.
• 83% of executives and 84% of employees rank having engaged and motivated employees as the top factor that substantially contributes to a company’s success.
• There is a correlation between employees who say their organization has a clearly articulated and lived culture and those that say they are happy at work and feel valued by their company.

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The report further states that exceptional organizations create and sustain a culture that engages and motivates their employees.  These exciting findings, however, show a conundrum.  Deloitte’s report indicates that there is a disconnect between organizations simply talking about their culture and those that are embedding their beliefs into their operations.  The facts are:

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• Executives have an inflated sense of their workplace culture when compared to employees based on significant differentials in their responses to questions about how culture is expressed in their organization.
• Only 19% of executives and 15% of employees believe strongly that their culture is widely upheld within their own organizations.
• When considering what factors impact workplace culture, executives rank tangible elements such as financial performance (65%) and competitive compensation (62%) among the highest, whereas those factors were among the lowest for employees.
• In contrast, employees rank intangible elements such as regular and candid communications (50%), employee recognition (49%), and access to management/leadership (47%) highest.

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So, if we know that you need a good corporate culture to achieve robust business results, but there seems to be a disconnect on how this philosophy is appropriately implemented, what must you as a corporate leader do to rectify the problem identified in the Deloitte report?  Here are 5 habits that can be fostered to positively influence your corporate culture:

1. Act accordingly.  Do you have your core values and beliefs identified within the organization, but are just talking the talk and not walking the walk?  Make it your mission to become the role model for what you identified as key to your organization’s value and belief system.  Employees need to know that you stand by your word and take the actions to back them up.
2. Walk the floor.  Are you hiding in your office and just interacting with employees via e-mail?  Or do you think that the employee Facebook group page is the way to be “social” with your employees?   Great leadership can’t be executed electronically.  It requires face-to-face interaction and taking an interest in your team.  Make it your mission to become visible and relatable – in person.
3. Huddle regularly.  We’re not talking about boring staff meetings here where you go through your agenda and share business numbers.  This is about having impromptu update sessions to share good news, create contest to drive sales numbers or alert your team about potential product issues.  The intent is to be less formal and more transparent about what goes on within the executive suite.
4. Recognize often.  Do you have a formal employee recognition program?  If yes, do you broadcast it?  If you don’t have one, then figure out quickly what you can do to implement one.  As shown in the Deloitte report, employees put employee recognition into the top 3 elements that make up an exceptional company.   Your employees want to feel like their contributions matter.
5. Value input.  Are you actively seeking input from your employees as to what’s working and not working within your company?  Employee satisfaction surveys are one way to solicit anonymous feedback.  However, how about doing roundtables with a random number of employees in your division to glean from them in person what you can do to make improvements?

Changing corporate culture doesn’t happen overnight.  However, consistent actions and communications on what you’re doing to improve it will make the change sustainable and signal to your employees that you’re serious.

What have your own experiences been in culture-building?  What hurdles did you encounter?  Please comment below.  Also, if you like what you read, please share it with others by clicking one of the buttons above.

P.S.  Looking for guidance, support and motivation to face the many challenges you encounter in the ever-changing business world that continually pushes you to stretch your leadership capabilities to the max?   Then Chamberlain Leadership Executive Coaching might be what you need.  For more info: https://marionchamberlain.com/executive-coaching/