Teamwork or Me Work – Which One Gets the Job Done?
We just wrapped up our fall sales meeting. Over three days, our sales team members, executive team and a few others, including myself, gathered at our Motivation Excellence headquarters in Schaumburg, Illinois. We do the same thing in the spring. It’s a wonderful time for collaboration on certain projects, like revamping our proposals and talking through marketing strategies. We have a limited time together, which spurs a consistent workflow. After it’s done though, we each go our own way and focus on our individual task lists again.
Balance Matters
For most businesses, having a balance of teamwork and solo work is the norm. On any given day we have teams working on client proposals, special projects, and developing campaigns to solve our clients’ needs. But each person on the team usually has work they have to do on their own to contribute to the overall plan. For instance, if we are building a performance improvement website, I write the copy, our graphic arts director designs the look, the performance manager decides what metrics are best to measure based on the client’s needs, and our IT team does all the code magic to create an easy user experience. We meet as a team at the outset, plan our vision and then disperse to complete our individual parts. It’s a great way to take advantage of the benefits of both collaborative and individual work time.
Alone but Not Lonely
We definitely have people who prefer to work alone, and others who thrive on working alongside colleagues. There are times when both are important. Let’s look at times when flying solo is better. According to a FastCompany.com article, working alone is especially vital for initial creative thinking, building a sticky relationship with a customer and writing (reports, articles, etc.). Indeed.com says being a lone wolf is also great for focus and efficiency. Responsibility rests on only one set of shoulders though.
Meet the Team
Teamwork is touted for many benefits, including building connections with colleagues, brainstorming, creating inclusivity and sharing skills. In an assembly line scenario, having several people working together definitely beats one person working alone. Productivity and profits can rise with the right teamwork in play. Teams also tend to be motivating with everyone working toward one goal and one deadline. Teammates can offer support and share in the responsibility of the task too, allowing accountability to spread across many shoulders.
One or Some?
How do you decide which way to go? Ask yourself these questions:
- Is a diversity of opinions important to the outcome?
- Do I have the skills needed to finish the project alone?
- Do I want to share the success/failure?
- Do I have a blind spot that I might not be aware of?
- Will a team be more or less efficient/profitable for this task?
As you answer each question, you’ll be forced to decide if bringing a team together or standing on your own makes the most sense. In the end, even if you’ve done all the work yourself, asking others to proofread, give feedback or build on what you started creates some teamwork vibes.
No matter how you prefer to work, you’ll likely be asked to be part of a team some of the time. It’s important to show appreciation for others’ efforts and be a positive contributor to group discussions. Nothing halts creativity and ingenuity like the person who insists on dissing everyone’s input! And remember, when you’re part of a successful team, the celebration is much more fun than a party of one. 😊
A Quarter for Your Thoughts on Year-End Rewards
A penny just doesn’t entice anyone for their thoughts anymore (or ever?). What does get people thinking, is how best to reward their top performers at the end of the year. We are here to help you take that train of thought all the way into the station with flair!
At Motivation Excellence, with our vast team of program designers, we know what motivates performance improvement. It’s our specialty. We also know from decades of understanding emotional decisions that some rewards shine far brighter than others. We’ve found the more choice someone has in deciding their own reward, the better the results for you and them!
Think this through with us. It’s the end of the year (or quarter, or promotion, you get the idea) and you’ve done really well because of the people integral to your business. You want them to benefit from their extraordinary performance AND you want them to have those warm, fuzzy feelings about your company so they remain engaged, happy and loyal.
Now picture their faces when you hand them a bonus. They’re pretty happy, right? They’re smiling and thinking of all the ways they’d love to spend that extra money. We’ve all had a windfall before and know the routine. You spend it in your head in ten different ways, on really cool things, but once it gets deposited into your checking account, it actually gets spent on gas, groceries and repairing a flat tire before the fun ever gets started. They’re grateful for sure, but they might not have any kind of lasting memory to tie fondly to you and your company.
Now imagine you hand them a lifestyle upgrade reward package that includes a mountain bike, a mount for their car and safety lights. Or, it includes their choice of three high-tech kitchen gadgets and a gift card to order steak or seafood. Perhaps, it’s a travel package with airline and hotel gift cards, a new piece of luxury luggage and a hot air balloon experience. With our MAXRewardsYourWay solution, we can build amazing reward packages at a variety of price points ($2,500 and up), so your top achievers can choose what reward is best for them!
Here’s the best part. Recipients LOVE their reward because they chose it. They post about it on social media. They take photos and show their friends and family. They use the items regularly and when they do, they’re reminded they earned them through their work with YOU. An emotional connection is established, which often leads to a long-term bond.
This works for channel partners too! If you’re looking to push out a new product, gain market share, or reward long-time loyalty, offering an incentive in the form of a highly promotable reward package is easy and affordable.
To recap, here are some of the many benefits of our MAXRewardsYourWay offering as we head into the end of the year:
- Our lifestyle packages can be customizable to your recipients’ needs
- You only pay for the packages selected
- There are low administration costs
- You get high flexibility for your budget
We have a wide variety of other solutions ready to reward your best people too. From instant appreciation in the form of restaurant and retail gift cards with MAXRewardsNOW, to long-term incentive programs with rewards like five-star, one-of-a-kind travel experiences, Motivation Excellence is ready to help you Inspire Extraordinary Performance with the people who mean the most to your business’s success.
This thought train has now arrived at the station – hop on to conduct your year-end reward strategy to the fullest. Choo-choo! Contact us today to recognize your top performers at me@motivationexcellence.com.
Imposter Syndrome: Knock Self-doubt Out of Your Head
Photo credit: Arisa Chattasa, Unsplash
Did you know the people most likely to suffer from imposter syndrome are high-achieving, go-getters? It’s ironic, isn’t it? The people who most deserve to feel good about their accomplishments end up second-guessing their abilities and downplaying their skills. It can be a vicious cycle, tearing the core of someone’s confidence to shreds and creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Women seem to fall to this fraudulent feeling more often than men, but a Harvard Business Review article claims that has more to do with existing workplace biases than anything else.
Are You Prone to Imposter Syndrome?
There is a general consensus that certain personality types do lend themselves to suffering from imposter syndrome more than others. Healthline.com outlines the characteristics of each.
- Perfectionist
- Natural Genius
- Rugged Individualist
- Expert
- Superhero
No matter what dominates your personality make-up, it’s important to recognize if you tend to minimize the good and catastrophize the bad when it comes to your personal experiences. We’re not talking about being humble or falling on your sword here either. Imposter syndrome is internal, not external. It lives inside your mind, casting a cloud of doubt over all your bright spots. Psycom has a quiz you can take to see if you’re prone to overwhelming self-doubt despite evidence to the contrary.
Don’t Listen to the Devil
We’ve all seen the image of an angel on one shoulder and the devil on the other. People with imposter syndrome tend to lean toward listening to the devil. In this case, the little red character isn’t telling them to do something bad, it’s telling them they are bad. Bad at what they do. Bad at making decisions. Bad at managing crisis situations. Bad at doing whatever it is they actually do very well!
This leads to incessant worry that they’ll be discovered as a fraud and lose their position. An especially painful twist is that those who feel like an imposter take on all the blame for their mistakes, but none of the glory for their accomplishments.
Fight Fairly – Especially with Yourself
A Forbes.com article gives tips to combat the imposter phenomenon, including talking about it with other professionals in your ranks. There are a lot of other ideas to help you too. Some of our favorites are below.
Stop the negative feedback loop: talk back to yourself, defend your abilities with a passion
Claim your wins – big and small: actually, write them down as they happen and keep them visible as a reminder
Realize your limitations: don’t expect to excel at everything, or be perfect at anything the first time around
Create a Trusted Circle: know the people you can turn to for an honest take on how you’re feeling
Recognize luck versus work: if you can recreate it, it’s not luck, it’s your hard work
Finally, know you’re not alone! According to Psycom, roughly 70% of people in the U.S. experience imposter syndrome at some point in their lives. It may come and go depending on the situation, so having several tools to fight it is important. Find the ways that help you the most and then share them with someone else struggling to accept their awesomeness!
Get to Know ME with Bob Hertel
Bob Hertel, from our travel department, is a man of few words but exhibits sly humor and wise observations. As a long-timer in the industry, Bob helps us create outstanding travel programs filled with “Wow!” moments that motivate people to be sure to attend the following year! Keep reading, and watch the short video (like I said, few words…), to learn more about Bob! Thanks, Bob, for letting us Get to Know you better.
What’s your title and how long have you been in the incentive industry and at VIKTOR/Motivation Excellence?
I’m the Travel Purchasing and Planning Manager. It’s been 17 years in the incentive business with VIKTOR and now Motivation Excellence, but 25 years total in the events industry.
What does your job entail?
Working with sales to understand a client’s needs. Sourcing vendors. Building budgets. Building proposals. Vendor relations.
What’s something special about the people you work with that you’d like to share?
It’s a good group of people who really care about the clients and their guests.
What’s an unknown or odd talent you have?
It’s unknown for a reason.
What motivates you to accomplish things in your life (work or personal)?
Being able to provide a comfortable life for me and my family.
What do you enjoy doing outside of work?
Watching and attending Michigan State football and basketball games. Home improvement. Building sets for musicals when my kids were in high school.
One thing that always makes you laugh is?
Any clever comedy. I really dislike formulaic comedy (think Friends).
What have you done that helped you get through the pandemic?
A ton of home improvement.
What is the most unusual job you’ve ever had?
Cue cards for a Disney Channel show.
This month, our theme for social media is about competition and how it can benefit both personal and professional growth. How do you feel about competition? Do you regularly use it to meet goals?
I like competition and generally think it’s healthy. Do I use it to meet goals… not really. I try to compete with myself to improve. When I see people competing to be the smartest one in the room, it generally does not help get anyone across the finish line any better or faster.
The Above and Beyond Foundation Hero Awards at Motivation Excellence
Two Motivation Excellence Employees Get First Agency “Heroes of Hospitality” Awards!
It’s with great pleasure and pride we announce that The Above and Beyond Foundation awarded two Heroes of Hospitality awards to two of our teammates at Motivation Excellence! They are the first winners awarded this honor at a travel and incentive agency. Past winners have come from hotels and destination management companies.
Let’s meet our winners! Susan Rizzi is a Customer Service Specialist who works daily with our clients’ participants who need assistance redeeming their award points for just about anything. Susan has helped people use their points for engagement rings, complicated travel reservations and home improvement projects, to name just a few. What makes Susan really stand out is her willingness to work outside business hours to make sure her participants get the personal and high-touch service they earned through their incentive programs. Oh, and her sparkling personality goes a long way too!
Our second winner, Tina Roszak, is part of our travel team as a Program Manager. Tina was recently assigned a travel program to manage with only a few months turnaround time. Normally, our travel teams have well over a year to plan and execute a program. She led the way for a successful program in less-than-ideal circumstances. Tina’s always positive and can-do attitude really stands out in every program she manages!
If you’re up for a feel-good, tear-inducing video, watch both of our winners get the surprise announcement at a recent company-wide event right here.
The Above and Beyond Foundation started four years ago as a way to reward frontline hospitality workers and help them achieve their professional and personal growth goals. During the pandemic, it became a lifeline to industry workers who were laid off or had their hours drastically reduced. Motivation Excellence sourced and delivered $500 gift cards for TAABF to award to those who applied for assistance. There are three awards available through the foundation: Heart of Hospitality, Heroes of Hospitality and Helping Hospitality.
We value our partnership with this great industry organization. We are truly honored to be the first travel and incentive agency to award two of our employees!
Using Competition to Sharpen Your Edge
Yes, some people can be too competitive. It can be seen as a turn-off. This blog, however, is going to give reasons why competition, when done in a healthy manner, is great for business and personal growth.
Competition as a Motivator
OxygenMag.com says competition actually helps boost our capacity to learn and thrive. In addition, it’s a great motivator. We see the latter to be especially true in many of our Motivation Excellence programs. Whether the reward is an amazing group travel experience or a points-based program where earners can spend those points on almost anything they desire, programs with leaderboards amp up the excitement and the results.
Pat Benninger, one of our Senior Program Managers, works with our clients and their participants daily. In one program, where a major flooring company’s channel distributors were competing for a group travel award to a brand-new resort in Mexico, Benninger says the competition increased engagement.
“I had participants sending me emails regularly checking their sales to make sure they were ranking correctly. Did it increase competition? Yes!”
Shannon O’Shaughnessy, another Senior Program Manager, agrees, saying recognizing top performers publicly is a great result of using leaderboards in her programs. But there are many other benefits for her clients.
“We can do a lot of cool things with leaderboards, such as filtering and toggles to show different leaderboard views based on participant type, company, hierarchy levels or other tracking elements. This competitive information helps our clients’ sales teams utilize customer information and help spur more competition among them.”
One final example of using competition in the incentive world comes from a longtime client in the fencing industry who shared that during the last month of a program period his sales team gets calls daily from their customers looking not only for their rank on the leaderboard but how close they are to taking over the spot above them. The reward for this group is an all-expense paid travel experience with other high-achieving fencing contractors around the country. Top-notch entertainment, access to the executive team and valued vendors all add to the incredible reward.
Keeping it Friendly
As stated earlier, there are some people who see competition with dingy dismay colored glasses. Bustle.com writes that when it comes to your career though, some healthy competition can take you a long way. They list seven ways to be more competitive in the workplace, without being a jerk (so important!). Among them are using competition to push yourself out of your comfort zone and figuring out what makes you different from your most inspirational coworker.
Back in the OxygenMag.com article mentioned earlier, the author suggests four steps to employ to keep the challenge fun and friendly.
- Pre-plan: spell out the rules, timeline and touchpoints
- Pick the prize: does the winner get something special?
- Track your progress: the challenge should be pushing you toward some goal
- Reality check: don’t be afraid to reassess and reframe the competition if it’s getting too hard, or a lost friendship might be in the balance
It’s Not About Coming in First
I know, that seems a bit counterintuitive, but you can be in a competition and not place all the emphasis on winning. The goal should be to beat yourself. Outperform your last quarter’s sales. Run a mile in less time. Give out more compliments this month.
Quite simply, you may end up in a competition where the natural talent of your competitors will always outscore you. That’s when you really need to look at personal improvement over comparisons to others. As long as you are moving ahead, you’re winning! Even if you come in 2nd, 3rd or dead last…if you improved over the last result, you’ve used competition to your advantage.
Competition drives us to be better. It helps businesses innovate and individuals meet goals. Whether you’re going up against colleagues, friends or yourself, being in a competitive challenge keeps you motivated and helps ward off complacency. Even if you’ve never thought that being competitive is part of your natural genes, start implementing some of the strategies you’ve read here and see how they work for you!
Get to Know ME with Jillian Fehrenbach
Jillian Fehrenbach is a multi-talented hobbyist and a very helpful member of the Motivation Excellence team! In this month’s Get to Know ME edition, you can read below, and watch her video, to learn more about her love of a very specific literary genre, her nickname (the Junk Store Witch) and why she loves collaborating at home and work. Thanks, Jillian for letting us get to know you better!
What’s your title and how long have you been in the incentive industry and Motivation Excellence?
I’m a Customer Service Specialist with some of our rewards programs and also assist with writing marketing content. I have worked in the incentive industry for VIKTOR since 2016, and recently began with Motivation Excellence beginning in January 2022.
What does your job entail?
For our clients, I help administer their reward and recognition programs, and for their participants, I assist with orders. I also write incentive travel and social media copy.
What’s something special about the people you work with you’d like to share?
I’ve enjoyed meeting more coworkers as our two companies came together. What I like about our new combined team is that the individuals that make up this group are approachable and professional. Whether working together or autonomously, the vibe is positive/flexible/reliable, which makes the job even more satisfying.
What’s an unknown or odd talent you have?
I’m really into vintage things and a pretty good ‘picker’ at thrift stores and garage sales. Before I head out to shop, friends and family have gotten into the habit of asking what I hope to find. They know I’ll usually find it and for just a buck or two. Being able to summon a Bodum milk frother or cultured pearls, for example, at secondhand stores has earned me the nickname “Junk Store Witch.”
What motivates you to accomplish things in your life (work or personal)?
I’m very visual and I like to collaborate. When I look at something, I immediately think about how to elevate it and contribute value. Helping coworkers, customers, clients, family and friends brings me joy, especially if I’m easing someone’s load.
What do you enjoy doing outside of work?
You mean other than thrifting? Gardening! During the spring, summer and fall, I enjoy spending my free time in the yard and at my friend’s flower farm, weeding the rows and building bouquets to sell. I also love to collect books, knit with friends, and cook from scratch.
One thing that always makes you laugh is?
Goofy personalities! My husband’s wise-cracking keeps me laughing, as do my favorite funny shows: I Love Lucy, Drunk History, Derry Girls and Jimmy Kimmel Live.
What have you done that helped you get through the pandemic?
I set up an Etsy shop and joined the online community of resale marketers. I had always wanted to sell my vintage finds and found that photographing and writing about them was a nice distraction during the pandemic.
What is the most unusual job you’ve ever had?
I was a print catalog writer for a large Christian retail chain. Following a fast-paced daily schedule, I worked with merchandise buyers, vendors and designers to conceptualize, write, and proofread bi-monthly product catalogs. It was collaboration on steroids!
This month, our theme for social media is about leadership – both being one and teaching someone else to be a leader. What aspects of leadership do you utilize?
As a mom of an adult child and a teenager, I see similarities between parenting and workplace leadership. I have learned the importance of being present and empathic no matter where I am or who I’m with. I think of a leader as someone who stays positive and encouraging while navigating change. I see a lot of value in finding constructive ways to handle stress. I try to start with a plan based in collaboration while being ready for anything. Currently, I am helping my teenage daughter learn about leadership choices she can make as she takes on her first job and volunteers in the community.
Congratulations, You’re a Leader, Now Teach Others to be the Same!
There are people who, perhaps, are “born leaders,” but that doesn’t make them great leaders, nor does it leave everyone else out of the game. While personality can go a long way, anyone with the determination to learn leadership skills can have great success, and in turn, pass those skills off to a new group of eager learners.
Qualities of great leaders include:
- Thirst for lifelong learning
- High level of integrity
- Empathy
- Ability to delegate
- Trustworthy
- Self-awareness
The Center of Creative Leadership adds great communication skills into their list of ten leadership traits. Being able to coach someone, inspire them, and create a level of trust relies greatly on a leader’s ability to communicate and listen effectively. (Check out our Active Listening blog next.)
Once you become a leader, it’s time to teach the skills you’ve honed (or are always honing, to be more honest) to other people in your realm—at work, in community organizations, on sports teams, etc.
Lead the Way
In a business sense, having a company full of people with leadership abilities is amazing! That’s where innovation and problem solving come to life. Having employees who “think like an owner” creates positive customer experiences. Employees who aren’t micromanaged feel more respected and are more engaged with company goals. As long as egos stay in check, leaders at every level can serve a business well.
Famed motivational speaker and author, Tony Robbins, says teaching leadership includes instilling both hard and soft skill sets. The goal is to help amplify strengths and improve weaknesses. He writes about seven strategies to teach leadership, including:
- Earning trust – People won’t come to you in the first place if they don’t trust you’ll listen, show respect and give guidance rather than dictates.
- Challenging employees – Hand out new projects with opportunities to succeed or fail. You’ll see who rises to the challenge, learns from mistakes, and comes back for more.
- Building an open culture – Create a culture that encourages questions and communication, not one where people fear speaking up will end in embarrassment or retribution.
Obviously, leading by example is critical too. Display your best leadership abilities, and if you falter, call it out or apologize if needed. Everyone makes mistakes. Owning those mistakes and learning from them are hallmarks of great leaders!
The World Is Our Best Teacher
Encouraging employees (or students or your kids) to get out in the community is a great way for them to learn leadership skills outside of work, school, or home. Indeed says volunteering teaches a core tenant of leadership: helping people. Whether they’re assisting at a homeless shelter, coaching a youth soccer club, or participating in scouts or a church group, people who volunteer are learning compassion and kindness. Those are two more traits of great leaders.
Another way to use the community as a resource is to have your leadership mentee pick a leader they really admire and study that person. It can be someone famous or not. Have your “student” list out why this person is a good leader and apply some of those traits to their own situation. Are there traits they’d change or improve? How can they use one new leadership trait that day?
Follow to Lead
Teaching leadership is an ongoing process. Learning how to be a leader is too. Setting goals, checking in with a mentor, and being persistent in the face of setbacks are all good checkpoints to becoming a leader and teaching the next person in line. Few people become great at anything without consistent effort.
As was stated earlier in this blog, good leaders are always honing their skills. One way to do that is to step back and become a follower every so often. Forbes published an article online on “followership” and the importance for leaders to be followers too—as challenging as it might be. A leader who can follow gains knowledge of other leadership styles, traits, and perspectives. They also see if what they’ve been teaching is working. It’s a great circle of discovery, growth, and measurement!
Active Listening is a Full Body Exercise
Active listening might not get your heart rate up like cardio, or increase muscle mass like weight lifting, but it definitely helps build your character and stretch your mind. From keeping eye contact to recognizing your body language, being a good active listener is a full-body exercise.
Why Active Listening is Important
The Center for Creative Leadership touts active listeners as leaders who:
- establish trust with their employees and coworkers
- have greater empathy
- coach their people more effectively
- gain the respect of those around them
Developing active listening skills can create many positive reactions at work, at home, and in social situations. People who are open to truly hearing another person’s message, even if it’s contrary to their own beliefs, cultivate a myriad of other strong character attributes like broad-minded thinking, valuing inclusivity, being a life-long learner, and engaging a flexible mindset. These are all topics we’ve written about in our professional and personal growth blog series on Motivation Excellence.com.
Active listeners make more informed decisions. They are able to reiterate the speaker’s message without coloring it with their own personal viewpoint. They are seen as fair leaders who make an effort to better understand someone’s situation. These are all highly valued character traits in any person, but especially company leadership.
Listen Up! Here’s How
If you want to start on the path of being a better listener, there are plenty of techniques to employ right away.
We developed a MEme to help get things started:
Eye Contact – focus on the speaker
Attention – put down your phone, don’t multi-task
Respect – be open to the message and the speaker
Silence – don’t interrupt the message; show supportive body language
The final step is to repeat the message and ask clarifying questions so both you and the speaker agree you’re on the same page with sentiment, semantics, and context.
The exercise of active listening should be a positive one for both the listener and the speaker. VeryWellMind.com wraps it up like this:
“It is the process of listening attentively while someone else speaks, paraphrasing and reflecting back what is said, and withholding judgment and advice.”
You Can Do this Exercise Anywhere
Active listening skills can be employed anywhere! And, just like physical exercises, the more you flex these skills, the stronger they—and you—become. Try it out at the grocery store, with your spouse, at a party, and especially at work. People have important things to say. Be the person who hears them and you’ll find yourself becoming a stronger friend, colleague, and community member.
Keeping Your Company Culture Healthy – Here’s the Rx!
Image credit: Priscilla Du Preez, Unsplash
We hear a lot about company culture these days. It’s becoming an increasingly important part of hiring and retaining top talent. GreatPlacetoWork.com points out Millennials are 11x more likely to leave a toxic work environment than Gen Xers. But, it’s not company-sponsored happy hours that create an impressive culture at work, although many would consider them a bonus! A positive and attractive company culture is about a community of people who share beliefs, work ethics, values, goals, and expected behaviors.
“When I cut through all the noise about company culture, it is all about the environment created in the company that fosters behavior. Culture is your values in actions,” says John Trakselis, Business and Executive Coach and Chairperson with Vistage, International.
Symptoms of an Unhealthy Company Culture
- High turnover of employees
- Employees can’t state the company’s values
- Leadership fails to model company values
- Unhealthy work-life balance
- Poor communication efforts throughout the company
- Bad work practices build up
- Employees regularly feel the need for a mental health break
For Trakselis, a company’s culture is rooted in its values or lack thereof. If a company’s values are convoluted, not written in common sense terms, or can’t be demonstrated through desired behaviors, then they’re likely not contributing positively to the work environment.
“The second thing that I look at is the company’s principles or code of conduct. You obviously have some sort of behavior going on in the company. Is that behavior consistent with the company’s stated values?
Here are two interesting questions to ask company employees:
- Can you list the company’s values?
- How does the company live out each one of its values?
This is not about embarrassing someone. It is more about how ingrained a particular value is by the specific behaviors witnessed in the company. The height of hypocrisy is to say one thing and do another. This destroys leadership’s credibility with its employees,” states Trakselis.
The Cure Takes Time, but It’s Worth It
All of the unhealthy examples above can be cured; that’s great news! It will take time, commitment, and action by company leaders. Trakselis says leaders need to step up at every level.
“It always starts with leadership—at every level of the organization. One definition of a leader that I like: ‘You are a leader if you influence someone else.’ It is not only top management, but every level of management in the company that sets the tone for behavior.”
This linked Forbes article gives ideas on ways to create a positive culture. Tips include demonstrating respect, having a customer-first attitude and do-it-now work ethic.
Trakselis says building a better culture can start with your next hire. Make sure the talent will mesh well AND even boost the culture with his or her shared values. Other tips to consider:
- Reward positive behaviors that highlight stated values – share them publicly
- Discipline the bad ones, privately, and offer constructive advice on how to change behavior
- Repeat company values often in meetings, events, departments
- Survey the personnel to get a read on the working environment, follow-up regularly
- Listen to understand, not to argue or interrupt
- Address subcultures that undermine the culture you have created in the company
- Encourage humility, curiosity, and teamwork
We recently asked our LinkedIn followers to give us insight into their most valued element of company culture. The overwhelming answer was having a positive work environment. Having your employees want to show up each day, contribute positively and achieve company goals is positive company culture 101!
Keeping the Culture Healthy
Continuing to foster a great company culture requires active check-ups, tweaks, and perhaps a shot in the arm now and then. Be sure to look at how you reward and recognize the people who help create the culture you desire. According to Alta Metrics, not using incentives for your best performers can lead to a toxic environment. If you need any advice on this aspect of company culture, please visit our website, MotivationExcellence.com. We help a wide variety of companies Inspire Extraordinary Performance every day!
Here are a few final thoughts from our passionate advocate this month, John Trakselis. He wants to drive home the fact that a great company culture leads to success on many levels.
- “A positive culture creates trust in the company and, as Stephen R. M. Covey pointed out in his book titled The Speed of Trust, the company thrives because there is more “flow” and less resistance.
- People have a sense of belonging and being part of something bigger than themselves, thereby reaching more of their potential while serving the company and themselves in much bigger ways.
- The company is more likely to achieve its mission, go where it wants to go, service its stakeholders, and promote standards of excellence.”
Now, it’s time to get to work. Even if you think your culture is AOK, be sure to take its temperature now and then to maintain a healthy environment.
