“Culture is like a forest. The seeds are your Core Values. Once they take root as behaviors, they grow into trees, populating your cultural forest. Bad seeds produce unhealthy forest, infertile, and plagued by infestations. Good seeds produce a healthy forest and ecosystems that support life. One is sustainable, the other is simply not.” Diane Kalen-Sukra
They say culture trumps everything. If you want to go from mediocre or pretty good to great then culture is a huge part of that transition. Most organizations that I get the opportunity to work with usually start with Core Values. Most organizations have been doing business by an unwritten set of values that they usually are unaware of. If you want to have the best shot at growing a great company you need to know what makes you- you. What is important to us? How do we want to conduct our business? Who and what type of people do we need to hire as we grow? These are foundational conversations and decisions we all need to make.
I’m sure you have hired the wrong person before. How did that work out? Usually super frustrating, costly, distracting, exhausting to mention just a few negative impacts created by the wrong hire. Bad hires/ bad seeds = cultural sickness. Infertile/ slow to no growth. Plagues and infestations of drama, poor performance, distractions, loss of profits, loss of creativity and constant pull of our time and focus. But, how does it feel when we bring on the right person? That really good fit. They seem to be like us and seem to buy in and acclimate fairly quickly. Good hire/ good seeds = healthy culture. Healthy team. Energy. Team work. Increased profitability. Improved communication. Creativity. Ownership. Accountability. Growth. Healthy company and a great place to work.
So what do we do? A little homework for the next 30 days. Carve out some time and think about who you are and who you want to be. Identify the values that are important. Maybe 5 to 7, and write them down and share them with the team. Then begin to use these values to run the organization and hire talent that demonstrates the values that are important to use. Also, be aware of current team members that are not matching up to who we are and develop a plan to coach and train or help them move to a new company where they would be a better fit. You got this!
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