How to Build Best Company Culture - Things to Avoid

When you begin an entrepreneurial journey or get a job in a startup, it feels like you have got a great opportunity to showcase your skill-sets and the methodology of work also shifts. This shift is due to the different cultures prevailing in different startups. Every organization whether it is big or small have a unique culture to provide diversification. The question that arises here is, what is startup culture and how does it affect the workmanship of employees.

Numerous scholars and researchers have a different take on corporate culture or startup culture, as the term has a deeper meaning and have a very strong impact on the business. A bad startup culture might ruin the whole business and the foundation also gets degraded. To understand startup culture in brief, we can say that culture is a set of values, morals and beliefs on which an organisation works. The culture of an organisation is based on the leadership of an organisation which is designed by the leader.

The startup culture depends upon the nature of the startup owner. A CEO has the full responsibility of the culture and he can mould it easily as per their desire. As a leader of an organization is a human and it’s pretty much possible that they might construct the wrong culture in an organization, which instead of boosting the business, lead to the path of destruction for it. So, it’s very vital to develop a perfect professional culture in an organization. Well if you are an emerging entrepreneur and want to avoid bad startup culture, then you’re at the right place, as today we will discuss some signs of bad startup culture and remedies to overcome them.

Symptoms of Bad Startup Culture
Characteristics of Good Culture
How to Build a Great Company Culture

Symptoms of Bad Startup Culture

Before finding the cure for the bad startup culture, we need to find out its symptoms. So let’s begin:

• The leader is the sailor in an organization, so he needs to set a great example for his superiors. If a leader doesn’t work properly and doesn’t delegate his duties to others, then this is the indication, that an organization is going to sink very soon.
• The optimum example of bad startup culture is when you can’t work, as you desire and you have no creative freedom to explore more. This bondage of culture will affect the performance of the worker and the startup may fail, even before it began its jour.
• ‘We are good’, ‘future is bright for us’, 'We Will get profit soon, when you hear that kind of words from your boss, then it means you should start looking for a new job.
• The fake media publicity and having numerous fake subscribers will never improve your business because it will give you a false picture of your business.
• When there is any kind of dispute and rivalry seen in the coworkers of an organization, then that is a definition of bad startup culture and this will make the environment of the firm tense.
• When higher authority keeps secrets from the employees and won’t disclose the true picture of an organization to them, which demotivates the employees and doesn’t see the business as their own.
• The leader should motivate employees to work hard, but they should never be forced to work hard. Their feelings should be also taken into consideration and fair remuneration should be paid in lieu of extra work.
• The business houses which forgets to cater to the needs of their customers have no chance to survive in the market. To make a good startup culture you need to satisfy your customers first.
• Sometimes too much positive attitude can ruin your business. Be realistic and believe only in the facts.
• If the values of the owner and employees don’t match, then this will create havoc in the office.
• Fake news or gossip is the reason for bad startup culture and it should be avoided at any cost, as it negatively affects the image of startups and reputation is the only valuable asset of new startups.
• When the owner is scared to take hard decisions, this is the beginning of bad startup culture.
• The policies of an organization should not be rigid and the CEO must be capable to twist them, as per the requirement of time.
• The imbalanced distribution of remuneration to the employees will cause partiality in the organization.
• Drinking or smoking during work is highly unethical behaviour that is a symptom of bad culture.

As, we are now familiar with the few indications of bad startup culture, that destroys the startup from the core. Now is the time to share a few remedies to cure this issue of depth.

Characteristics of Good Culture

• Strong leadership – The culture of an organization is the extension of its leader’s values. So the leader of a company needs to adopt good values so that they can be seen in the culture of an organization.
• Creative freedom – The workers should be given the freedom to showcase their ideas freely and leaders must give them some freedom to work as they wish.
• Mission – People have a shared sense of company mission. They “feel” it and it's often tied to a problem they care about even if they’re not a primary user. They feel good about what they are doing as a company and are proud of the impact they’re creating.
• Fast pace – This is the twenty-first century, so an organization should be running according to it and the work should be completed at a fast pace.

So, after analyzing the symptoms of bad startup culture and evaluating the characteristics of a good culture, we come to the conclusion that leadership is the sole reason behind the culture. So leaders need to gather themselves and run their startup in good working culture.

How to Build a Great Company Culture

Good company culture is a practice every company aspires to have. Before we discuss how to make a good company culture let's define what is company culture? Company culture is the working environment, policies and work ethics a company possess. It is very important to provide a healthy company culture to maintain and create a thriving business. If an employee likes the culture of his workplace, he is more likely to be in a better mood and work more efficiently.

Below we have listed a few steps that you can follow to improve or make an amazing culture at your company.

Decide Your Culture Type

The first and foremost step is sitting down and deciding what your companies’ culture should be like. If you are a new company and are just starting out with a hand full of people, all of you can sit down and decide it according to your preferences. If you are a very big company with numerous employees, you can assign the job to one person who can ask for the popular opinion in your office and then you can decide upon it. No matter what culture you want for your company, make sure it is healthy and is making your employees happy.

Transparency

There should be transparency amongst all the people working at the company. Every person in the company should be treated with equal respect and should have access to each and every piece of information. The gap between the boss and the employee should be removed and you should start working as a team. Interaction between employee and the employer is very important, so holding sessions that provide a healthy interaction amongst the whole team is important

Leisure

As the old saying goes ‘all work and no play, makes Jack a dull boy'.  The same is the case with your employees. Even though we are adults but working for long hours without rest can hinder our productivity. Studies show that people were more productive when they have enough breaks between their work. Having entertainment rooms in your office or having a gaming room or outdoor activities in your office area can help your employees relax and also keep them healthy.

Giving Space

Giving each employee space for themselves and giving them a sense of responsibility helps in boosting the employee’s confidence and also since the work is completely their responsibility, they do it better. It is very important to create a healthy learning environment. An employee should be encouraged to learn if he makes any mistakes.

Go Tripping

Taking your employees on a tour of someplace occasionally can be a great way to relax them. If you do not want to take them, providing holiday incentives to the employees can also be done.

Recognize Milestones

In every meeting set milestones and goals for the company and reward the person that has worked extra hard in achieving it. Such an incentive from the company not only makes the employees happy but also inspires them to work harder. The reward can be small as well as big depending on the work.

Hire employees that are suitable for your companies’ culture. If a person does not like social interactions and starts working in a work environment that promotes interactions amongst all employees, he will be more stressed than happy. Similarly, if a person who is outgoing and fun-loving is put in a very serious office environment he will get stressed. So it is important to know the employee’s point of view about your office culture before hiring them.

Be Patient

A company’s culture change is a very big step and will not be achieved in one or two days. It will sometimes require months and years to change. There might come some issues at first, but with time everything will fall into place as expected. All you need is to deal with the situation with patience and make corrections whenever anything goes wrong.

Conclusion

Almost all the young entrepreneurs like to create a cool company culture in their startups these days. However, most of them only get successful in making the infrastructure cool and not the environment. One needs to be aware of the ways to develop a cool culture, not just the infrastructure.

FAQs

What are the four types of corporate culture?

The four types of corporate culture are clan culture, hierarchical culture, market culture and adhocracy culture.

What is the ideal company culture?

An ideal company culture keeps its focus on its employees and clients.