Creating Lasting Value
While strategy is all that makes the news, culture will be responsible for its survival when faced with reality. Strategy is drafted by executives, but implementation takes place through action, not PowerPoint presentations. If culture does not support the plan, no matter how well-crafted, it won’t get anywhere. Smart boards know this, and culture-driven business growth has become a key point of the leadership agenda.
Here’s the thing. Corporate culture dictates how decisions are made without a manager’s supervision. Culture tells people whether they report problems promptly, distribute recognition widely, and debate ideas constructively. The result is an accumulation of all of these actions that lead to quality, strong client relationships, and steady performance numbers.
From Values to Behavior
Culture comes to life through the actions of the leadership. Posters hanging in offices do not help in any way. If leaders reward collaboration, publicly admit their mistakes, and hire people with the same values, their message is much stronger than anything written in the mission statement. People learn how far they can go from the examples set by the leadership.
The selection process holds the same value. Organizations applying culture-driven business growth approach candidates’ values and skills with equal consideration and apply the same standards to senior managers and beginners. Great performers that harm others destroy the system, and good leaders recognize it.
Microsoft’s Cultural Reset
Microsoft is a good example to illustrate this point. Satya Nadella became the CEO of the company in February 2014, and he used cultural transformation as one of his top priorities. He advised employees to embrace a growth mindset approach that originated from the studies of psychologist Carol Dweck, encouraging people to learn from their mistakes rather than protect their previous views on certain issues. The idea was described by the author in his 2017 book titled “Hit Refresh.” During the following years, Microsoft launched new initiatives to develop the cloud sector, and the market capitalization of the firm exceeded $1 trillion in April 2019.
Measuring What Matters
However, critics claim that culture cannot be measured due to its intangible nature. Critics are partially correct, but there are ways for leaders to gauge culture effectively. The number of employee resignations, internal promotions, employee surveys, customer satisfaction levels, and how fast projects between teams are done show whether or not a culture is strong. Those who examine these metrics along with financial performance notice patterns unseen in numbers.
Measurement also increases credibility. Executives need to publish their findings and implement what they learned from these metrics. Employees will be convinced that culture-driven business growth is not a fad, but an earnest endeavor. Not following up after a survey undermines credibility.
Common Pitfalls
There are several pitfalls waiting for businesses along this road. The first one is inconsistency: while managers extol the value of transparency in meetings, they privately penalize bad news. Second, there’s the issue of imitation: what works for a startup might be utterly ineffective in the context of a heavily regulated bank; each organization needs to tailor its ideas to fit its history and market environment. Finally, there’s impatience – culture takes years to change, not months, but managers who expect immediate results give up before achieving them.
Working remotely or in hybrid models makes it harder. Teams that barely ever get together in person need to establish trust through purposeful rituals of good communication practices and frequent check-ups. Leaders that ignore such rituals see connections weaken and CDBG suffer as a consequence.
A Practical Path Forward
Leaders seeking to initiate the process can use a simple list. To start with, identify three or four value statements in layman’s language and pair them with observable behaviors. Next, base hiring, compensation, and promotion practices on the behaviors. Further, train your managers since employees live the culture through their immediate managers. Finally, evaluate progress quarterly and communicate the results publicly.
Small acts make all the difference in the process. A manager who appreciates his team for raising the mistake early will teach more than dozens of training programs in many months. Companies striving for culture-driven business growth depend exactly on such reinforcement efforts.
The Bottom Line
Culture will never replace strategy, capital, or talent, but it adds to the value of all three. The companies that match their values with their actions are able to draw devoted individuals and recover from adversity quicker than others. Those that understand that culture-driven business growth is an important process to pursue with discipline and consistency will end up leading in the short term and thriving in the long term.