Does Your Company Culture Matter? Only If You Want to Thrive!

A Case Study of The Brooks Group

Organizational culture is a topic that baffles many executives because culture seems like a soft and squishy topic. After all, you don’t go out and buy a how-to manual on creating corporate culture! Although the topic may seem soft, hard, tangible results can ensue when your people are aligned with your culture.

An organizational culture is a set of shared values and beliefs that are disseminated and understood at every level of a company. It’s an easy concept to understand, but not necessarily easy to implement. Everyone should be able to answer the question, “What is important to your company?”

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Making Do With Less

As the reopening continues, leaders are once again facing new situations. The “current normal” (I don’t want to call it the “new normal”) is about making do with less. Fewer people are doing the work of many. Expenses are under scrutiny.

Leaders have been inevitably stressed with the myriad difficult decisions that have been made in the past several months. But it’s important to remember that everyone is stressed.

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You Set the Tone

Although parts of the U.S. are reopening and people are slowly returning to places of business, many companies are still operating remotely and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

The changes in the business environment have been exceedingly challenging for all leaders, and you should feel great about keeping things together as much as you have during the past three months.

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Your People Are Watching You…What Are They Seeing?

Most of you are still leading remotely with your staff also working remotely, sometimes even with a skeleton crew in your place of work. Although we have become more accustomed to this after two months, it still feels surreal, doesn’t it?

I know you have been working tirelessly to keep everything together at your company. The new rules of work are changing all the time, so you’re reacting as the environment morphs.

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Attitude vs. Skills

What changes would you like to see in your team when you transition from sheltering at home and begin to return to the workplace? This is a great time to rethink higher standards and to articulate those expectations to your staff.

Here are some extremes to observe from the past six weeks or so. When working remotely, have your people:

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Deflect the Tension

Everyone is going through an indescribably rough period with no end in sight. In general, as the weeks go on people seem to be more tense. That tension spreads geometrically when you take it out on your co-workers.

These times are defining for leaders. People will remember you based on how you “show up” now. Leaders will fare better if they follow some basic concepts while the unknowns of the pandemic era continue.

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Video Explosion

Most leaders had experience with video conferencing prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, it seems that it’s everywhere. Resources such as GoToMeeting, TEAMs (Microsoft Office) and the now ubiquitous Zoom have overnight become essential communication tools.

Leaders who are managing a remote workforce should use one of these as part of frequent check ins with your teams. It gives you a little more information on how your staff is doing when you can see their faces on video rather than simply listening on a conference call.

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