Company culture impacts everything about a company. How the employees work, what drives them to work, and how they feel supported and valued are all elements that will contribute to the overall culture in the workplace. It is important that before you measure for performance, that employees feel that they are trusted and valued. These two aspects are vital to increasing performance in your workplace. In this article, we will explore ways to help you build a high-performing culture within your company.
Work culture can be defined as: a collection of attitudes, beliefs and behaviors that make up the regular atmosphere in a work environment. (Indeed.com) When an employer wants to create a high-performance workplace culture, they need to ensure that every aspect of that job points to that culture. A high-performance culture should become the regular atmosphere and not the exception.
Start with the Vision
Vision within a company is the main driver and why behind what you are doing. If a company does not have a vision for where it is going, it becomes easy to get lost and off track. It damages one’s ability to be a high-performing employee as it creates confusion on where they should be heading and what they should be producing. Taking the time to communicate and explain the vision of the company to its employees will help drive the momentum of the company forward.
Vision allows you to communicate the pace of your company as well. It can help you set the tone and feel. It is important that vision is communicated frequently and effectively in order to help maintain the high-performing nature of the company. Take time every staff meeting (preferably weekly) to communicate the whole vision or work through one aspect of the vision in order to provide clarity and motivation to the staff. The best thing you can do for your employees to help them stay high-performing for your organization is to be constantly clarifying the reason behind what they are doing so they can see the long-term purpose of their work.
Raise Up Strong Employees
One of the best ways to ensure that your employees will be high-performing and effective is to create a culture where they feel able to make decisions and contribute to projects freely. High-performing workplaces cannot be micromanaged workplaces. In order to let employees be the most productive they can be, they have to feel empowered to make some decisions themselves. Employees are far better equipped to make proper decisions regarding their projects if they are certain of the why behind what they are doing. Communicating the vision of the company and each project is a way that employees can feel empowered to make their own decisions and as a result, produce more and produce faster.
Another way to help raise up strong employees is to equip them with the proper tools so that their main focus is not on the systems that help them perform their job but solely to just perform their job. Taking the time to invest in proper software and systems that will automate certain aspects of their job and help them work through their projects in a more efficient way will help them to perform at a much better rate than if they were bogged down trying to figure out systems. Taking the time to invest in thorough training on systems prior to an employee fully engaging in the company’s projects will prove to be beneficial in the long run. Have a specific team that is designated to improve systems and tools in the workplace instead of asking each employee to contribute. This way, you can direct the focus of each team and allow them to thrive wherever they are planted.
Encourage Communication
A leader within an organization must feel that they have the ability to communicate with their supervisor or manager. Many times, there are hold ups on projects due to questions regarding the project. If there is a barrier to an employee communicating with their supervisor, then there is an automatic delay on the project and decreases the high-performance value in the organization. Use an open door policy with all employees from all levels. By incorporating regular communication with each employee, there becomes more opportunity to do quick problem solving, clarify any decisions, and help to empower the employee to make certain decisions themselves. You have spent time picking your team and you want to see them thrive. Make it a goal to have a steady stream of communication with your team to help them feel valued and appreciated and a vital member of the team.
Another important aspect of communication is to allow for feedback regularly. Feedback should be a common occurrence within a high-performance organizational structure. This allows an employee to know exactly how they are doing and where they still need to grow and then help an employee make plans for how they can improve their skills, helping them to become more effective. It also benefits the employer, as it ensures they know how their employees are feeling and where there may be distrust or uncertainty about a structure or project. Regular feedback between all parties will increase the ability to be a high-performing individual and organization and help to also keep that vision as the main purpose and driver for the work being done.
High-performing cultures are sometimes seen as a lot of work and unattainable. However, the opposite is actually true. Creating a culture that values high-performing employees creates an environment where every single person on the team is working towards a common goal and knows the exact vision behind the organization and the company. Everyone is bought in. This type of culture also allows each employee to be empowered and given opportunities to shine as they can make decisions about their own projects and don’t feel micromanaged. Finally, a high-performance organizational culture is one that encourages strong communication between all levels of leadership. All of these elements are critical in creating a high-performance culture and will make your organization stronger.
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