iStock_000001882099XSmallThe lifeblood of any organization is it’s people.

Fabulous products and services are certainly beneficial, but those alone don’t make a “cool culture.” Your people are the means by which those products and services are created and delivered, and customers are WOW’ed, day in and day out.

The single biggest contributor to your organization’s ability to retain and attract talent is it’s culture. The best corporate cultures – high performance, values-aligned work environments – create:

  • safe, inspiring places where people apply their skills and ideas towards common goals
  • avenues for people to grow, learn new skills, and make an impact outside of themselves
  • trusting and respectful communities of like-minded, thriving people

If your organization or team falls short in any of the above areas, you’ll struggle to hang on to talented staff and may not attract the quality of person you want on your team. When leaders understand and embrace their responsibility to manage people’s energy – not results – amazing things happen.

Culture-savvy leaders pay attention to the condition of their organization or team’s work environment. Some questions to consider: To what extent does your organization or team culture demonstrate the best practices of “cool cultures”? . . .

How well does your culture keep your benchmark performers inspired and committed for the long haul? . . .

Are you attracting the right talent – people with the skills required and the values you desire – to fill open positions? . . .

The Performance-Values Assessment

Experience is a great teacher. I have learned a great deal over the past 15 years from senior leaders I’ve coached through our culture change process. The proof that our process works has come entirely from the successes our clients experience. Consistent gains in employee engagement, financial success, and WOW’ed customers have shown that “cool cultures” are a vital part of business success today.

Organizations large & small, from a variety of industries (including manufacturing, printing, sales, insurance, and retail), have found that culture alignment is well worth the investment of time and energy.

I invite you to contribute to new research I’m conducting into high performance, values-aligned work cultures. The initial data gathering has begun. The survey is open to the first 150 respondents that complete the Performance-Values Assessment online.

As you answer twenty questions on the key concepts of high performance, values-aligned work cultures, you will understand how well your organization or team culture “holds up” to these best practices. At the same time, you’ll be helping create a foundation of research that will help others learn how to refine their corporate cultures in the future.

Responses are entirely confidential. No attribution of your individual responses will be published, ever. I will share my analysis of all responses in a future blog post/podcast.

I’m excited about this new research and appreciate those of you willing to help with this initial survey.

Please take the Performance-Values Assessment then add your comments below. How well does your team demonstrate the best practices of inspiring “cool cultures?”

Get your FREE EXCERPT from my new book, #POSITIVITY AT WORK tweet, written with the delightful Lisa Zigarmi. View our video on why we wrote the book, understand the research on positivity in the workplace, and more!

Photo © iStockphoto.com/beisea

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The music heard on these podcasts is from one of Chris’ songs, “Heartfelt,” copyright © Chris Edmonds Music (ASCAP). Chris plays all instruments on these recordings.

S. Chris Edmonds

Chris helps leaders create purposeful, positive, productive work cultures. He's a speaker, author, and executive consultant. He blogs, podcasts, and video casts. He is the author of two Amazon bestsellers: Good Comes First (2021) and The Culture Engine (2014).
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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Jones Loflin says

    What a timely post, Chris. I was working with a group of nurse leaders last week who have 20-30 years of experience but will soon be retiring. When I asked if those who report to them would want their job, they unanimously said, “No.” A focus on fostering the right workplace culture is more critical now than ever.

Do you want to boost engagement by 40%?

Chris will show you how to better align your culture in a step-by-step process that has worked time and time again.

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