Latest / The Confident Entrepreneur With Jennifer Ann Johnson / Building a Culture That Brings Out the Best in People With Jennifer Ann Johnson
Transcript
- 0:36Jennifer Johnson: Today we're talking about something that can make or break your business, building a company culture that both you and your employees are genuinely proud of.
- 0:45Jennifer Johnson: Not just something that looks good on paper or sounds impressive in job postings, but a culture that people actually want to be part of and talk about with pride.
- 0:56Jennifer Johnson: I want to start with a story that changed how I think about company culture.
- 1:00Jennifer Johnson: A few years ago, I was at a networking event and I overheard a couple of people talking about their jobs.
- 1:06Jennifer Johnson: One of them was complaining, and the other one, the one that was complaining was really complaining about the office politics and the stress and feeling like they were just a number.
- 1:15Jennifer Johnson: And the other person lit up when they started talking about their company.
- 1:19Jennifer Johnson: They weren't talking about the salary or the benefits.
- 1:21Jennifer Johnson: They were talking about how they felt valued and how they could see their impact and how they genuinely enjoyed working with their team and how proud they were to tell people where they worked.
- 1:32Jennifer Johnson: That's when I realized that a great company culture isn't about having the coolest office or the most generous perks.
- 1:38Jennifer Johnson: It's about creating an environment where people feel proud to contribute, where they can do their best work and where they can genuinely want to be.
- 1:47Jennifer Johnson: As entrepreneurs, we have a unique opportunity and responsibility.
- 1:50Jennifer Johnson: We're not just building businesses, we're creating environments where people spend a significant portion of their lives.
- 1:58Jennifer Johnson: We get to decide whether those environments energize people or drain them, whether they help people grow or help them just get by, really whether they create pride or just paychecks.
- 2:09Jennifer Johnson: So today, let's have a conversation about what I've learned about building the kind of culture that attracts people, that brings out their best and creates an environment that everyone, including you, can be genuinely proud of.
- 2:23Jennifer Johnson: Company culture isn't your mission statement on the wall or your values listed on your website.
- 2:28Jennifer Johnson: It's about your employee handbook or your or your company perks.
- 2:32Jennifer Johnson: It's not what it's about.
- 2:33Jennifer Johnson: It's about what actually happens in your organization every day, how decisions get made, how people treat each other, and what behaviors get rewarded and what gets tolerated and what gets addressed.
- 2:46Jennifer Johnson: I learned this lesson when I realized there was a huge gap between what I said in my company and what I said my company valued and what my actions really reinforced forced.
- 2:56Jennifer Johnson: I said I valued innovation and risk taking, but I always was worried about mistakes and I played it safe.
- 3:03Jennifer Johnson: My real culture was risk adverse, regardless of what I said that I wanted.
- 3:08Jennifer Johnson: Great culture isn't built through grand gestures or policy changes.
- 3:13Jennifer Johnson: It's built through countless small interactions and decisions that happen every day.
- 3:21Jennifer Johnson: How you respond when someone makes a mistake, how you handle conflicts between team members, whether you follow through on commitments, how you communicate during stressful times.
- 3:32Jennifer Johnson: Culture starts with leadership.
- 3:34Jennifer Johnson: As the founder or the leader, you are the primary creator and the guardian of your company's culture.
- 3:41Jennifer Johnson: Your behavior, decisions, priorities set the tone for everything else.
- 3:45Jennifer Johnson: You can't delegate culture creation or hope that it's going to develop naturally into something positive.
- 3:53Jennifer Johnson: Now, most companies have values, but few have values that actually influence behavior and decision making.
- 3:59Jennifer Johnson: The difference is specificity and application instead of vague terms that we've all heard thrown around, integrity and excellence.
- 4:10Jennifer Johnson: You need clear, clear values.
- 4:16Jennifer Johnson: And how do you start defining this process or how do you define culture in your company?
- 4:22Jennifer Johnson: Well, start by defining what you want people to feel when they work for your company.
- 4:26Jennifer Johnson: Do you want them to feel challenged, supported, creative, secure?
- 4:31Jennifer Johnson: What does it feel like?
- 4:32Jennifer Johnson: That becomes the foundation for the behaviors that you need to create and the practices.
- 4:39Jennifer Johnson: And then you have the culture strategy alignment.
- 4:42Jennifer Johnson: Your culture needs to align with and also support your business strategy.
- 4:47Jennifer Johnson: If your strategy requires innovation and agility, your culture needs to encourage risk taking.
- 4:53Jennifer Johnson: If your strategy focuses more on operational excellence, then your culture needs to emphasize attention to detail.
- 5:01Jennifer Johnson: Traditional thinking focuses on hiring for a cultural fit.
- 5:06Jennifer Johnson: And I want to kind of talk about the hiring part because finding people who match your existing culture is important.
- 5:13Jennifer Johnson: It's something that that will lead to people meshing together and working together.
- 5:20Jennifer Johnson: People who share your core values, that's important.
- 5:24Jennifer Johnson: But they also need to bring new perspectives and experiences.
- 5:27Jennifer Johnson: So, how do you interview for this?
- 5:29Jennifer Johnson: Well, what I've actually done is I've taken our core values and I've put them into AI and created questions for me to be able to ask of potential employees.
- 5:42Jennifer Johnson: It's been a wonderful thing because it's allowed me to hire people that fit with our core values.
- 5:48Jennifer Johnson: Then you go to your onboarding process.
- 5:51Jennifer Johnson: That's critical because it reinforces your culture and it helps your new hires understand not just what they're supposed to do, but how they're supposed to do it.
- 6:01Jennifer Johnson: At the heart of any culture that's worth being proud of is psychological safety.
- 6:07Jennifer Johnson: What do I mean by that?
- 6:08Jennifer Johnson: Well, it's the belief that people can speak up, take risks, and make mistakes and be themselves without fearing someone coming down on them and being negative with them.
- 6:18Jennifer Johnson: That's very important.
- 6:21Jennifer Johnson: You give people the permission to fail forward.
- 6:24Jennifer Johnson: Great cultures require creating that environment where people can take those risks.
- 6:29Jennifer Johnson: And it doesn't, it doesn't make people fearful of doing that because you're open to it.
- 6:36Jennifer Johnson: It means clear communication channels, having multiple ways for people to share ideas and thoughts and opinions.
- 6:43Jennifer Johnson: It means transparency and decision making.
- 6:47Jennifer Johnson: Allow your employees to help you make decisions.
- 6:53Jennifer Johnson: People are proud to be in organizations where they feel valued, where they feel like they're contributing to things that matter and where they can see a path for growth and development.
- 7:03Jennifer Johnson: This goes beyond the annual reviews.
- 7:06Jennifer Johnson: Create systems for ongoing recognition and feedback.
- 7:10Jennifer Johnson: Maybe it's in meetings, maybe it is in, you know, once a month, once a week, however that looks.
- 7:16Jennifer Johnson: And career development.
- 7:18Jennifer Johnson: Give them real opportunities to grow.
- 7:22Jennifer Johnson: Maybe it's cross-training or special products or attending conferences.
- 7:27Jennifer Johnson: And then invest in people personally.
- 9:57Jennifer Johnson: Show them that you're invested by understanding their goals and their strengths and what they're hoping to do with their life.
- 10:05Jennifer Johnson: And how your organization communicates in formal and informal interactions has a huge impact on that as well.
- 10:14Jennifer Johnson: The feedback loop system is really perfect for this.
- 10:17Jennifer Johnson: It's creating a system that allows feedback to flow in all directions, not just from management to employees, but employees to management and peers.
- 10:26Jennifer Johnson: It allows everybody to have a conversation.
- 10:31Jennifer Johnson: One of the biggest tests that I see of culture is how you handle conflicts and how you handle problems and difficult conversations.
- 10:39Jennifer Johnson: Great culture doesn't mean sticking your head in the sand and avoiding the situations.
- 10:45Jennifer Johnson: It means handling them with respect and honesty and focusing on solutions rather than blame.
- 10:51Jennifer Johnson: On the other end of the continuum, celebrating success together, create rituals or practices for celebrating individual or team successes.
- 11:01Jennifer Johnson: A culture worth being proud of has high standards and clear accountability, but implements, but you can implement those in a way that supports people rather than punishing them.
- 11:13Jennifer Johnson: Creating clear expectations and consequences.
- 11:17Jennifer Johnson: If you do this, then this happens.
- 11:19Jennifer Johnson: People need to know what is expected of them so that they can always know where they stand.
- 11:26Jennifer Johnson: And then you have performance management as development.
- 11:29Jennifer Johnson: If you're using performance management as development rather than judgment, meaning you're using things as a training moment.
- 11:37Jennifer Johnson: I love to use that because that is really what these things are about.
- 11:42Jennifer Johnson: It's not that you failed at something, it's that you tried something, it didn't work.
- 11:47Jennifer Johnson: So we're going to use that as a teaching moment.
- 11:49Jennifer Johnson: But moreover than anything, it's leading by example.
- 11:53Jennifer Johnson: Hold yourself to the exact same standards that you are expecting from others.
- 11:57Jennifer Johnson: When you make mistakes, acknowledge them.
- 11:59Jennifer Johnson: When you commit to something and you don't follow through, admit to that or follow through.
- 12:05Jennifer Johnson: When you have a bad day, handle it professionally.
- 12:10Jennifer Johnson: Now I know there's a lot to be said about work-life integration and your well-being.
- 12:14Jennifer Johnson: So creating work processes and practices that are sustainable is very important to your team.
- 12:22Jennifer Johnson: Making sure that you create practices that people can actually use day-to-day.
- 12:29Jennifer Johnson: Mental health and support is very important.
- 12:32Jennifer Johnson: Make sure that you have a way to support your employees, allowing them flexibility and autonomy, and that is also important as well.
- 12:41Jennifer Johnson: They want to feel like they are part of something bigger than just a paycheck.
- 12:48Jennifer Johnson: So building a great culture is one thing, but then you actually have to measure it to see if it's actually working.
- 12:56Jennifer Johnson: You can do regular check-ins, regular conversations about culture with your staff.
- 13:03Jennifer Johnson: How's it going?
- 13:05Jennifer Johnson: What are you thinking?
- 13:07Jennifer Johnson: And then accept any cultural needs that evolve as your organization grows and changes because it's not going to stay the same.
- 13:14Jennifer Johnson: As your organization grows, your values may change.
- 13:18Jennifer Johnson: How you attract employees may change.
- 13:22Jennifer Johnson: How things work within your company, practices and procedures, things change.
- 13:27Jennifer Johnson: It is a living and breathing business.
- 13:31Jennifer Johnson: So now, finally, going into the ROI of great culture and then things that you can avoid.
- 13:39Jennifer Johnson: So one of the great things about building a great culture is it helps with employee retention as well as actually attracting great employees.
- 13:47Jennifer Johnson: It helps you attract better candidates.
- 13:49Jennifer Johnson: It helps them do their best and innovate.
- 13:53Jennifer Johnson: And it also helps your customer experience.
- 13:56Jennifer Johnson: Overall, if you are treating your employees with great respect and they have a fabulous culture, they are going to treat your customers the same way.
- 14:06Jennifer Johnson: And that spills over to your reputation in the brand of your business.
- 14:11Jennifer Johnson: So a few things to avoid is don't confuse perks with culture.
- 14:16Jennifer Johnson: Free snacks and ping pong tables, all those things that you can see, you can read about everywhere.
- 14:22Jennifer Johnson: Don't confuse that.
- 14:23Jennifer Johnson: That's not necessarily creating great culture.
- 14:28Jennifer Johnson: And then don't always concentrate on being overworked or avoiding feedback.
- 14:35Jennifer Johnson: All of that is pertinent to creating a great culture.
- 14:40Jennifer Johnson: And the one size fits all mistake.
- 14:42Jennifer Johnson: We hear this all the time.
- 14:43Jennifer Johnson: Oh, well, if it worked for this person, it'll work for this person.
- 14:46Jennifer Johnson: That's not the case.
- 14:48Jennifer Johnson: So, in closing, as we wrap up today's episode, I want to remind you that building a culture worth being proud of isn't a destination.
- 14:55Jennifer Johnson: It's an ongoing commitment that requires daily attention.
- 14:59Jennifer Johnson: The culture you create will outlast any specific employee or project.
- 15:04Jennifer Johnson: That's important to remember.
- 15:06Jennifer Johnson: You don't need to have a huge company or massive resources to build a great culture.
- 15:11Jennifer Johnson: Your culture starts with you, your values, your behavior, priorities, and your commitment to creating something that's worth being part of.
- 15:19Jennifer Johnson: The goal isn't perfection, it's progress.
- 15:22Jennifer Johnson: It's creating an environment where people feel valued and where they can grow and do meaningful work.
- 15:27Jennifer Johnson: When you get this right, magic happens.
- 15:31Jennifer Johnson: People go above and beyond, not because they have to, but because they want to.
- 15:35Jennifer Johnson: They refer great candidates because they genuinely want their friends to experience what they experience.
- 15:41Jennifer Johnson: They stick around during tough times because they believe that what you're building together is something great.