At RODA marketing, we are big believers in the importance of great company culture, and that organizations that want to thrive will place culture at the top of their priority list.
As we passionately dedicate ourselves to helping businesses succeed with our digital marketing services, we equally care and commit to building a healthy, vibrant, positive atmosphere and successful culture at our company.
A company culture is born out of customs, behaviors and experiences that management lets exist, and is shaped usually either by careful design, or arbitrarily over time.
While there are many effective ways to create a great culture, and it may be simple enough, maintaining it can be far from easy. The key is to align it with your work strategy and create a system of shared values, and focus on people practices.
However, certain things can erode a company’s culture – here are some top leadership behaviors that are big no-no’s if you want to protect your organizational culture:
Haphazard Hiring Practices
At RODA marketing, we place a huge emphasis on talent acquisition and retention, and when looking for the right candidate, we look for shared values as part of our strategy.
When managers avoid hiring based on exquisite skill-set only, they make sure that a person is a good fit for the culture of their team.
Inconsistent Reward Practices
Leaders who are inconsistent with both rewarding and holding their team members accountable create a culture that produces confusion and lack of direction, is ill defined, and ultimately lacks respect and motivation. This is how your organizational culture can erode rapidly.
When the desired behaviors are consistently and publicly rewarded on a regular basis, and people are held accountable and they hold themselves accountable, everyone knows what is expected and the values are shared.
Also, rewarding people because they are our favorites is a big no-no, because when we treat certain people better than others, it can create a toxic environment where trust deteriorates quickly and talent turnover rises steeply. Not only will this have a direct negative impact on your company culture, but also on the financial health of your business.
Tolerating Poor Behavior
As managers and business owners, we get what we tolerate. If we allow mediocrity, we are successfully building a mediocre team that produces mediocre results. We are certain this is not the culture you want to create at your company, is it?
When leaders allow behaviors that are not aligned with the value system and desired culture, it creates an environment of inauthenticity, where certain people’s bad behaviors are tolerated because they may be subject matter experts or best in sales.
Focusing On Putting Out The Fires
Since leaders get what they tolerate, they sometimes make the mistake of hanging on to certain team members too long, and giving them endless chances. Perhaps they were good at their job initially, or you think you can’t afford the time and effort to replace them, or they are going through some hard times, and you keep putting your time, efforts and resources into putting out their fires.
Pulling the firing trigger can be difficult, but very needed, sooner rather than later.
Failing to do so is hurting the team, leading to loss of trust and respect, and erosion of company culture, demonstrating weakness or favoritism.
Neglecting Your Best People
People need to be recognized for their good work and, yet, leaders sometimes make the mistake of only focusing on turning “B” performers into “A” performers.
While you may assume your star players are happy and feel seen, they can feel neglected and left behind. Yes, your best people need attention like everyone else.
Inconsistent Values
Great leaders and managers are living and breathing the values of their organization, and those values should ideally drive how we make decisions, communicate, implement rewards and accountability, acquire and retain talent, and treat customers. This values-based approach to all decisions and efforts needs to always come from the top – if not, culture of the organization suffers, and with it the productivity and success of the business.
At RODA marketing, we don’t take lightly our values – teamwork, trust, accountability, transparency, reliability, and dedication to our clients and team.
For all of your Internet and digital marketing, SEO, web design, and brand recognition and reputation needs – trust RODA marketing and our dedicated and proficient Lancaster, PA team to deliver value and results to your business.