Nothing affects your business\u2019s success more than its culture. But how do you cultivate the right one \u2014 and then make sure it scales along with your business?<\/p>\n
When founders don\u2019t clearly define their workplace culture, they\u2019re prone to ending up with a culture that doesn\u2019t reflect their values. And if they don\u2019t intentionally nurture their culture as they grow, they could even end up with a dysfunctional one.<\/p>\n
Why is culture so crucial to success? For one, employees who feel highly connected to their company\u2019s culture are 4.3 times more likely to be engaged,\u00a0says Gallup<\/a>. They\u2019re 5.3 times as likely to say their company is a great place to work. And they\u2019re 62% less likely to feel burned out.<\/p>\n Culture also plays a major role in promoting retention. In fact, a poor workplace culture is the\u00a0strongest predictor<\/a>\u00a0of employee turnover. No one wants to work in an environment that feels uncomfortable or prevents them from doing their best work.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s look at what holds companies back from scaling a strong culture. Then, we\u2019ll examine strategies and success stories.<\/p>\n For a smaller startup, culture may feel effortless. But as you add new people, challenges in maintaining your desired culture can emerge, for reasons like these:<\/p>\n Fortunately, you can overcome all of these challenges with the right approach to culture. Now, let\u2019s dive into how to do that.<\/p>\n Scaling up your culture starts with gaining clarity on what you stand for. As you add remote or in-house staff, use these strategies to forge a thriving culture at every stage of growth.<\/p>\n Core values aren\u2019t just nice to have. They\u00a0shape strategy execution<\/a>\u00a0by guiding your choices as well as employees\u2019 behavior. Here\u2019s how to set the right ones for you.<\/p>\n Some companies have successfully designed a culture based on current employees\u2019 values,\u00a0McKinsey notes<\/a>. Rather than imposing values and culture, they looked at what was already working for their teams, distilling it into core values and practices. With your own team, you can follow this approach by looking at what\u2019s working well and then identifying any gaps.<\/p>\n Through well-crafted processes, you can translate the core elements of your culture into practice. Here\u2019s how to do that.<\/p>\n Implementing these practices will build a supportive, inclusive, and highly motivated culture that promotes continuous growth.<\/p>\n No company\u2019s culture stays the same forever \u2014 nor should it. Here\u2019s how to navigate those inevitable changes.<\/p>\n Building a strong culture will help people feel more comfortable\u00a0taking risks<\/a>, sharing innovative ideas, and contributing at a higher level. Moreover, on strong teams, everyone will help each other\u00a0keep growing<\/a>.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s look at a couple examples of how businesses can strategically scale up their culture \u2014 either by maintaining a thriving culture or changing a less-than-ideal one.<\/p>\n One small insurance firm planned to quickly hire several new staff members to scale up operations. Knowing they\u2019d be rapidly doubling their size, leaders worried about losing their company\u2019s strong culture. So, they sat down together to define what made it strong.<\/p>\n They came up with a core set of defining attributes:\u00a0Resourcefulness<\/em>,\u00a0problem-solving ability<\/em>,\u00a0agility<\/em>. \u201cWe\u2019re small, but we\u2019re scrappy. We come up with outside-of-the-box ways of solving customers\u2019 problems that our competitors haven\u2019t thought of,\u201d said their founder.<\/p>\n How could they make sure these values remained a cornerstone of their culture? First, they integrated them into the job posting they were creating, to target the right people. Then, they crafted a few interview questions that would help reveal whether candidates were on the same page. Additionally, they designed processes that reflected these values, like regular brainstorming sessions on how to solve challenges more efficiently. In these sessions, they engaged people at all levels in generating creative new ideas.<\/p>\n In their onboarding process, they also shared a message from the founder that spoke to how these core values supported their vision. Then, they paired each new staff member with a mentor who could reinforce these values. Through their efforts, they kept their culture strong \u2014 and continued solving customer problems in highly effective ways.<\/p>\n Another company knew that elements of its culture needed to change as it grew. This insurance agency had been operating for five years, and an unhealthy competition had taken root. So, leaders sat down to identify what cultural values would help correct this problem. They also surveyed staff to get their opinions.\u00a0Collaboration<\/em>,\u00a0learning together<\/em>, and\u00a0teamwork<\/em>\u00a0rose to the top of the list.<\/p>\n So, they adopted weekly team-building activities that would help start things off on the right foot. They also launched a system of peer mentoring that let coworkers share skills with one another. As a result, relationships grew stronger and people saw each other not as competitors but as team members working toward a common goal. As they added new staff, they included them in these activities as well. \u201cI\u2019ve never been part of such a supportive culture before \u2014 it\u2019s such a positive environment!\u201d one new hire said.<\/p>\n As you build or enhance your own company\u2019s culture, keep reflecting on how you can live your cultural values more fully. Like the two inspiring companies we\u2019ve just looked at, define your values in detail and hold ongoing dialogue about how they can guide your work. If you\u2019re aiming for a major cultural shift, get everyone on board through talks or workshops on the attributes you\u2019re working to integrate. By taking these steps, you\u2019ll build a thriving culture that aligns seamlessly with your strategy and keeps morale high as you grow.<\/p>\n Finding the right virtual assistant will help keep your culture strong.\u00a0<\/em>Schedule a call<\/em><\/a>\u00a0to get started!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Nothing affects your business\u2019s success more than its culture. But how do you cultivate the right one \u2014 and then make sure it scales along with your business? When founders don\u2019t clearly define their workplace culture, they\u2019re prone to ending up with a culture that doesn\u2019t reflect their values. And if they don\u2019t intentionally nurture… Continue reading Build a Culture That Scales \u2014 One Assistant at a Time<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":134,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog-beaux-pilgrim","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iablueprint.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iablueprint.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iablueprint.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iablueprint.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iablueprint.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.iablueprint.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":135,"href":"https:\/\/www.iablueprint.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133\/revisions\/135"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iablueprint.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iablueprint.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iablueprint.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iablueprint.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Challenges of Scaling a Culture<\/h2>\n
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Strategies for Scaling Your Culture<\/h2>\n
Defining \u2014 and Living \u2014\u00a0Your Values<\/h3>\n
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Adopting the Right Processes and Practices<\/h3>\n
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Adapting to Change<\/h3>\n
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Case Studies<\/h2>\n
1. Rapid Scaling of a Healthy Culture<\/h3>\n
2. Making a Cultural Shift<\/h3>\n