Company culture is a critical driver of success, a fact that many of those sitting in boardrooms are aware of and believe in. You might think that this knowledge would prevent or solve problems. However, the reality on the ground often looks completely different, and in my opinion, this is mainly because they fail to get the basics right! What I mean by this? Many executives, leaders, managers and employees, as well as some HR professionals, overlook, ignore or underestimate the power of these six seemingly ‘small’ gestures.
While the concept of ‘company culture’—also known as workplace culture, corporate culture, or business culture, extends beyond these basics, this text focuses on the elements that contribute to establishing a healthy workplace culture.
Reason to Believe — According to several market report, a positive workplace culture leads to many positive business outcomes: better business performance, higher stock prices, lower turnover, and improved employee engagement.
Company culture is built through repeated behavior, not slogans written on walls, banners, bonuses or town halls. Most organizations underestimate the impact of small gestures. Tiny, small gestures, real human moments. Taken in isolation, these gestures seem insignificant, but over time, they build a safety emotional architecture of a workplace.
The absence of “small” gestures becomes incredibly expensive. Why? Because it leads to: disengaged people (despite perks, team buildings etc), collaboration weakened. People stop speaking up. They stop bringing energy into the room. Creativity and performance decrease. Turnover increases. Profits drop.
The irony — “Small” kind gesture costs almost nothing!
Reminder — Employees experience culture through everyday interactions. That means “small” gestures! And yet their power and impact is often underestimated, overlooked and even considered not worthy of attention. In my personal opinion all these make for the foundations of any health and performing workplace culture.
Leo Buscaglia’s quote just gave a good reason to briefly explain about why these six things make a difference in both personal and professional life. Altogether they can build a safe, trustworthy and nurturing, happy workplace that helps productivity, creativity and innovation.
Leo Buscaglia
American Author & Speaker, aka Dr.LOVE (1924-1998)
“Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.”
Now, instead of giving you specific examples, I am going to explain step by step what Buscaglia said. Why, what and how these gestures work on people, producing a ripple effect which builds a healthy company culture.
To some of you these 6 “small” gestures, things, may come naturally. For others are things they need to understand, learn and put into practice. These 6 “small” things win the goodwill and engagement of the people and that is a business asset your competition cannot steal. It is true, you can’t legislate goodwill, but you can cultivate it. This lies at the foundation of any healthy organization. The perks, bonuses, fancy office space, relaxation areas … they come second place.
My personal workplace experiences —In over 20 years I have experienced first-hand various types of company cultures—East and West, American and Middle-Eastern; small, mid and large scale; adhocracy, clan-culture, customer-focused, innovative, hierarchy culture etc. Plus, I had the chance to implement various change projects across organizations in all major business verticals.
Furthermore, over the past seven years, I have been involved in numerous marketing and digital projects for a variety of local and global companies. Without exception, I always came across many issues related to workplace culture during the briefing or analysis phases that could potentially compromise the projects we were trying to implement. In some cases, this forced us to delay projects, change our approach, add new deliverables, involve more people, increase budgets, and so on. Given all these different professional experiences I had, the Gallup data on global employee engagement does not come to me as a shock.
In conclusion, I am confident in saying two things:
And I am very pleased to have found confirmation to my first conclusion:
Richard Branson
“There’s no magic formula for great company culture. The key is just to treat your staff how you would like to be treated.”
Remember that we are all people first, and only then are we executives, managers or employees. This is in contrast to what we are taught, trained or advised in the corporate world. No matter what kind of suit, uniform or shirt they wear at the office, people come with emotional wounds. This “personal baggage” we carry with us into the office affects how workplace culture functions. So, why and how is this relevant to workplace culture? The “small” gestures that we underestimate have a powerful healing effect on emotional wounds. Do not take this the wrong way! Leaders are not responsible for fixing people’s emotional baggage or acting as healers. Nevertheless, more awareness and understanding of these aspects will lead to better outcomes and more support.
Therefore, here are few questions everyone should be asking. Off these mentioned above—touch, smile, kind word, truly listening, sincere compliment or gesture of kindness:
You can apply these questions to your own life or the life of your family, by the way. Well, at the end of the day, we’re all people, right? Experiencing that state of well-being helps us to achieve our full potential.
Have a wonderful day, and remember to spread a little magic by doing something small every day!
Facts, data and thoughts about their ripple effects, how they work and the cost you pay
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