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Making a Great Company

It’s a dream of every company to be great at business. But very few actually develop a great environment & culture which actually help them to be and stay great in a long term. Great culture of a company helps to retain employees. Retention of employees is a very big issue. Here in this article we have presented a set of traits which should be followed to create a great company culture. Let’s consider each one of them individually.

1. Listen to your people, Listen to pronouns:

Listening to your people is as critical in a company as is making sales. Your own employees are a great source of feedback for you if you welcome it with open heart and mind. Everybody in the company has different nature and they always have something to tell you to improve. Everybody body keep their eyeballs on something which may be improved. Ask for feedback from your employees, ask them to share their opinions. It does not mean that you have to follow everybody’s instructions, it just means that keep yourself open for feedback, opinions and suggestions. Arrange sessions for this purpose and make use of the talent which you have hired.
There is another perspective to this topic too. When someone complains about someone else, do listen to them carefully, how they present their complaint, how they reference others in their absence. Is their behavior respecting or they just themselves are not team players. Words like “They”, “Those” instead of “We” or “Us” may give you some clues. Consider whatever they are saying very carefully. And always listen to both parties in conflict before making a decision.
When you are deciding about future aspects of the company, keep your employees in the circle. Let them know that they are important. Then they may tell you the very best for your company depending upon their experiences. Don’t let someone hold all good thoughts to himself/ herself just because of the fear of the company.

2. Don’t create a sacred Cemetery:

It’s very important. Don’t let your company become a sacred cemetery where people do not talk to each other and do not interact with each other & consider all these things as sins. Be open to your coworkers. Create an easy environment, an environment where a person with shy personality may also try to progress towards others. People working at lower levels or positions should not be afraid of the top management, or the Executives or even the CEO. Keep a healthy and easy environment where people can discuss problems with each other instead of spending their complete office hours in front of their computer screens. Let people speak about the company itself. Hear from them and then consider improvements. Don’t let some top Executive managers or Executive assistants rule the complete operation of the company. It may involve any matter, let everybody have a say in all matters, let everybody speak about everything of the company.

3. Have fun, Promote prank environment.

Always try to make a fun culture in the company. Make an environment which people resist to leave and may want to come happily in the morning. People should not be afraid of getting fired by cracking a joke in the company. Fun and jokes, makes a company more lively and charming. Making fun in company does not mean to insult or humiliate someone or company, fun activities can be done in a great many ways if you really want to. Make pranks, jokes or anything which may keep energy of your employees in high esteem. Light humor in everyday routine is always healthy. People want and need something to keep them going.

4. Enable healthy competition:

Always maintain a healthy competition. Acknowledge the efforts of the people who are performing more. Don’t ignore them in hope of getting them work hard and produce more. Its human nature, you work more when you are motivated to do more. If an employee feels degraded and insulted after putting so many extra hours to get something done then believe me you have already lost your culture goals. Create a desire in your employees to achieve more, to learn more and to plan their successful future with the company. Let your people plan to grow with your company and give them chances and opportunities to get there. Remember when you increase competition, you are actually increasing your knowledge base, you are actually increasing your feedback flow. With this one thing, you are accomplishing so much.

5. Freedom:

Give your people freedom about their way of living and working, don’t impose your school of thought on them. If they want to do their things in their own manner, let them do. It does not mean that you keep following century old traditions instead create opportunities for them to learn. Instead of imposing something on them, make it easy for them to adopt that thing. It may be use of technology, it may be about managing time, it may be about dressing and many other things. Until they are not familiar and comfortable with your proposed way, let them feel free to keep going with their own at least.
There should be freedom of speech. Company should arrange sessions where people are asked to give their opinions about company and its operations. Everybody should have a right to say things which they want to say about company. It’s better to listen bad words from your own people instead of listening from outsiders and often customers.

6. Hiring:

Hiring is a very crucial process. Great hiring makes a great culture. Get people who fit your environment and culture. You should always work with people who want to grow with you, who want to plan their future with the success of your business. Then it’s your responsibility to give them opportunities to attain their goals and dreams. You should be very careful while hiring. If you hire some executives who are just trained to run Giant Businesses, then maybe you are in trouble. If your Manager is by himself not willing to walk along your culture then all of your efforts will go in vain.

7. Add your own personality to your culture:

Being open with your employees helps them to present their issues and problems to the top authorities. Company’s culture is composed of many personalities. Whatever culture you want to establish in your company, should depict your own personality. People should be able to perceive your own likings and personality from your designed culture. If you like something, show it. If you are a sports fan, show it. If you are a suiting fan, show it. Whatever you like, try to show it in your culture.
Representing your own personality does not mean that you try to impose your own thoughts on everyone else. This representation is for your people to know you, not for them to must follow you.

8. Initiation

Develop some initiation rituals. It means when some person starts with you or is given a new or higher responsibility, get together with him to give him a go ahead for his future. There are many good ways to do this. They may be funny, prank like and of course always encouraging. Make your people feel special about their jobs and work they are doing.

9. Monthly contests, don’t mix it up with regular competition

Arrange monthly contests. Don’t mix this thing with regular competition. These contests may or mostly may not involve your own business. They should be specifically for ease of mind. Try to arrange at remote locations. Give awards to your employees and encourage them for their work.

10. Invest in your people,

Consider the following:
CFO asks CEO: What happens if we invest in our people and then they leave our company?
CEO to CFO: What if we don’t and then they stay.
It is always critical for a company to invest in their employees. Company should invest for their higher education if they want to pursue. Invest in their training, invest in their grooming and professional build up. There is a great quote about this;
Invest in your people so well that they may become able to come against you in a competition but treat them so well that they do not want to come against you.

11. Create a reading Culture, get some time out for reading:

Create a reading culture in your company. Put separate hours for that. Gather your people all or in groups to read together and discuss about the books or anything which is under consideration. Increase their knowledge base. Help them learn more. Reading culture always brings more productivity and motivation in employees and increase social skills.

12. Sending gifts and Celebrating birthdays together:

Celebrate birthdays of your employees together. Arrange their birthdays as surprises. Call them out for party when they are least expecting. But for this you should really know your people. Send them good wishes and gifts. These small wishes and gifts may mean a lot to your employees. They will fell being treated specially. And consider these things as the responsibility of the company instead of throwing on the shoulders of other colleagues.

13. Keep care of emotions of your people:

Take care of your people’s emotions. Get to know them and their family problems. Try to share their issues and help them in solution. When you care about a person’s emotion in his/her hard time they will definitely respect you for that act. They would like to stand with you in your and your company’s hard times.

14. Always surprise your people, Keep something alive daily:

Try to keep your environment alive. Keep your employees energetic and motivated for work. This can be accomplished by giving surprises like arranging visits, bringing guest speakers, taking them for lunch, arranging discussion sessions etc.

15. Communication and Generation Gaps:

This is very important, Communication gap build walls between company management and employees. Everybody should be allowed to call out to everybody. By this I mean, if someone don’t like something about anybody or company, he should be able to call out to anybody to tell him about this. Everybody should have permission to reach out to every executive to discuss things if they are not right. This privilege is always given by the companies who want to grow. You may call yourself a CEO, but if your employee at some lower level cannot reach out to you, you don’t deserve this title.
There is one more problem, old and so called mature people try to impose their thoughts on every young employee and expect them to follow. Watch out for this trend, if this trend is going on and hindering your young employees to bring out the best in them then come forward to stop this.
There should be a communication environment in office. From CEO to janitor should be communicating with each other. This is how things progress. This is how companies take leaps of success. CEO should be open and creative enough to share his ideas with his employees, he should be able to convey the dream of company properly to everybody.
Always Remember:

COMPANIES ARE RUN BY
A LOT OF PEOPLE WORKING TOGETHER
A LOT OF TIME PUT TOGETHER
A LOT OF ENERGY PUT IN TOGETHER

If you want to make a great company culture, avoid back door talks, avoid secret conversations, and avoid discrimination. If you are going to decide something, take your employees in confidence. Share your ideas with them and ask for their opinions. Remember don’t let old school mentality ruin your company.

16. Appreciate hard workers:

Appreciate top players. Remember to treat everyone fairly but appreciate everyone individually. It’s a golden rule. Don’t treat everybody like as if their efforts makes no difference. If someone is putting more extra hours to get their things done, appreciate it. Get this thing out of your mind that you are paying them for this. Some people just put way too much energy to keep things together. They should be given credit for that. Give rewards to your people who work like that. Give them special respect and treat them as HEROES.

17. Fear hinder creativity:

Don’t let fear hinder the creativity of your people, Let people take risks, Let crazy things happen. Let your people work out things in their own way. Let them be creative and have a different approach to their problems. Why not create fun culture with people you are going to work with. There is a great quote followed in many big companies;
“What would you do if you were not afraid?”

Let your people give you solutions with their own approaches. You will always get something new and amazing at the end.

18. High Standards, Quality is never a compromise

Never ever make any compromise on quality. If you want to be a great company, your standards should be great. Whatever you make, make it great otherwise don’t. Nobody has ever achieved recognition or successes with low standards. This is applicable to every field of life, it may be sports, it may be business, it may be teaching and academia, it may be research and development. You can never think about going to low standards.

19. Tone of the leadership

Tone and behaviors of the lead roles, managers and executives should be monitored. If you find some of your employee fed up of the job and willing to give up, your job is to bring his immediate manager into questioning before you question that employee. Most of the people who quit their jobs are not due to company’s policies or their future but due to the behaviors of their immediate bosses. Keep a deep eye on your managers and executives.

20. Structure of the whole team:

Structure of the whole team should be motivating and not brain teasing. If you have design engineers reporting to managers who are then reporting to senior managers then you are not getting anywhere. In some of the great companies design team is directly reporting to the CEO of the company. There is again the same thing, be open and approachable, if there is something your design engineer understands better than you, then you should not be making it difficult for him to get to you.

21. Prioritize and focus:

Customer is not always right. Look forward to your own future plan, instead of asking every bit from your customers. Always challenge your business model. Figure out ways to break your own business model. If some of your employee offer to help you in improving your business model then appreciate it. Never consider your company as perfect. The day you will think like that, progress will halt. approach out to your customers to get feedback but keep your future plan aligned separately and keep this thing very clear that where are you going.

22. A full featured human being, a Silicon Valley trap:

Remember that nobody is perfect. Everybody has his shortcomings. Sometimes executives try to hire a person who knows all. This is a great trap. Remember instead of hiring “Mr. Know All”, hire a team of people who can work together. Hire very carefully, if some of your executive or any member do not want to work in a team, want close environment and have a non-sharing behavior then whatever their qualification may be, it’s your job to show them the EXIT Door.