![]() When we heard from Alan Knott-Craig, he said that the only way that we can know if we can trust someone, is to trust him/her. ![]() This starts with a founder sharing his idea to a possible partner, or getting the first employee and hoping he/she will not run away and realize your dream faster than you will. In the uncertain world of the startup, trust is possibly the most important and fundamental aspect of building a strong company culture. Managing fear turns anxiety into energy, that in turn solves problems. Creating a safe environment with open communication, where trust and transparency are upheld is a crucial responsibility of founders. Managing risk reduces employees’ stress and fear. Starting a business is very stressful and creates much uncertainty. Set realistic goals that can be achieved hitting them and celebrating them creates excitement and motivates your team towards the next goal. Set employees up for success from the beginning. ![]() Be sure not to over-look celebrating achieving short-term goals. Celebrating a teams wins is such a basic thing, but goes a long way. By practicing certain ceremonies and rituals, you can emphasize and celebrate the things you value – birthdays, product launches and achievements. Set the EnvironmentĪ popular Brad Feld quote states that you cannot motivate people, but that you can create a context in which people are motivated.Īn environment can be set by how communication happens within the company, how often, in which forums and in which form (written e-mails, posters, meetings). Two minds work better as one, and as a team you can support, challenge and complement each other, and ultimately accomplish so much more, so much faster. As we heard from Clive Butkow in another session, “It’s better to have a good team with a crap product, than a good product with a crap team.”Įnsure that your employees feel like a team. During a founder story, a regular part of the Techstars accelerator program, Alan Knott-Craig explained that if you are yourself, you will attract others like yourself, and in doing that you will form your tribe.īe specific about who you hire – not only their skills, but who they are. “Shaping your culture is more than half done when you hire your team,” Herrin from Stella & Dot’s says. Selection and ‘fit’ of new employees is key to company success. ![]() Without consequences, you are creating a culture where schedules and commitments do not matter and are not respected, and that, you do not want. It is crucial to stick to deadlines and if someone slips on a deadline, there should be consequences. The lack of honesty – when you have to make excuses on poor execution – shows disrespect to each member in the team which impacts trust, and has a knock on effect to the integrity of the organization overall. Making excuses instead of delivering on time on agreed objectives means that you are not supporting the company, not supporting your partner or team mates and simply not pulling your weight. While having a valid excuse for a late deliverable can be understood, this should not become the norm. How to maintain your culture as your company grows No Excuses Culture Documenting your company values and regularly sharing these helps to keep all your employees on the same page. This made everyone part of the discussion, and helped reach agreement on what the company wanted to stand for. Below are a few tips based on those discussions, on how to actively shape your company culture: Document Your ValuesĪllyson Downey, founder of weeSpring, explained an exercise where each member of their team had 15 minutes to write down what they wanted as their company values. What founders do not realize is that a culture will form one way or another – the one they want, or the one that develops on its own.Ĭhanging an organization’s culture is a long and difficult process, it is harder to undo than to do, thus we recommend you give this a little thought and build culture into your startup planning.ĭuring startup mode, the values and behaviors that shape culture are often unspoken and more often than not, are formed by the behavior of the founder and other leaders, with other employees following suit.īuilding culture in your startup has been a hot topic of conversation in the last couple of weeks, amongst the 10 businesses who are part of the Techstars program here in Cape Town. While in the shaping phase of a startup, founders often forget about building an organizational culture.
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