All That Matters Is Culture

The theme in my Vistage CEO and Key Executive Groups for 2014 is “All That Matters is Culture”. Each meeting, the host shares a bit about how this applies in their company. Here are some of the comments I have heard so far…

• We have a “can-do culture”. When I interview prospective employees, I ask questions that tell me how the person has demonstrated this in previous jobs.

• Our core values reflect our culture. I have articulated ours to each employee and I am asking employees to tell stories about actions that have been taken that demonstrate how these core values resonate for them. For example, we have a value of integrity, I want to hear stories about how employees have made choices that reflect the integrity choice. I publish these stories so other employees see them.

• We have a lot of temporary employees. When it comes to culture, I treat them the same as the full-time employees. I want them to know our culture and feel good about working for our company.

• We share our core values and our culture with our customers. The more they know about us, the more effectively we can serve them. Similarly with our suppliers, when we share common values with our suppliers, we deliver a better product.

• In the past, I had some talented people who didn’t fit our culture. It was difficult to make the decision that these people had to go. And, once I made this decision, the performance of the rest of team improved exponentially.

I will add to this list later in the year. Meantime if you have stories to add, please click on comments.

Elisa K. Spain