Brand Builders Part 5: Is your Company’s Culture Defined?
Defining Your Corporate Culture
When you’re focused on building your brand, understanding, defining and communicating your corporate culture is going to be crucial. I mean, really, because what happens is when you can tell people what the culture is, they know how to be a part of that culture in a very positive and productive way. Otherwise, they may head in one direction and the rest of your going into another, we don’t want that.
Your culture is how your organization is going to bring your mission to life, to be able to get to your vision, to figure out how the world is going to change. So, your culture is really vital. It really is kind of defined by the behaviors of the individuals inside the organization, and how they interact to get work done. So, here’s the thing, if you don’t define the culture, then it’s going to be defined without your input, because everybody has culture. And so, if you’re not saying this is who we are, and this is what we’re about, people are just going to assume, and so one’s going to develop whether you want it to or not.
When you’re focused on building your brand, understanding, defining and communicating your corporate culture is going to be crucial. I mean, really, because what happens is when you can tell people what the culture is, they know how to be a part of that culture in a very positive and productive way. Otherwise, they may head in one direction and the rest of your going into another, we don’t want that.
Your culture is how your organization is going to bring your mission to life, to be able to get to your vision, to figure out how the world is going to change. So, your culture is really vital. It really is kind of defined by the behaviors of the individuals inside the organization, and how they interact to get work done. So, here’s the thing, if you don’t define the culture, then it’s going to be defined without your input, because everybody has culture. And so, if you’re not saying this is who we are, and this is what we’re about, people are just going to assume, and so one’s going to develop whether you want it to or not.
The biggest challenge is probably for companies that haven’t stepped up and defined their culture ahead of time, it’s just sort of evolved over time, and now, they don’t like the culture that they have. They feel like they have to constantly micromanage people, or people don’t really get what the company is about. They don’t care about the customer. They don’t really take that same pride in their job, whatever that might be. So, by taking a step back and saying, wait, this is what our culture should be, let’s work towards that. That’s going to be a great way to really build your brand.
