Inside Small Business | Small Business & Home Business Marketing
Seven Leadership Principles for Creating a Great Workplace Part 1
By Kevin Kennemer, SPHR
Edward R. Murrow, the famous American broadcaster depicted in the movie Good Night, and Good Luck once said, “The obscure we eventually see, the completely obvious takes longer.” In your quest to building a successful company, do not assume the creation of a great work environment is complicated. In fact, the steps are quite simple, if not completely obvious from a people practice perspective.
Company Culture Flows from the Top
In the people practice profession, there is the tendency to over-complicate work culture and how it impacts the bottom line. The basic principles of a great work environment are quite straightforward, and rest entirely on the leadership’s shoulders.
One of the most important business strategy questions leaders can ask themselves is, “How do I create a great work environment that attracts, motivates and retains the best and brightest talent?” You might be surprised the answer is not any of these; above market compensation, best in class benefits, top trends in office space design or technological superiority. The answer is summed up in one, very important, highly-relational, powerful word: trust.
Definition of a Great Workplace
The Great Place to Work Institute, after twenty years of thorough research on the top high-performance companies in America, formulated their definition of a great workplace as a place where employees “trust the people they work for, have pride in what they do, and enjoy the people they work with.”
A leadership team who can be trusted by employees is well on its way from average performance to a great workplace where magic happens. The good news is employees are not necessarily looking for expensive perks, like coffee bars, gyms, restaurants, game rooms, hair salons and spas, daycare, onsite doctors and nurses, media centers, theaters, dry cleaning, or concierge services. Although these benefits are very nice options, they do not guarantee a great work environment.
When leaders sincerely care for their people and build an environment of trust, employees will believe in the company mission and develop respect for their co-workers. Trust is like the secret ingredient found in Coke. Without it, the recipe will not work. Many have tried to copy great workplaces without trust and failed. Without trust, the environment will not click, no matter how grandiose the company’s compensation, benefit and work/life programs. It is amazing how creating an environment of trust, the missing ingredient in many average performing companies, will hasten the transformation of your company into a great workplace with the potential to outperform your competition many times over.
Read our Blog tomorrow to find out what the Seven Leadership Principles are.
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Posted on Thursday, November 20th, 2008 at 5:10 pm and is filed under Business, Leadership. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
