Most entrepreneurs rarely consciously choose their business culture. They fall into it. Or, it develops by default. It’s crucial at the outset to determine if your business culture is going to be hierarchical—that is top-down— or whether it’s going to be a team culture that supports cooperation and collaboration at all levels of operation.
The following six cooperative principlescontribute to a business culture that is cooperative, makes common sense and is simple to implement.
Trust: Another word that applies here is “fair.” To build an effective team culture, your employees need to know they can trust you to strive toward fair treatment of customers as well as employees.
Interdependence: If interdependence is supported and encouraged, a sense of community develops in your business culture and is a success strategy that taps into the energy of the team in the best possible way.
Genuineness: If members are reluctant to share their thoughts and perspectives, the company suffers. Being genuine requires kindness and respect to be demonstrated among employees. daily.
Empathy: It’s easy to spot an empathetic team member and leader. They are listening to others. Empathetic people listen not because of politeness or good manners, but because they are interested in what the other person has to reveal.
Risk: The way risk is managed leads to success or failure in your team culture. It is important to reward appropriate risk and to put leadership team development systems in place that get to the root causes of mistakes should they arise.
Success: Teams that share in a company’s success and failures tend to be more committed and engaged than businesses in which employees, including those at the lowest levels of operations, are not empowered to solve problems.
