When founding a new company, the first decision that is often overlooked is to determine the workplace culture to cultivate. This decision is most timely before you hire your firstemployee.
Or, if you are focused on keeping an existing business afloat and are concerned about attracting and retaining the best workers, it is wise to examine your business culture to determine if it supports collaboration and leadership team development. Often, such an effort is the first step in getting a floundering company back on its feet to achieve more success.
It’s crucial at the outset to determine if the business culture is going to be hierarchical—that is top-down— or whether it’s going to be a cooperative team culture that supports collaboration.
For a business culture that supports team collaboration and leadership team development, Dianne Crampton (TIGERS Among Us – Winning Business Team Cultures and Why They Thrive, Three Creeks Publishing Co., 2010) uses the acronym TIGERS which identifies six value-based principles that build and sustain high levels of cooperation and team success in the workplace. These principles are Trust, Interdependence, Genuineness, Empathy, Risk, Success and teach leaders how to anchor behaviors that support cooperation in a business culture that supports leadership team development and collaboration. This applies to temporary project teams as well as a team-based workforce.
Companies that have high employee turnover sport a business culture where employees do not achieve personal satisfaction. Turnover is costly. Keeping good employees hinges on whether they are achieving goals and feels personally satisfied with the results. A business culture that promotes team collaboration and trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success in the workplace is the best possible choice in building a new company or revitalizing an existing one if you are looking for employees who are as engaged and committed to your company’s success as you are.
