If you own or lead a business, a non-profit, a department, or a church, you know how hard it is to lead well. Part of leading well is creating an irresistible workplace where the people you are leading enjoy working with you and for you. The hard part is that everyone has different personalities, experiences, skill sets, and communication styles. So, how do you combine a group of individuals with unique differences and align them to work hard and take your business, non-profit, or church to new heights? The answer to that question can be found in this month’s book: Culture Wins.
William Vanderbloemen is an entrepreneur, speaker, author, and the Founder and CEO of the Vanderbloemen Search Group. Under his leadership, Vanderbloemen has managed to lead his company to the #24 spot on the Forbes’ Best Executive Recruiting Firms in America. He has also been named as one of the top 5 of entrepreneur.com‘s “Top Company Culture” for the small business category. Here are a few insights from the book:
- Greatness is usually found within a person because another calls it out of them.
- Culture trumps your business idea. Culture trumps your strategic plan. Culture even trumps the competency of your team. Culture eats strategy for breakfast.
- The people who work for me aren’t just employees; they’re a “framily.” It refers to people who feel like friends and family in a healthy culture.
- A positive company culture is imperative so that your employees come to the office excited to do excellent work. With their excitement comes exceptional performance, and with that performance comes happy customers.
- Culture is about how a team uniquely functions when it’s at its best. It’s about how you function as a team when you’re working well. It’s about knowing the habits, customs, and mannerisms that are common to your team but uncommon to other teams.
- Any company, in any industry, should be asking itself, “How can we improve this? How can we do this better, make this better, or serve our customers better?
- Building a healthy culture isn’t complicated if you’re leading from the gut.
- When I interview new candidates, I tell them exactly what kind of crazy we are — the good, the bad, and the ugly.
- I believe any skill can be taught, but I can’t teach you how not to be a jerk.
- Culture trumps performance. You can sometimes fake performance, but you can’t fake culture, at least not for more than a couple of weeks.
- It begins when you commit to figuring out what kind of crazy your company is and what kind of crazy your people are, and then driving that crazy throughout every part of your organization.
As you continue to lead in whatever organization or industry you find yourself, no matter what seat you sit at, it is my hope that you will continue down the path of creating a winning culture for you, your team, and your customers. William Vanderbloemen said it best, “The future belongs to the cultured.”
For El Paso,
JT
If you would like to read the whole book and start creating a winning culture, you can purchase it here.
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