Creating the Positive Workplace

Have you ever had the experience of walking into a workplace and it feels really good? It is comfortable; the people are welcoming, easy to be with and friendly. It makes you feel at home.

As soon as you step into the place, you get a real sense that this is a great place to work.

Alternatively, have you ever walked into places where you feel awkward, put upon and unwelcome? You immediately feel the tension in the air.

I build value-based businesses. That’s my life’s work. Everything that I do in my life and work is an attempt to express what I value most. These positive places of work that you encounter are expressions of real values at work. The people in these businesses are behaving in keeping with the values that are espoused and practiced within them; everything that they do is informed by these values.

Our personal sense of Mission and Vision are lived out in and through the core values that we hold. Our overall behavior as a business only makes sense when values are kept and lived. They serve as a lens and filter for everything that we do, and when we fall short in keeping them, we judge ourselves and hold ourselves accountable to them.

The personal Mission of every successful business person and high-performing executive that I know is always in and around serving people in some way. Translating this personal sense of Mission, Vision and Values into our workplaces is critical in attracting customers and achieving success.

Pay Attention to Your Business Culture

The basis for attracting, recruiting, employing and retaining good people is in and around three factors.

The person must have:

• One - The right skills – including competencies, knowledge and experience
• Two - Behave in ways that enable them to work effectively with others
• Three - The resources and the tools that they need to do their job

Although all of these factors are important, the second of these critical factors - the way people behave, that is, relate to each other, treat each other and how they get the job done - is of far greater importance over the long term than the other two.

Experience and evidence clearly show that the employment contract is most potent when it is a best-fit for the "culture of our businesses." It is not just that the job gets done, but that it gets done in a way which is in keeping with the values that the business holds. This is the real point of difference between the high-performing, sustainable business and the mediocre, low-performing one.

When this value base is aligned and compatible with the personal values of the people that we employ, we create a dynamic culture where "everybody is singing from the same song sheet," and work is highly need-satisfying and deeply personally-rewarding.

Managing and paying attention to the culture of our organization are critical in getting the right people in our business, doing the right things, in the right ways.