You organize an early morning meeting with your team to discuss your next steps, ideas and strategies to approach a new client. What do you think is the thought process of your team? What do you think runs through their mind while sitting with you in that conference room? Do they feel safe being candid about sharing their ideas with you, or are they simply nodding their head to what you are saying? A business owner must never be surrounded by “yes men”. This is where your culture is tested. It would be best to have a team that’s not afraid of telling you no. And for that to happen, you need a psychologically safe environment. Your team must have zero mental barriers as they step into the office.
What is psychological safety? By definition, psychological safety is a shared belief held by team members that it’s okay to take risks, express their ideas and concerns, ask questions, and admit mistakes. It’s about creating a safe environment for your team. There must not be sheds of doubt in their mind before they approach you for queries.
How does this help a business? How would developing this culture help you beat out your competitors? How would this help you generate leads and sales? By the end of this blog, I promise you will have the answer to these questions and more.
Enhances A Culture Of Creativity
An essential aspect of a business is thinking out of the box, doing something, to present something that has never been done before. An even more critical element of a business is the art of cheerfully failing. You need to be able to experiment and try out new things to know what works and what doesn’t. And this thought process would never be possible in a typical corporate business. You need people that are ready to bend the rules if it means something exciting would come out of it. And for that to happen, you need a culture that encourages you to get out of your comfort zone and the typical 9-5 thought process.
Also Read: Three Steps To Building A Culture Of Creativity At Work
Clear Communication
You need a team with all the information about what they need to do, how they need to do it, and what is expected of them. Clearly defined roles are what double your team’s productivity, eventually helping your business grow.
3X Your Employee Engagement
As I’ve discussed in my previous blogs, employee engagement is one of the most crucial aspects of maintaining a healthy business. Employees will want to put in the extra effort if they think their work is appreciated, praised and respected.
Knowing the advantages of a well-maintained culture and psychological safety is essential, but what’s more important is knowing exactly how to develop it. How do you ensure your star employee goes on a 30-year journey with you? Well, there is a blueprint for that as well, and that is what I’m not going to share with you:
Establishing A Vision For Culture
What is it that’s missing from your company’s culture? What is it you want the core of your culture to be about? The answers to these questions must not be simply from your perspective, but from your team’s as well, because a positive culture is always more about the team, than just the managers or owners themselves. The answers are the key to defining the trajectory of your company’s dream culture.
Leave No Questions Unanswered
If any questions, even apart from the business structure or operations, still need to be answered, make sure to answer them in detail for your team. There must be no baggage, no shred of doubts within your team. Emphasis on these activities encourages open communication in a team environment.
Team-Building Exercises
An aspect of building a positive team culture that is often overlooked but is as important as any other. Mental and physical activities, coupled together, create an enhanced learning experience for any team member.
Reward And Recognition For Your Team
The golden rule is to always criticise in private and appreciate in public. Establish a habit of encouraging and recognising your team’s efforts at the end of each meeting. Appreciation can be a great source of motivation, helping your team enhance productivity.
Encourage Risk Taking
It’s important not to always focus on results. It’s okay if you tried innovating and it didn’t work out. What’s important is that your team has the guts to run their brains and rise to the challenges differently. An interesting example of this anecdote is Amazon’s Fire Tablet. Amazon thought the product would work, except the idea ultimately failed. They could not compete with the likes of Samsung and Apple.
However, that’s not where their journey ended. The knowledge and lessons they gained from this experience helped Amazon develop an AI called Alexa. That is what innovation brings in. Yes, the first product failed, but this helped them to shoot the perfect arrow on their second attempt.
Conclusion
Empowering your team by developing a comfortable work environment is a crucial step to defining a business that’s developed by a team, not an individual. Collaboration and innovation are indeed important to get a competitive advantage in the industry, which often suffers from its share of incompetent leaders.
If you’ve made it to the end of the blog, ask yourself, are you ready to bring a cultural change if it means better results for your team? Are you prepared to change yourself as a leader? Or are you too hesitant to lose the grip of control over your business?
