No Ping-Pong or Tap Beer Required
A New Understanding to Thriving Cultural Environments
by Jennifer Martin, Founder Leadership Well Done
The US employment rate may be elevated, but many businesses are experiencing a downturn within their own labor market.
In fact, beginning back in early 2021, Gallup Polls showed a pattern of decreasing employee engagement concurrent with the rise in job resignation. Since then, signals in the disconnect between employees and employers seems to only be deepening with a steady increase in the number of people unhappy, disengaged and looking to change jobs.
So is the problem in hiring, engagement or retention? The answer may be all the above. Regardless of the admitted problem, all these data points are symptoms of two things-- leadership and culture.
Where some leaders once anchored cultural conversations in building trendy spaces, think stereotypical tech startup with the proverbial ping-pong and tap beer, changes in the variety of emerging workplaces (front-line and fully on-site, to hybrid or fully remote) has forced leaders to shift cultural focus onto what really matters most.
These new cultural norms are guiding the connectedness required between team members, leadership and organizational mission, while still prioritizing employees’ sense of fulfillment and wellbeing.
By utilizing the five core principles of positive psychology, leaders can expect to deliver signature company cultures and balance overall performance while redefining what it means to excel and enjoy your time at work.
Positive Emotion
No need for rose colored glasses as there should always be a balance of candor and care. However, at the most basic level, if your employees don’t feel positive about their work, they are not going to stay. In fact, position emotion has been directly linked to boosted job performance and small simple actions can cause a ripple effect throughout the entire organization. As a leader, ask yourself if you are more prone to pointing out people’s failures or calling out and celebrating their success?
Start creating more positive emotion by using your core values as a benchmark to systematically recognize employees that have successfully (and creatively) capitalized on these values to create customer wins. The good news is positive emotions in the workplace are contagious and the presence of positive emotion will also build the resilience needed to reach long-term company goals.
Engagement
Stop hiring brilliant, skilled people only to micromanage them at work. Engagement follows a sense of autonomy while allowing employees to focus on work within their strength zone. Instead of asking employees to “ring it up the flagpole” to upper management, encourage teammates to solve customer problems on their own. Through your support of employees identifying, developing and then creatively applying their unique strengths/talents, leaders can not only create stronger corporate ties but also increase employees’ sense of positive wellbeing.
Relationships
Regardless of size or industry, relationships with people are the driving focus of your business. You don’t have a business if you’re not trying to solve customer problems and you cannot achieve any of those goals without the help of your team. All humans desire a social connectedness, and it is vital to our wellbeing both inside and outside of work. Look for ways to both enhance the quality and/or quantity of relationships with the people both on yours and cross functional teams.
Meaningful Work
It’s not only important for customers to understand who you are and what you stand for, but also imperative that your team understands the purpose behind their work too. A desire to express transcendence alongside strong personal identity is directly linked to employees wanting to engage in meaningful work.
This connection between corporate mission and personal performance is only getting gaining momentum as more millennials enter the workforce. When employees dedicate themselves to a cause or recognize something bigger than themselves (or money), they experience a sense of meaning that there is simply no replacement for.
Achievement
Money does not equal happiness. While money is important, and does have influence in engagement and retention, it is not a driver of cultural success or achievement. In fact, on a scientific basis, money is shown as a zero to negative coefficient to happiness. Instead, it’s important for leaders to understand how team members individually define their own success.
Working for you, should also mean they are bettering themselves while striving to achieve their own goals. Without a sense of achievement for themselves, you cannot expect employees to help you reach company goals.
No matter what your company is currently facing—positive people, positive teams, positive organizations find a way forward. Use the above framework to first assess the cultural environment currently existing within your organization, then rigorously apply its principles anywhere improvement is necessary.
Overall hire great people, create the right cultural environment and give your employees both the praise and the autonomy to do their thing. While there is no one-size fits all approach to cultural success, using this guide can boost corporate performance while creating the cultural environment your employees need.