Posts Tagged ‘company culture’

One Workplace in Many Work Places

Sunday, July 7th, 2013

Building a sense of shared purpose, mutual support and accountability, and wild celebration of achievement—those are some of the keys to creating an engaged and productive workplace.

This is challenging enough when you’re all under one roof. Multiply the difficulty by a hundred when your business is spread across several cities in multiple time zones.

It’s easiest to feel connected to the colleagues we see every day—in our department, our shift, or our branch of the company. The challenge for many businesses is connecting people to the colleagues they don’t see every day. So how can a large corporation in several far-flung locations apply the principles of culture transformation that have done wonders for companies with a much smaller footprint?

Fortunately, the first hurdle is cleared before we even begin. Principles are principles. When it comes to building and maintaining a productive and positive workplace culture, what’s good for a one-building firm is good for a five-continent firm. The problem to be solved is mostly logistical. How can you make people all over the world feel the sense of team spirit and unity of purpose that a conference room full of fist-pumping employees feel at an Emmerich Group Kick-Butt Kick-Off® event? (more…)

Keep Your Nose Clean

Sunday, February 12th, 2012

Your mama taught you this one. If you want to succeed in this world, no matter what those around you are doing, keep your nose clean. After hearing hundreds of stories of why executives released their employees, it’s all pretty clear now. People lose their jobs at astronomical rates because they forget this simple advice.

This isn’t just about big drama, like embezzling from the retirement fund. It’s also crucial to stay out of the gossip game, the whining wars, and all those other dysfunctional behaviors that eat away at the foundation of a healthy culture.

Just because your boss doesn’t see you gossiping or listening to it doesn’t mean she doesn’t feel it and doesn’t hear it from others. And when she gets enough evidence to “deal with it,” you better believe she will.

Now that doesn’t mean you can’t offer constructive criticism. Just be sure to share it with grace and kindness to the person who can do actually something about it. That’s the kind of input that everyone can appreciate.