Every Business Has a Culture: Is Yours Intentionally or Accidentally Created?

By Verl Workman On a recent visit to Lucidpress in Salt Lake City, I was greeted by a receptionist who I had never met. She got up out of her seat, came around the desk and said, “Welcome to Lucid! Who are you here to see?” I said I had a meeting with Owen Fuller, the general manager, and she said, “Oh, that’s great!” like she was really impressed. She then said, “I’ll let him know you’re here. Can I get you something to drink or a snack?” We then chatted until Owen joined us and started the company tour. This office was not only impressive, but the people were engaged, hard-working and friendly. As we passed people on the stairs, everyone had a comment about a basketball game, how the kids were doing or a fist bump or high five. This company had a real culture, and it started at the top. Companies and teams that thrive in good and difficult times intentionally create their culture based on their core values—the set of governing values that drive who they hire, the type of environment they intentionally create and the way they run their business. In researching Lucidpress’ core values, I found these: 1. Innovation in everything we do
2. Passion and excellence in every area
3. Providing individual empowerment, initiative and ownership
4. Teamwork over ego

The leadership at this company made it a point to make sure these values were evident in each section of the business, and I was impressed. Not only did I feel welcome, but I also felt like I could easily see myself doing business with them because our values aligned. As a coaching company, we encourage every one of our clients to begin our journey together by establishing a set of values that will govern their decision-making processes. Once the core values are established, we then set out to build what I call a “culture of productivity.” While this can be defined differently by each of us, it requires some thought. For a real estate team, that culture begins with a daily huddle before practicing scripts and dialogues for a minimum of 30 minutes. This practice gets our agents in the mindset to prospect. As a result of creating this culture, there is accountability, excellence and growth. An office or team that allows agents to come and go as they please has no productivity requirements, but they still have a culture. Sometimes that works accidentally, but we have found that intentionally creating a culture of productivity based on your core values creates the right energy for success, in addition to fostering growth. Verl Workman is the founder and CEO of Workman Success Systems (385-282-7112), an international speaking, consulting and coaching company that specializes in performance coaching and building successful power agents and teams. Contact him at Verl@WorkmanSuccessSystems.com.