You Can't Grow Your Garden Unless You’re Willing To Kill The Weeds

Life is very simple.

There's the thing you wish you were doing.

There's the thing you're saying that you're doing.

And then there's the thing you actually do.

How do you build and maintain culture in your organization?

You do it.

In your actions.

I've seen so many companies operate as if frozen in time.

They have nice-sounding values such as "integrity", "transparency", "respect" and whatnot displayed in the lobby, and yet they are OK with sacrificing "culture" over "finance."

There are two questions you need to ask yourself every day.

What do you expect from your people?

What do you tolerate from them?

Because what you tolerate is what you will get, and that sets the tone for your company culture and ultimately dictates the performance of your team.

Your job as a leader is to align what you "expect" and what you "tolerate" to get to zero gap.

Nothing will kill a great employee faster than watching you tolerate a bad one.

Go home and audit every single employee you have and you'd better figure out which one makes others miserable.

Doesn't matter if it's your number one salesperson, a friend from HR or a co-founder.

Cancer spreads.

In a world that values speed, your company gets much slower because people will sit around debating how miserable they are or worried to have a meeting with others.

By not firing the talented people if they are not willing to care about their teammates more than themselves you send a signal.

By not stopping the disrespectful behaviour immediately and boldly you are saying that you approve the behaviour.

If you allow one person to do it, you're saying that you’re allowing others to do so as well.

"Culture is a texture. It’s a vibe. It’s a feel. To me, good culture means spreading kindness. It’s about connection, people caring about one another. It’s about people having self-awareness, so they care about other people as well. In a nutshell, culture is the “heartbeat” of a company. It’s something that lights up the entire system. If a company has great culture, it can be the backbone of their success." -Claude Silver

Your company culture will factor into your success as a company.

That’s why you need to get it right.

You build culture by reminding everyone they are all expendable if they're not willing to treat each other with respect and love.

Speak up.

Call people out on their shit.

Don't let bad behaviour slide.

Your employees watch every move you make.

That’s how they know what the real “rules” are.

Larry Winget proposes to substitute the word "tolerate" with "endorse."

Try it.

It may shift your perspective.

Do you endorse rudeness, lousy service, being late, stealing, being lazy or disrespectful?

No?

Then why do you tolerate it?

What actions from others have you “tolerated” that you would not “endorse”?

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