I once heard someone say ‘if you run an agency, your people are your product’.
This statement humbled me and changed my perspective and strategy for success as the MD at Chaptr.
The word ‘culture’ is bandied around a lot in business and often the first thing that springs to mind is an office setting that resembles an adventure play zone with millennials laughing and smiling whilst drinking Soy Lattes; sure, when you’ve reached that elusive Unicorn status in Silicon Valley you’ve probably got the spare cash to spunk on an onsite employee gym and a 1000 cashmere beanbags…
But let’s get real for a second and agree that 99% of businesses are unlikely to reach those dizzying heights. And that’s totally fine because there is still a way to build a strong culture where people enjoy coming to work each day, share the same values and will give their everything to help your company succeed.
Create a set of values
The important thing here is that you don’t just list a load of words and then forget all about them.
We involved the whole team in this exercise by asking them what comes to mind when they think of Chaptr. We then asked them what we can do to be better.
We put everything that spilt out on a flipchart and looked for patterns, before condensing it all into short and pithy statements which formed a set of behaviours that became our values e.g.
Teamwork – You don’t let your teammates fail.
Having a set of values which you all agree on will help form the foundation of your culture, but it’s just the start.
Listen to your team
I can’t emphasise how important this one is.
We make it a priority to catch up with our team regularly on a one-on-one basis and we ask them a list of questions designed to help us be better as an agency and to help them to progress and be successful. Questions like:
What can we do for you? How will this make you more successful?
Each team member is required to actively contribute to these sessions and we do our best to shut up and listen.
The insight we gather from these meetings is invaluable, but the next step is to show good leadership and actually create some actions which address the points raised, and then follow up.
So, create some values and listen to your employees – what next?
Celebrate all wins
This doesn’t just mean the big clients that you land, or hitting quarterly targets. It means celebrating the small things too, like finishing a project on time or receiving some positive client feedback. It doesn’t have to be a grand gesture either to make someone’s day – send some flowers or buy a round of those Soy Lattes I spoke about earlier.
We’re making a habit of celebrating the end of each quarter.
Remember small wins create a winning mindset and can lead to big wins!
Think ‘culture’ first when recruiting
It’s so important to think about your culture when you’re looking to bring someone new into the team. Yes, they need all the skills you require on paper but this really should be a prerequisite because making sure they are a good fit for your values is crucially important, especially if you run a small team. A negative attitude spreads like poison.
Know when it’s time to let people go
This doesn’t have to be all doom and gloom.
If you’ve been transparent about your culture, involved everyone in the process and you’ve been clear about what it takes to work for your company – and they still don’t get it and are not willing to contribute in a positive way to your values or your mission, then it’s important that you’re upfront about whether they are in the right place or if they would be better suited elsewhere. And if it’s the latter then do what you can to help.
No matter how good people are at their job, if they don’t fit your culture then you need to take action quickly to resolve it (interpret that as you will!).
I know, it’s all very well me saying this and hoping you will believe me but I’m not Gary Vaynerchuck – I’m just the MD of small creative agency, so I’ll leave you with this for further reading… because research shows that if culture comes first, performance levels will follow.
Thanks for reading 🙂
If you want to learn more about our culture or our process, you can do so here.
If you want to read more insights, you can do so here.
If you talk to us about a new project, you can get in touch here.
Recommended reading: Moving to Asana taught us there’s no such thing as over-organisation.