Lesson #7 — Nurture your team culture
The last and, arguably, the most important lesson is team culture.
“Bad culture is characterised by fear, stress, complaints and employees who don’t feel they can tell the truth. Good culture fosters trust, support and openness from employees.” — Simon Sinek
Culture is tough to define but it most certainly comes from the top down and embodies the “why” of your business — your purpose or reason for being. Everyone by now must have come across Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle (if you haven’t, check it out). People will follow you if they understand your “why” but it isn’t always easy to hire people that believe in your “why”. Some people just want to be paid and then go home.
To nurture a positive company culture — you need to truly understand your “why” to remain focused on driving value for the business. Communicate this purpose clearly and often whilst being transparent about decisions and open about structure. A great culture will inevitably follow. If people are working against these things, it will be obvious. Unfortunately, it’s important to quickly remove the disruptive or harmful team members.
“A small team, committed to a cause bigger than themselves, can achieve absolutely anything” — Simon Sinek
Some people want to be top performers and work in a fast-paced environment but others do not. Be clear about your intentions and expectations from day one. Make sure you tell each person your desired outcome and how to exceed expectations. You will quickly see whether people are on the same path as you.
By the time you reach this stage in a business, you should have built a good framework on which to evolve and that evolution is different for everyone. Take it one step at a time and nurture your relationships, they are the glue that holds you together.
Recommended Reading: The Advantage (Patrick Lencioni) and No Rules Rules (Reed Hasting and Erin Meyer)
Take me back to the Startup CTO Handbook >
This guide originally appeared on Medium, you can find the original here.