Should you let employees create the work culture in your business?

We did look at how you, as an owner, influence the work culture in your business. Read about that here. The takeaway was that you have to consider people with different perspectives, from you, when recruiting.

Because small business work relations are closer than the awkward smiles in corporate hall ways and lifts, things will quickly develop into a unique organization culture. Unique since it is directed by employees. Nobody can single out the one driver of culture. Like, who decided pink is for girls? What can be analyzed are the outcomes of the changes around us.

In a small business, the owner will need to demonstrate a talent or skill for management. It’s not just something you get a Master’s for. When employees derive work culture, you’ll notice some friction. There will be conflict between the organic flow of things and what you, the boss, actually prefer. Bosses are really uncomfortable with compromising. Apparently, it makes them look weak.

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Learn from our big business counterparts when you find yourself in this fix. How do they do it? They keep this kind of development in check with rigid rules on behavior and processes at work. That’s how sane people put on ties in the Tropics and need layers of approvals for the simplest things. You’ll have to come back if the manager meant to sign it isn’t in today. Smh. Work culture directed by employees tend to have flatter hierarchies. There’s a lot more autonomy among employees and decisions by consensus – which reduces instances of the bad kind of office politics.

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In your business, this will allow you to factor in your preference in the way work is done. But, of course, being smart you wouldn’t want to lose out on some advantages of small businesses like informality and flexibility.

The procedures you set should be accommodating. You’ll realize this outcome by involving your team in setting them. You should also have a habit of explaining the “why” not just the “what.” This makes your team feel like they have a stake in the work done. And that they are not just operational drones running the clock down to the weekend.