Building A Winning Company Culture: Key Elements and Best Practices

Having a strong and winning company culture is a crucial factor that sets successful organizations apart from the rest. It goes beyond mere policies and procedures, and it’s a dynamic framework that drives companies toward remarkable achievements.

At Y Scouts, we believe that building a winning company culture doesn’t just happen by chance. In fact, we are dedicated to understanding the key elements that create a thriving workplace, and we have invested time and effort into comprehending the psychology and characteristics that make a company culture truly exceptional.

These are the fundamental building blocks we’ve identified:

• Clear Vision and Values
• Employee Empowerment and Engagement
• Transparent Communication
• Recognition and Reward Systems
• Learning and Development Opportunities

At Y Scouts, these elements form the foundation of our entire culture. We embody them in everything we do, and they have become an integral part of our identity.

In this article, we will dive into each key element, offering insights into why they are essential components of our winning company culture.

Let’s jump in.

Clear Vision and Values

A clear vision and strong values are the heart and soul of a thriving company culture. When an organization has a well-defined vision, it serves as a north star for every employee, aligning their efforts toward a common purpose.

At Y Scouts, our vision and values are derived from our leadership model for hiring, which is:

• Driving Results
• Developing Others
• Learning Relentlessly
• Gratitude
• Health & Wellness

At any given moment you can ask any member of our team what the values are at Y Scouts, and we will all say the same thing. That’s how aligned we are with our vision, values, and company culture. We live it, we breathe it, and these values are front of mind for every decision we make as a company.

And because we are so clear on these values, we naturally attract other like-minded individuals and A+ players to join our winning team. Getting clear on your vision and values will have tremendous compounding effects on your business, but you truly have to BELIEVE in your values and lead by example to get full buy-in from everyone on your team.

Employee Empowerment and Engagement

Employee empowerment and engagement play pivotal roles in shaping successful company cultures. When employees feel empowered, they are given the autonomy and authority to make decisions and take ownership of their work. This sense of empowerment leads to increased motivation and a greater sense of responsibility, as employees feel like valued contributors rather than just cogs in the machine. Empowered employees are more likely to take initiative, innovate, and go the extra mile to achieve company goals, resulting in a more agile and forward-thinking organization.

Y Scouts operates off of EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System), and one aspect of the system is determining “Rocks” which are essentially SMART goals.

There are company rocks, but there are also INDIVIDUAL rocks that each person on the team works on throughout an entire quarter to reach a very specific goal.

This has been an incredible way to keep each team member engaged, because it’s something they have sole ownership of and get to lead the charge to find the way to reach the goal. It empowers each team member to work on something they love that also drives the business forward and helps the company reach its ultimate goal. And that is a sense of empowerment and engagement that is hard to beat.

Transparent Communication

You can’t have a thriving company culture without transparent communication. It’s impossible to gain the trust of your organization if people feel like you are “hiding information” from them or keeping them out of the loop. To do this, you have to be intentional about when you communicate with your team and how you choose to communicate.

At Y Scouts, one of the ways we do this is that everyone has weekly 1:1’s with their manager to ensure that both parties are always on the same page about all current and active projects. This allows both parties to ask questions KNOWING that you’ll get transparent answers in return.

But it doesn’t just stop there.

Every week we do a Monday morning kick-off with the entire team and do a high-level overview of the company goals and KPI’s, where the company is trending from a revenue standpoint, and what can be done each week to continue to improve.

Everyone on the team always knows EXACTLY where the company stands at any given week, which allows us all to be fully aligned and rowing our boat in the same direction.

Recognition and Reward Systems

Recognition and reward systems are powerful drivers of a positive and thriving company culture. When employees’ hard work and achievements are acknowledged and rewarded, it boosts their motivation and morale. Recognition can take various forms, from verbal praise and public appreciation to formal awards and incentives. Whatever the method, the key is to make employees feel valued and appreciated for their contributions.

At Y Scouts, we have a really fun way of doing this.

Everyone on the team sends out value sightings that we call “Cheers for Peers”. We use a tool called Lemonade Listening to do this, and it allows us to personally send a “cheers” to a peer who was observed demonstrating one of our five core company values. Then, once per quarter during a company-wide meeting, everyone shares a value sightings they sent out to a team member for each of the core values. And the person who received the most cheers is the winner for that quarter.

The team loves doing this, and it is an amazing way to recognize each other for doing incredible work and truly living our company values.

Learning and Development Opportunities

Learning and development opportunities are often an overlooked aspect of creating an amazing company culture. When organizations invest in the growth and skill enhancement of their employees, it creates a sense of commitment and loyalty among the workforce. Providing learning opportunities shows that the company values its employees’ professional development and is willing to invest in their future.

We believe in this so much at Y Scouts that “Learning Relentlessly” is one of our core company values. Not only do provide all employees with various opportunities to learn new things in order to improve their careers, but we also do bi-weekly “Learning and Development” sessions within the company.

Each team member gets a chance to lead a Learning and Development session, and they get to train their fellow team members on a specific topic that they are an expert in that could also benefit the team and the company.

It’s a way to not only help everyone continue to learn, but it allows each team member to really shine by training others on a topic they are an expert in.

It’s a win-win for everyone involved.

Conclusion

The businesses that prioritize company culture are the companies that end up winning in the long run. But building a thriving company culture takes intention, belief, and consistency. And it definitely doesn’t happen by accident.

This article highlighted the way that Y Scouts has built its thriving company culture, but this is by no means the only way to accomplish it. Our values help form our culture because we all truly BELIEVE in them. We wouldn’t have the culture we have today if we tried to force these values and if they weren’t authentic to us.

So our recommendation is to use this article as a guideline to help inspire you to find a way to establish values that are authentic to you and your company, and work to make them feel like “your own”.

But no matter what values align with the company culture you want to create, you need to put the effort in TODAY to start establishing them. Because the longer you wait to improve your company culture…the more you put your company at risk of losing your top employees to companies who are already taking their culture seriously.

You are now armed with the foundation. Now it’s time to take action.