Expert Ownership Podcast
Expert Ownership Podcast
Building Healthy Culture In Your Business
Ever wondered why some companies thrive while others struggle to maintain a positive atmosphere? Join us today as we uncover the secrets to building a positive company culture and empowering employees for unparalleled success.
In this episode, we lay down six key principles for creating a healthy culture in your business that leads to personal and professional growth. Enjoy.
So today we're talking about building culture in our companies. This is Jason. I got David. We are rocking. We're both at our individual houses. We don't like to be around each other when we're doing podcasts. Well, I don't like to be around you, that's all. See, people don't understand that. People don't understand. We're twins. So when we get into a room and we got to do a podcast and we're sitting there with our microphones staring at each other, it's like it's weird man Like why? Okay, come on, let's talk about the subject matter, jason. Okay, we're talking about building culture in our companies and I heard this great podcast it was some business podcast, organizational leadership thing or whatever and I heard a business owner, a guy who runs an organization, talk about six keys to the culture in their company and it's built pretty big and they were able to scale it and I was like, oh, I really like those. So I'm going to go over each of those keys that he shared and talk about what we think just kind of wrap our own thoughts around this. But we're talking about building culture and companies.
Speaker 1:What we got to understand is culture is the strongest force in any environment. If you think about going out into the ocean. There was a time when I used to love going out and riding the waves not surfing but body surfing and stuff. I love that. Now, man, I got this left ear thing. If I get water in my ear I get all jacked up and I just don't ride waves anymore. But I remember there were times, especially when I was younger, running out there in the waves and we're just body surfing for 30, 45 minutes. Next thing, you know, I look and the people that I was with my family, they're nowhere, even close, because the current has taken me down. It's taken me down whichever direction, and culture is a lot like that.
Speaker 1:The natural drift of culture is always going to be negative. So we have to fight hard to keep it positive, because there's a spiritual battle that ensues over the culture and it's a spiritual battle that the devil is true. He's alive, he's real and in scripture he's called the prince of the air when he's talking about that, or the prince of the earth, which means the natural undercurrent is very similar to like grass. You know, you can fertilize your grass all you want, but if you don't touch your grass and don't mess with it, weeds are going to grow. It just happens If you don't pay attention to your health and eat well and exercise, you're going to probably get fatter. You'll at least get out of shape. That's just the nature of culture. We live in a fallen world, so the nature of culture will tend negative. It's just a fallen world. That's exactly right.
Speaker 1:The question is how do we create a solid, successful culture in our businesses? So the first thing that we have to do is we got to identify things that we love and reinforce them. So you got to first identify what is it that you love? Okay, like, if you want to create good culture even in your family, you want to create good culture in your business. First, identify the things that you love and let's figure out ways to reinforce those things. Like that, to me, is one of the most powerful ideas Like, identify what you love and then find ways to reinforce those things. So you got to ask yourself first like, what do I love? Well, this is where we get into start. This is where we get into talking about values, and we've done several podcasts where we've talked about values. You know one word definitions that define what's important to you. And then a principle is a sentence that ties a value to action. So if we're looking at this, we're looking at values, we're looking at principles, we're looking at what do we love and how can we reinforce those things and what I love about this particular that, these.
Speaker 1:I'm going to share with you six keys that I learned from this particular leadership podcast on ways that this guy built his business and his company. Because if you think about ways to make your team better, ways to make everything better in your organization culturally, then we have to have principles, we gotta have values that we operate by. So let me give you these six. Okay, so in these six keys, these are mindsets, these are ways to think that if every employee does this, if every team member does this, you're going to have the business that you want. Okay, number one make it better. So, number one is make it better. And if you guys got anything to write with, you should write, because these things are good, so make it better. So everybody on the team, everybody on the staff, has to participate in making things better.
Speaker 1:So, david and I, when we were building our business, our real estate company, and we had lots of I mean, david, what would you say? Probably we had a hundred franchisees. Each of them had staffs that we were helping to train and we had our own staff. So we were probably maybe 500 people strong and our one thing that we were helping to train and we had our own staff. So we were probably maybe 500 people strong, and our one thing that we would always tell people was you need to be thinking about minimizing mouse clicks. So we created a system, but you know what? That system should be constantly growing and improving. So if there's a seven-step process for you to finish a task and it takes seven clicks through our system for you to finish that task, think of ways to make it six clicks, and if you do that, we give you a gift card, you know. So it's like make it better. So, yeah, what we have today is good, but make it better. And if people in your organization can constantly be thinking about, how can I make this better, that's going to create some good culture. So the question is what am I doing to help improve organizationally?
Speaker 1:Of course, we see in Scripture Colossians 3, ephesians 6, but then in various other passages, where, whatever it is that we do, we want to do it as unto the Lord. So we want to always, always be thinking about making it better, and that's what you do with your home. When you're sitting at your house, at least, if you're like Jason and me, we're sitting at our house and I'm like, how can I make this better when I entertain, or how can I make this better for my kids? Like, oh, if I change that over there, I mean, it's just nature. It's what we want to do whenever you have something that you're invested in. So if you're certain with your business, you want to make it better every single aspect to the best of your ability, and this group that came out with these six keys, these six little things that they called their covenant, has actually scaled really well. So the first thing is teach your people. You need to be thinking how can I make it better? So make it better.
Speaker 1:Number two take it personally. So you've got to believe in your product so much that you want to dive in and be personally involved and you need to take your job personally. If you can teach every single employee, every single staff member, that you have to take their jobs personally, that's going to be a massive uptick in productivity. You just want to. I mean, think about the people that are working with you and for you, and you just say, hey, are you proud of that work? Do you want to put your name on that work? How does that job that you just did reflect you? Yes, and you just build that into them.
Speaker 1:Yep, and one of the keys as a leader if you want your people to take their jobs personally, you've got to be personally involved in their lives, which means they've got to know that you care about them personally. They'll take their jobs personally when they know you care about them personally. So figure out what are their goals? What do they want to accomplish? What are their kids' names? You know, like, get into their life. And it's very good to have culture building, you know, team building type stuff outside of a work environment, because then you get to know people even better. Okay, so when you get people to think, okay, how can I make it better? Number two take it personally. Number three work with others.
Speaker 1:This is the spirit of collaboration, to where you do not need to be too proud to ask for help and not too busy to offer help, like work with others. It is a team environment. When you are a team player, when you can get your people to constantly be thinking about hey, I want to be someone who's good to work with. How many of us as employers know what this feels like. When you've got somebody who's so talented, so incredibly talented, but they can't get along with anybody, then ultimately you can't keep that person around because it doesn't matter how talented they are, if they can't get along with anybody, they can't work on a team. It's going to hurt the team. That spirit of collaboration is so incredibly important. Get your people to ask the question where am I leveraging the talent and skills of those outside my primary team? That's a really good one. Don't just keep it to the employees. Make sure that you've got people outside of what we would call vendors. You need good vendors in place as well. You need to be able to work with others. That spirit of collaboration is extremely important. So make it better, better to take it personally. Three work with others. Number four and this is a really interesting one, but I think it makes sense Replace yourself.
Speaker 1:Yeah, of course, that's exactly what Christ did. He replaced himself in the disciples and then he moved on. You have to replace yourself in your job on. You have to replace yourself in your job. Make it so systematized and organized and also train others to do the same thing that you're doing. That makes you incredibly valuable to the company, and that's the spirit of this whole.
Speaker 1:Replace yourself. It's you're empowering other people to move up. You're getting your job so systemized and streamlined that someone else can do it, and then you will move up. If you seek to replace yourself, that makes you a better worker. You're streamlining and systemizing your process. If you seek to replace yourself, you'll always have a place. Always In any organization, people want to move up. So what you need to do is seek to replace yourself. That's what we're talking about in terms of your employees need to be thinking about how can I replace myself, and then you, as the boss, assuring them. If you replace yourself, trust me, I'll find a place for you, because that's the kind of person you never let go. But you want them thinking how can I replace myself? And as leaders, we need to empower people to think this way myself. And as leaders, we need to empower people to think this way. So replace yourself.
Speaker 1:Number five this is so important Stay fit. We bring, so our people bring their personal lives to work. Whether we want to or not. If they're having relational issues, that's going to show up and work. If they're having health issues, that's going to show up and work. So we need our people to be thinking about I need to stay fit. This is really important. The more responsibility you have in an organization, the more important it is for you to stay fit. So we got to think about spiritual health, physical health, mental health, financial health, relational health. So we got to get our people asking the question how am I taking care of myself physically, how about spiritually, how about relationally, emotionally, financially? And then, as a leader, you guys are constantly thinking how can I help my people stay fit? That's right. To be able to create a culture, that's good that you like, that reinforces what you want. You've got to get them thinking how can I stay fit? And when you're fit, you don't have the brain fog that you once had and you get more accomplished in 60% of the time than you did in 100% of the time. So the extra 20% that you're adding to the fitness, you actually gain 20%.
Speaker 1:I remember having a guy David you'd remember this dude who got called out sick In three months. He called out sick like five times and then he comes back to work one day and he's got his lunch and it's fried chicken and Mountain Dew. And I remember, man, I got so mad and I remember talking with him. I was like, bro, listen, you eating that is now costing our company, because, I promise, if you're sucking down Mountain Dew, you are not doing your body a service, you are actually damaging your body and you should not be drinking that. I didn't care what he drank until he started calling out sick all the time. Now I care, right and so. But staying fit, because it is going to affect everybody. So to have the culture that you want, you need to be able to reinforce to all of your people. I need to stay fit. I got to stay fit in every area of my life, otherwise it's going to hurt our business. Okay, so let's stay fit.
Speaker 1:And number six remain open-handed. And what do we mean by that? We're talking about being flexible. We're talking about in any growing organization, there's going to be constant change, and if somebody can't handle constant change, they can't be on the team. Yeah, you cannot be rigid. You're like.
Speaker 1:We just discussed this. This is our process. It's like look an airline pilot. I love how Craig Groeschel describes it. He's constantly making adjustments. That doesn't mean you're a bad pilot, that means you're a good one, because you don't know what the crosswind is going to be. You have no idea what's going to happen at certain altitudes, with turbulence. You just don't know. You have to be making constant adjustments, that's right, and people have to be open to change.
Speaker 1:So you want to build a culture that experiences change in a good way. It's like all right, guys, this is what we've been doing the last three months. We're going to change it and celebrate it. Find some way for people to actually go okay, yeah, some people just react negatively to change but find a way to reinforce it and so that people actually start celebrating some of this change and make it fun. You know it's like have a pizza party when it comes to changing something and then every time a pizza party comes like, oh, what's changing? You know so it's what they call in this podcast palms up, living, which is a great way to pray. If you pray to God, turn your palms up toward him. You know what this does is this manages your triggers. When your palms are up and you're talking with somebody, yeah, you're in a receive mode If your hands are crossed, your arms are crossed and your fists are clenched or whatever. It's not going to calm your triggers. So palms up is all right. What's the change? God, I'm willing to take it.
Speaker 1:And then you teach your people to be open to change and remaining open-handed. That is going to help you a lot. So those six keys, man, you pick whatever you want, just be actively involved. Figure out what is it that I love, what makes up a great culture, and how can I reinforce those things in my business. These six things are just ideas for you where you teach your people. Number one make it better. Two take it personally. Three work with others. Number four replace yourself. Number five stay fit. And number six remain open handed. And so let's build great cultures in our companies, ladies, that's good. That'll help us become expert owners. We got to own every area of our life, and that's what's really cool about these six. Is it really kind of is a little bit more holistic, especially when it's like working with others and staying fit. I mean, that's you got to do that in every area of your life, regardless of whether you're in business or not.
Speaker 1:So all right, yeah, man, we're looking forward to next week. We have our mastermind, of which we are calling the master's mind and we've got it's at our lake house. So we have I mean we we got just enough guys there. It's going to be so fun. Bunch of dudes, bunch of dudes, and we're, we're talking, we're calling about, we're calling it the master's mind because we want to help you get the master's mind on your business. And if the times were bad and you weren't able to make this one, don't worry, we'll do another one. We'll open up that lake house. It's always going to be small, man, we're talking. 12 to 15 dudes at any time, always going to be small. So it's very hands-on and we want to get the master's mind on our businesses. Awesome, all right. God bless you guys. We'll.