From the moment the founder first opens their doors, every company has a culture that defines everything. So what makes some companies’ culture profitable and others not?
They focus on it.
In our industry, there is a lot of time spent talking about strategy and tactics, but little time on culture. But if you want to enjoy reliable profits, you need to develop a healthy culture where every employee understands how they personally impact it.
What could hold you back from achieving a successful profit culture? In our experience, these common issues are usually at the root of the problem:
- Employees don’t understand why profit is important
- Employees don’t see how it impacts them personally or how their daily work influences profit
- Employees don’t share directly in company success
- It isn’t a part of the company conversation with the team (these aren’t always easy conversations, but 100% worth it)
So how do you overcome them to create a profit culture?
First and foremost, you as the owner should have a clear vision and plan that lights you up and is something that others can stand behind (not just putting money in the owner’s or shareholders’ pocket).
Once you have that vision, implement these quick management actions to instill profit culture:
- Get each employee and mentor to assist in producing profit influences
- Brainstorm and share ideas with the team
- Make impact actions visible (like with the VITAL dashboard)
- Encourage fixes to wasteful activities and practices
- Have written influences for each job
- Celebrate project wins (on time, under budget)
- Build a profit-sharing plan based on overachievement (not entitlement)
To build a strong profit culture, the team understands where they are going and the plan to get there. They can then make decisions and turn out work that aligns with that vision and plan.
If you want to learn more on how to inspire business excellence in your company, watch the recordings of the past CI Business Mastery Classes here!
Stay VITAL,
Matt & the team
