SHORT
DEFINITION FOR DRIVES THE CULTURE:
Takes responsibility for and acts in support of the mission, integrity, morale and teamwork of their work-group
Takes responsibility for and acts in support of the mission, integrity, morale and teamwork of their work-group
BEHAVIORAL
INDICATORS FOR DRIVES THE CULTURE:
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ARTICLE: Foster
Transparency, Trust And Loyalty in Your Group
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Foster
Transparency, Trust and Loyalty in Your Group - Kristin Burnham
4 management tips from
Spiceworks’ cofounder Scott Abel,
Building a
tight-knit and productive team starts at the top. Spiceworks’ cofounder, Scott
Abel, shares four management tips to foster transparency, trust and loyalty in
your group.
Scott spent nine years as the
company’s CEO, stepping down earlier this year to focus on product strategy and
culture. During his tenure, the company grew from a handful of employees to
more than 425, and last year was named one of Glassdoor’s top 10 best places to
work.
Abel, now chief strategy officer,
says that making Spiceworks a company people wanted to work for has been key to
its growth and success. “The secret to being a good leader is having your
team believe at their core that you care about their success,” he says. “If
your team knows that, loyalty, honesty and the good work they’re capable of
will follow.”
Achieving a transparent, honest and
open workplace culture is easier said than done. Here are four management tips
and strategies Abel used to cultivate those qualities, which he says any leader
can use to foster a tighter, more productive team.
1. Connect with staff from the start
Making a positive connection with
your staff starts before they join the team, Abel says. As Spiceworks grew,
Abel met with each job finalist – not to give hiring managers input, but to
make an impression with the candidates.
“You’re not going to add anything to
the interview process that late in the game, but it’s a gesture that can mean a
lot to them,” Abel says. “Put yourself in the candidate’s shoes: Spending 30
minutes with them shows that you care enough about the workplace culture to
personally meet with them.”
That first impression, he says, is
something employees carry with them when they start. “When people know you
care, they’ll do their best work,” Abel says.
2. Schedule one-on-one time
Once an employee had been on the job
for six months, Abel took them to lunch. “It was an opportunity for me to check
in with the new hires to see how things were going, if their job and the
company were what they expected, ask what they liked, disliked and what they
would do differently,” he says.
That one-on-one time was key to
fostering a culture of openness and trust, Abel says. As the company grew, one-on-one
time wasn’t feasible anymore, so he launched a new initiative called “Slices
with Scott.”
“When we had to stop doing lunches,
employees really missed that,” he says. “So once a month I’d meet with a group
of 10 employees for pizza, and open myself up to questions.” Abel encouraged
employees to ask anything they wanted, no matter how silly or serious, he says.
“How openly and honestly you answer those questions speaks volumes about you
and your leadership, and employees really appreciate that.”
3. Maintain an open-door policy
Making yourself available to
employees – in practice, not just in theory – is one of the most important
gestures that benefit both your team and your role as a leader, Abel
says.
“If your door is open and an employee
walks in, stop what you’re doing and give her your undivided attention because
it took courage for her to approach you,” he says. “If you’re too busy, set a
time to meet right then and there.”
Open-door policies help foster trust
and openness within your team, Abel says – qualities that are especially
important when things don’t go well.
“People never want to give their
leaders bad news. But companies don’t succeed on pats on the back, they succeed
in finding problems and fixing them. If you can’t find a problem, you can’t fix
it,” Abel says.
His motto – good news fast and bad
news faster – is difficult for employees to execute on unless they trust
you.
“Trust is so critical. You want to
get to a point where employees walk into your office and say something isn’t
working. You want them to give you that feedback honestly and openly – and fast
so you can fix it. If you team is scared or intimidated by you, you won’t get
that.”
4. Fail openly
It’s difficult for employees to fail
– and admit they failed – unless they know it’s okay to do so, Abel says. That
starts at the top.
“We
have a saying: ‘Fail fast, fail cheap.’ But that’s hard if there’s a culture of
blame. Your job is to dispel that and show that you can learn from your
mistakes. When you fail, you need to fail openly. Stand up and say, this is
what I did wrong, here’s why and here’s what I’ll do next time,” he says.
Abel learned that lesson two years
ago when Spiceworks missed a number “big time,” he says – a planning mistake
that he made. Abel held a company meeting to take ownership of the mistake,
discuss what went wrong and asked his employees to question him more
often.
“You have to personally lead by
example because then maybe they’ll do it,” he says. “No one wants to say
they’ve dropped the ball, because we have this illusion that leaders are
infallible. That’s not the case."
"Fail fast, learn from it and move on.
You need to set that example.”
1 comment:
What drives the culture in our team is the team knowing there is an open door policy between management and them,they are free to express any concerns they have in confidence. Truly listening to them and showing them true attentiveness as they talk. Leading the example and applying the platinum rule to each team member as individuals and also showing that respect brings us together as a team. We all come from different backgrounds, different outlooks in life, and differences in how we learn. We have grown strong over the last month because we have all understood the platinum rule and the difference in the cultures. That is what drives us to be a strong team.
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