How to build a great culture within a small team

Can you define company culture?

Culture is often mislabeled as perks, but it’s not companywide pizza parties or break room beer kegs.

It’s similarly confused with the office atmosphere, but it’s not having dogs roaming the halls or a dart board in the break room.

And finally, culture is often misunderstood as something you have to define once you have a large team, but it starts far sooner than that.

While my corporate definition of “culture” leans towards artistic interpretation, I will use the scientific definition of culture to rebuttal the concept that culture requires a lot of bodies.

Or in other words, culture begins forming at the conception of your company. 

First, what is culture really?

If you try to find a single conclusive answer for what company culture is, you’ll spin your wheels. Some HR experts will tell you it’s the culmination of all things corporate—your values, mission, leadership tactics, positioning, talent, team and good Lord, if I type anything else from these lists I may dislocate my jaw from yawning so hard.

Others keep their cultural definitions brief, saying it’s the “atmosphere” or “personality of the company.”

It’s not that I agree or disagree with any of that, I just don’t find the process of finding the perfect definition of culture to be particularly helpful in the act of actually building a great culture. For me, a satisfactory definition of culture in the workplace is similar to that of a science lab, with an artistic twist:

Culture is who we are, how we interact and what maintains our growth.

Your assumption when you read the word “growth” was probably a positive tone. Up and to the right, right? It’s not always the case. Just as bacteria can be good or bad for your body, culture can have great or horrible impacts on companies. That’s why I prefer to not adhere to a definition around culture that is exclusively positive.

Instead of growing the important metrics we’re all measured against—revenue, new customers, average order volume, etc.—bad cultures can cause explosive growth in coworker disputes, inner-office politics, toxic competition, harassment, malicious gossip and so on. Those behaviors will begin to erode into the business’ bottom line. 

So that’s the definition for today—culture is who we are (personality types), how we interact (through negative or positive energy) and what maintains our growth (growth in positive or negative behavior). 

Why is culture important?

It’s clear why you don’t want a bad culture—harassment lawsuits, gossip, toxic behavior and all that jazz. But what’s the big deal about focusing on building a good culture? Well, if you take nothing else from today’s writings, just know you cannot choose to not have culture. You can either focus on building one that works with the company’s objectives, or you can accept whatever forms when you’re not looking. 

(Hint: When left alone, most cultures will form to benefit the individual and turn out something like that now-rotten tomato you forgot in the corner of the kitchen a few weeks ago). 

Having a great culture is going to impact your business in a few different ways.

The four greatest impacts a good culture will have on your business are:

Talent attraction, satisfaction and retention

A+ talent wants to work in an environment that allows for candor, contribution and contrasting opinions. As I said last week, talent doesn’t want to tiptoe around leadership’s sensitive feelings. Focus on a culture that empowers the talent to take the lead and you’ll hire A players, which attract more A players. This autonomy and high level talent pool creates more job satisfaction, which leads to more retention.

Increased creativity

Collaborative cultures like those described in the book “The Culture Code” showcase that culture is not just fluff—it has a real impact on creative problem solving. 

Prepare for adversity

One of the most important aspects of having a strong culture is how it can help you weather the storm. All of the recent television series that have been made about companies that grew too fast and imploded had horrible cultures, and none of them could overcome adversity with a bad culture (OK, lying, stealing, and being led by fraudsters also had something to do with those—but I stand by my point). Teams with strong cultures do not panic under pressure—they work together to solve problems. 

Build a better product/service 

The three things above are going to lead to a better product or service every time. When you have a talented team that’s happy, creatively tackling your company’s challenges, and ready for anything, you are primed to win. 

“OK but my team is small”

Culture is less about having a team that likes to go out and drink together after work or having a dozen people who joke around, and more about how each individual treats each other in relation to work. You can have employees who hang out after work and still have a bad culture—those pockets of friendship can be toxic cliques. 

Culture happens upon the company’s inception, even if it’s just a sole proprietorship in the beginning. That’s because a company’s culture is going to impact not just how leaders treat their team, but others as well. It can be found in how you treat your customers/clients, vendors, and contractors. So even in a team of two, your company is interacting with dozens of others and setting precedent in how you will act with future teammates. 

Remember—culture is what maintains our growth. From day one, founders should execute the behavior they would want their team to showcase even if that team doesn’t exist yet. Treat your first vendors with respect if that’s how you want your team to operate. Don’t ask your contractors to work late if you wouldn’t do that to your team. Don’t ask for something last minute from a vendor if you wouldn’t do that to your teammate. This will get you in the right mindset and habits when you start to bring in your first teammates. 

If you already have a few teammates, it’s not too late to shift behavior or start forming the culture you want. Write out your company’s core values. Don’t stress over the process—just pick 4-5 that resonate with the type of company you want to build. If you have some teammates, get their opinion on what the values of the company are or should be. 

GoWild’s values are BRAVE—Bold, Restless, Agile, Visionary and Empowered. We hire and evaluate according to these values, and it’s how we make our decisions, too (swift, bold decisions are true to our values, for example). This cohesion in values along with our mission (“Unlock the gate to the outdoors”) is at the core of how our team thinks. If a decision hits our marketing team, and they can play it safe or take some risk for a shot at a bigger reward, guess what? We’re taking the risk. 

Our engineering team will always focus on building the MVP first, because we’re agile in our core.  

When adversity hits, our team doesn’t wait around to see what Brad says to do—they act fast and fill me in later. That’s because they’re empowered, per our values. They will start working together to solve the problem immediately. We take care of each other, forgoing processes (ahem, being agile) in order to stop the bleeding. 

These values are in our blood. I could go on, but I think the point is clear. Small teams still need culture—it forms the identity of your everyday interactions. Culture lays the foundation that will both help the team scale, and be ready for when you hire your next team member. Culture identifies the manner at which we’re going to tackle the day. If you’ve struggled to build a culture with a small team, it’s likely you’re struggling most with the definition of culture. It’s not simply having a lot of happy interactions.

Remember, culture is who we are, how we interact and what maintains our growth.

3 keys to building great culture with small teams

1) Always remember that culture builds with or without your approval.

You can decide to not focus on culture, but you can’t decide to not have one. A culture will form with or without your input. Take the lead. 

2) Define your company’s values. That’s your compass. 

A company’s values will drive the culture. Zappos prided itself on being crazy about customers, and the culture reflected a fun, quirky passion for helping others (“Create Fun and A Little Weirdness” was one of their famous core values). 

3) Remember, unless the leaders live it, it’s all lip service.

Too often, leaders dictate the values, mission and cultural guidelines, and completely fail to live the culture themselves. Culture unravels quickly when a leader allows team members to stay on the ship who break protocol, but the culture will absolutely dissolve in toxic anarchy if the leader doesn’t live it. Live and lead by example. 

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This week’s topic was by request from a small business leader, and it marks my first write-in question. If you want to submit a question for a potential future topic, please leave a comment or shoot me an email.

What I’m reading: Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination

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