Creating a holistic approach to developing company culture is the first step in recruiting and retaining key candidates. Gerald Wagner, president of Academy of Culture Ambassadors, an organization that supports professionals interested in creating cultural change within their company, talks about how putting human kindness and compassion is the key to a companies overall cultural strategy. Want to attract sought-after employees? There’s no question that the surest way to reel them in is to:
- Brag about your values and workplace culture on your business homepage. Show example videos of what makes your workplace great.
- Maintain a great spirit. When prospects enter through your front door they can immediately sense what kind of atmosphere your business radiates. A positive vibe comes from employees who exemplify authentic kindness, caring, compassion, generosity, humility, empathy, trust, tolerance and gratitude. It feels authentic and not pretentious. In short, this is love in action, and it’s your most powerful tool.
These qualities describe a workplace environment where spiritual leadership is thriving. It is the kind of place that most employees long for. It is a holistic package that puts human kindness and compassion at the forefront. These are also the workplaces where the triple bottom-line flourishes – planet, profit, and people!
There are thousands of "how-to" blogs, books and papers, sharing many proven techniques, but there is no such thing as “best practices” for a thriving workplace culture. In other words, there is no secret sauce. You design your own.
The following graph is a summary of research for what I call “Organizational Culture Essential Elements." It does not imply a hierarchy, although the outer rings comes first and everything is aimed at the center; otherwise, projects and initiatives for the other elements can occur in any order.
As you're communicating with a candidate regarding your company culture, consider how your organization is striving to achieve these elements.
A current trend to increase odds of winning the culture game is called "spiritual leadership." Spiritual leadership is not a religious dogma or ideology, rather a collective of the key elements listed above — plus love.
The Academy of Culture Ambassador's first annual conference, Wisdom for Modern Workplaces, will focus on spiritual leadership as a way of enhancing and cultivating workplace culture. The TeamKC Network can use the promo code Teamkc to receive a 50 percent discount on his/her registration (Note that the code is case sensitive, and is limited to the first 25 registrations).
Learn more about The Academy of Culture Ambassadors's city chapters located across the Midwest, and read about exceptional workplace cultures via The Academy’s monthly publication, Culture Role Models.
To learn more about Academy of Culture Ambassadors, contact Gerald Wagner. To learn more about TeamKC, contact Jessica Nelson.