Good thoughts and comments on company culture from Olivier Blanchard. Culture does indeed make the vibe and vibe makes the experience—from vivid to vile.

Negativity and conflict kill the vibe. A tyrannical boss kills the vibe. Boredom kills the vibe. Lousy working conditions kill the vibe. Not being empowered to do your job kills the vibe. Rude customers or clients kill the vibe.

If enthusiasm and excitement are contagious (and they are), so is negativity.

Oh so true. Olivier describes the great vibe at a client of his and then says,

What is most striking about this ecosystem is the complete absence of even a trace of corporate culture. You won’t find any micromanaging bosses there. The workers don’t have to attend sales meetings or team-building clinic…The vibe is theirs to own. They are the custodians of the vibe, and the senior team members teach the newbies how to foster it and make it their own.

What I see is that the employee-owned vibe is the culture, and it couldn’t exist without the whole-hearted agreement, support, connivance and encouragement of the boss.

Lao Tzu said it best more than 2000 years ago,

As for the best leaders,
the people do not notice their existence.
The next best,
the people honor and praise.
The next, the people fear;
and the next, the people hate…
When the best leader’s work is done,
the people say, “We did it ourselves!”
To lead the people, walk behind them.

Print it out, put it where you can see it every day, let it be the basis of your management and it will become the basis of your culture.

The result will be a great vibe that your customers and candidates love and your competitors envy.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 15th, 2007 at 11:57 am and is filed under Business info, Communication, Culture, Hiring, Leadership, Motivation, Retention. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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