A company’s key to success is in its heart and soul

Few days ago, I attended a meeting. The meeting talked about how to build a winning cultures in the company. The presentation was taken and compiled from some sources. One of them was from the book "Building a  Winning Culture" which was published by Bain & Company. I just want to share some small parts of it with you, here in my blog.

The book said that winning cultures combine two elements: the high performance values and behavior, and unique personality and soul. Who we are or what we value is defined by some key attributes, as you can see in the image above. All attributes are linked to the success of the company.

First, high aspirations and a desire to win. Employees in high-performance cultures are never satisfied with their achievement. For them, good is never good enough and they're always pushing their self to go farther, better, and faster. They're not only thinking about short-term financial performance. The work is about building something truly special and lasting. 

External focus talks about how the company—and the employees—focus their energies externally on delighting customers, beating competitors, and caring for communities. They don’t get stuck in the internal politics.

A "think like owners" attitude is about the awareness of the employees to take responsibility in raising the company. They take personal responsibility for overall business performance and strive to do the right thing for the business.

Bias to action talks about how employees in high-performance cultures—how they are impatient to get things done. They are doers, not talkers. They ensure their actions will enhance the business.

Every company with the winning cultures has individuals who team. The cultures encourage people in the company to be themselves. The cultures help individuals grow to their full potential and also recognize the importance of teamwork. Employees in this company are being open to other people’s ideas.

The last, but not least, are passion and energy. I personally think that the last attribute is the most important of all. With passion and energy, everyone in the company will give their best, voluntarily, to develop the business.

To me, passion and energy are the first key to build the winning cultures in the company. Without passion and energy, there will not be the rest of the attributes. And without all the attributes, the company may still walk, but it will not run fast as the employees will only do their job in the PNS (pegawai negeri sipil) mood. Haha!

So how to retain the passion and energy to be exist within every individuals in the company? Give proper appreciation for them, the employees, accordance with their work load and the outcomes they achieved. Ah, it's a classical problem in the organization. Again, quoting the book, "a company’s key to  success is in its heart and soul."

Notes: you can download the electronic version of the book, here. The image above was taken from the e-book.