Culture Is Formed on the Front Lines, Not Around a Table

Our favorite definition is "culture is how your employees feel on Sunday night."

While culture is created internally, it spills out externally. As we routinely tell our clients, "If you have mediocre strategy and great culture, culture wins. If you have great strategy and mediocre culture, culture wins."

You must define your culture. And that definition often comes in the form of behavior.

For example, one of our clients had a good enough culture, but it wasn't defined. There was no real way to tell new and existing employees what behaviors made the credit union successful. The solution? They defined their core values with specific behaviors under each value and then rolled those out into a one-page playbook. Afterwards the CEO said, "this was the best and most significant change they've seen in two decades."

What Kind of Culture Do You Have at Your Credit Union?

Culture is like your nose – everyone has one whether you like it or not. And your credit union has a culture – whether you like it or not.
If you can't answer what your culture is like at your credit union, you probably don't have a good one.

Here are a few cultures we've seen in credit unions:

• A marketing culture – the belief that everyone is in marketing and sales; branding trumps everything.
• A learning culture – employees are pushed to learn new skills on a regular basis; professional development is a core tenant lived daily.
• A penny-pinching culture – employees are rewarded for saving money at all costs (even if it's in the credit union's best interest to spend); any expense is viewed as evil.
• Best-kept-secret culture – you have great rates and deals, yet no one knows who you are; your credit union has zero name recognition.
• Top-heavy leadership culture – there are too many leaders making all the decisions; power is controlled from the top down.
• Accountability culture – employees are encouraged to hold each other responsible for goals, deadlines, etc.; it's OK to challenge each other.

None of the above examples are right or wrong; they just are. But every culture comes with consequences. A strong culture will attract A players and repel C players. To those who don't fit your culture, you need to be able to say, "You're a great person, you just can't work here."

Your culture should be so clear and strong, people know within one week of working for you if this is the right place for them.

Signs that it's time to take a deeper look into your culture include the following:

• Difficulty making decisions as a leadership team;
• High staff turnover;
• Gossip;
• Qualified candidates for open leadership positions come from outside the credit union and not in it;
• Silo mentality between departments;
• Lack of clarity; and
• Lack of accountability .

So if culture is "the way we do things around here" (as mentioned above), then how do you create a great culture?

While the CEO certainly plays a role in creating and developing the culture, the best cultures are built on the front line. In fact, if your culture is your CEO, you don't have a culture. You have a charismatic leader.

Ideally, any person should be able to walk into any role at your credit union and know exactly what's expected of them because the culture is so clearly defined.

As Daniel Coyle said in his book "The Culture Code," "What matters is not belief, but the way the belief is transmitted … great cultures are built through small, repeated signals –little moments of connection that send a clear message: We share our future."

Don't create "golden retriever" words like trustworthy, honesty and integrity and then tell your employees, "Those are our values – now go live them." Rather, you need to take an approach that ties behaviors to your culture.

Answer the question, "Who are our best people and what characteristics do they have?" Who on your staff would you clone if you could? Think of them by name and list exactly what makes them great.

That list of traits is the start of the culture you're trying to create. Those values are behaviors your employees must live by. For example, at On the Mark Strategies our values are "Own It," "Hit Home Runs" and "Play for the Team." With each of those values we then list examples (behaviors) of what that looks like. Those values are now our culture. It's in our DNA.

According to one recent study, approximately 70% of organizations don't have a strong culture. That weakness revenue.

Want to increase revenue? Then focus on improving your culture.