Courtesy of Erin Hatzikostas
Erin Hatzikostas.
- Erin Hatzikostas is a former corporate CEO turned career coach, speaker, and podcast host. She is the founder and CEO of b Authentic inc. You can listen to her offbeat career podcast, "b CAUSE with Erin & Nicole," or you can start pumping up your career with her free guide,"10 Simple Steps to a Rich Career."
- In her previous job as a CEO, she helped her company's culture score among employees go up by 15% - and triple their earnings within three years.
- She created a culture board of directors, had them helm leadership trainings, and allocated time in every meeting to talk about inspirations.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
My eight-year-old son and I were talking about work the other day. We do this often; he loves to create new business ideas and talk shop with his mom.
The term "culture" came up, and so I asked him, "What does 'culture' mean?"
He quickly responded, "Other people's realities."
Incredible. I couldn't have defined it more succinctly that that.
Then I asked a follow-up question, "Do you think there's a 'culture' in companies?"
His response: "No clue."
My son is no different than most adults. We all know company culture is important, but it's much harder to actually define - let alone change - it.
We all know that a strong company culture can make or break a company.
There also seem to be endless news reports about successful companies that suffer near to full collapse due to their horrible work cultures. For example, growing travel company Away recently made headlines after they replaced their CEO when it was discovered that she was cultivating a toxic, "cutthroat" company culture.
And Away's news came on the heels of WeWork's $47 billion "culture" mistake. After evidence of a highly nefarious culture came to light, the company went from a potential mega IPO to struggling to survive.
So what are companies supposed to do? Is shaping a positive culture really as elusive as it seems?
The good news is that it isn't elusive at all. In fact, there are simple steps you can take to create an incredible culture.
In this complex world, we often think we have to solve big problems with big solutions. That's not the case with culture; small changes can make a huge impact.
When I was CEO at my previous company, we had a lot of opportunity to create a healthier, happier place.
One day, I had an epiphany. I was standing on stage in front of about 200 employees. I was talking about some of the progress our business was making. The pride on their faces were palpable. I thought, "We got here mostly by luck. What could our culture look like if we actually focused on creating a superior culture?"
One year later, our culture score on our employee engagement survey went up 15%.
While the things we did weren't rocket science, it did take a lot of trial and error to get to that point.
Here are the three things that made the most impact for us, and can help you transform your culture as well: