Workplace culture is the not-so-secret ingredient for the success of any organisation.
When a business has a positive workplace culture, then everything just works better.
But creating this positive environment can be challenging.
Especially if you don’t quite have the right recipe for success – too much spice and there will be conflict, not enough and everything becomes bland and unengaged.
It’s about achieving the right balance of ingredients.
The Acentia framework can help you achieve that balance. It offers a new and integrated approach to culture development and provides a practical strategy for fostering continuous culture growth.
Sounds pretty good, right?
Let’s discover more about how you can create a strong workplace culture using all the tools at your disposal.
Why Workplace Culture Is A Priority
In today’s business landscape, positive workplace culture is more than just a nice thing to have! It’s actually a critical component of an organisation’s success and a drawcard for attracting and retaining talented employees. A company’s culture is a vital aspect of its brand identity. A positive culture can translate into being viewed more favourably by your team members, customers and community as a whole.
There are positives within the business too. When you have a good workplace culture, you generally have higher levels of team engagement. Your employees are more likely to feel valued and respected, making them want to stay and grow with the company. You’ll also open the door for creative thinking, innovation and a natural increase in productivity levels.
It’s not just about benefits for the organisation either. When your team feels supported by the workplace culture, their mental and physical health can improve. You’ll also find that job satisfaction significantly increases, especially if your team is able to formulate a strong work-life balance.
Creating The Positive Culture
So, how can you work to create this positive culture? Well, the road to a better culture starts with your leaders. “Culture cannot be developed, grown or improved by leaders that are not ready for it or properly aligned.” These wise words were spoken by the team at Acentia, specialists in developing a healthy workplace.
The Acentia framework is all about equipping leaders with the knowledge and skills to foster the right kind of workplace culture within their organisations. This is particularly important in today’s turbulent world. In 2024, the workplace landscape has evolved beyond the 5 days a week, 9 to 5 in the office structure. Now, leaders must build a cohesive culture while navigating economic uncertainty, fear of the unknown and a team that could be working flexible hours or remotely.
Safe to say, that can be a challenge!
That’s why The Spice Gals are excited to announce that the Acentia framework is now part of our extensive toolbelt of resources, enabling us to bring highly valuable leadership and culture workshops to your business!
Perfect for businesses of all sizes and stages, this unique leadership training helps to simplify the way your business can achieve continuous cultural growth.
The Importance Of Leadership In Workplace Culture
You will have heard the saying that change has to come from the top. That’s because it does! Your leaders are in a position to guide everyone towards a culture of excellence and deal with any behaviours that go against the success of that initiative.
Leadership is the foundation on which a positive workplace culture is built. When your leaders are not prepared or well equipped, then it is unlikely you will be able to maintain any positive change on the workplace culture front.
However, if they are empowered with the skills and confidence to lead the charge from the start, they will be far more likely to stay the course to nurture and preserve an amazing workplace culture. Without this leadership, your organisation will likely struggle to make positive, long-lasting change.
How Can You Prepare Your Leaders
There are three key steps to follow when preparing your leaders for cultural change. They are:
1: Create an Army of Leaders
When you have aligned leadership goals across your entire organisation, you create an army of leaders! Including ALL levels of leaders will create a shared responsibility for cultural change. Many businesses make the mistake of only focusing on the generals, but it is the sergeants that are on the ground working directly with the people of your organisation. That means they have the most direct influence for creating change.
Fill your army of leaders with all the people that lead teams, but also consider including suitable individuals like senior team members who may not formally lead people, but still have the respect of their peers and strong influence over them.
2: Get the Army into Formation
The right foundation of leadership is achieved when your army is aligned in formation. While the individual development of each leader is still important work, that’s not what we are looking to achieve in this instance.
This battle plan is all about getting everyone into formation with a shared goal and leadership approach. Each leader should know how important their contribution is to this mission and the critical role they play in creating the appropriate culture within your organisation.
3: Consider the Hierarchy
While you will need every leader on board to make the mission a success, the work always needs to start from the top. Getting the buy-in of your CEO and upper management team is essential. Often, this team will do extensive pre-work before rolling the blueprint down to the lower levels of leadership to ensure everything is planned well.
But, by doing this work and having your top team own and lead the development, you’ll have the ultimate role models for everyone else to follow. They can also support their direct reports in maximising the opportunities to lead as the mission rolls out to all levels of your team.
Time To Take Action?
If you are ready to align your leadership team to build a healthier culture within your business, then now is the time to do it.
With the modern workplace looking very different than it did even three years ago, workplace culture is suffering. Getting your leaders onto this important work will benefit your business immensely.
But it can be hard to do without support.
Luckily, the Spice Gals are here to help. Armed with the powerful Acentia framework, we can help transform the culture at your workplace so that you can reap the benefits long term.
Reach out to us today to find out more about the revolutionary programme.