Unless you’re extraordinarily lucky, you’ve probably held jobs with companies whose cultures were less than inspiring or even downright hostile. This is made all the more frustrating when organizations advertise a positive company culture. Even when leadership aims for a positive office culture, one bad manager can be the rotten apple that makes the entire barrel go bad. If a healthy and productive corporate culture were easy, every company would have achieved it by now.

First, your organization should keep its values and desired culture in mind when making any decision, no matter how big or small. Everything from staffing to metrics to communication to business partners or even merges can impact office culture. Compensation and benefits deserve special attention because efforts by leadership can seem disingenuous or even hypocritical to employees who struggle to achieve financial stability.

Why Management Matters to Office Culture

Employees in leadership roles should also avoid the appearance of hypocrisy that happens if they’re not willing to work as hard as others or lend a hand when it’s needed. This behavior can easily build resentment and spur turnover. Essentially, employees need to see that managers are willing to walk the walk and get their hands dirty if they have to. Refusal to do so indicates that some jobs are less important than others, and thus the people who do them everyday are not as important to the company as others. But every position serves a role, helping your organization fulfill its purpose.

Just like you must embody the work ethic you want to see in your staff, you must display enthusiasm if you want them to remain positive about their work. A positive attitude can make a rough day a little more bearable. Remember that your body language is as important as what you say, so practice appearing confident, and fake it until you make it if you have to. Celebrate successes, even if that only means surviving days where everything has gone wrong, and reward hard work.

Feedback Goes Both Ways

Finally, communication is important and not just from management to the staff. Your staff want to be productive and happy, and they know precisely what will help them be. So you must be willing to receive that feedback, and take it to heart. Don’t solicit feedback, only to toss the forms in the trash. Enact change where you can to show that you’re actively listening. Look for compromise when you can’t promise wholesale change, but be careful about replacing impactful changes with unrelated and ineffectual “rewards” just to placate them.

For help with all your staff-management needs and questions, Complete Employee Services has you covered.