Building a Positive Team Culture

Diane Tipping • February 26, 2020

How do we create a more positive work environment?

We spend so much of our life at work, where there are more challenges and stresses than ever before. How can we create a more positive work environment? The reality is, the attitude we bring to work plays a big part.

Establish clear values for your business

Having a clear set of core values that is effectively communicated and discussed with your team so that they feel part of it is essential.
It’s crucial that employees feel an individual and personal responsibility towards these values. It’s not enough to state this in your marketing and promotional material or in your mission statement. All employees should feel a connection to these positive core values and take pride in them. Positive attitudes and actions make for a positive workplace.

Increase employee engagement

Team members who are emotionally and psychologically attached to their work and workplace are crucial to achieving positive employee relationships and a healthy bottom line. Highly engaged employees are more productive and have a lower rate of absenteeism.

Work with your team to set clear, achievable goals. Everyone needs to understand the goals set for them as individuals, for their team and for your company. They should believe that these goals are attainable and should relate to their daily experiences. Employees involved in goal setting are almost 4 times more likely to feel engaged at work.

You can’t fix issues you don’t know about. Open and honest communication is key here. Sometimes it’s as simple as asking your team how engaged they feel about their work/workplace.

Improve communication with employees

Once yearly performance reviews used to be the standard, but this has given way to more progressive forms of employee communication. Today, your team wants ongoing feedback, clear goals and a work environment that they feel is relevant and encouraging.

Be available. Make sure your employees feel heard and know that you understand and hear them. Let them know you appreciate their frustrations, show support in overcoming work related problems and be empathetic.

Check in often. Informal but frequent contact with their managers allows your team to understand how their daily work is linked to your company’s goal. Talking regularly about goals and celebrating successes helps your team to feel engaged and motivated in their jobs.

Encourage positive thinking

Proactively encourage your team to think positively. All. The. Time. Even if you don’t achieve the result you anticipated, or things seem to be spiralling out of control, positive thinking eventually leads to positive outcomes. Don’t waste time on negative behaviour that doesn’t align with your business’ values.

Consistency is the key

There are so many trends in company culture – unlimited paid time off, open workspaces, bringing pets to work etc. But the same tactics don’t work for every company. Change can be healthy, but disrupting a good thing can be detrimental and affect the cultural balance in your office. Don’t be distracted by the latest professional culture craze, be consistent.

If we show patience, trust and encouragement we are more likely to receive them in return. Give positive reinforcement, show gratitude, encourage a sense of fun and encourage positive thinking Remember, a healthy work culture starts at the top!

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