What is Your Corporate Culture Like? is it Working?

What an interesting concept: corporate culture. However, we see it all the time. Every corporation has one, good or bad.

There was a significant regional bank, since absorbed, that always projected a snooty, unhelpful, holier-than-thou attitude. Most of my experiences with the bank at any level were filled with their ego and arrogance. It was always distasteful, and I was told by many employees how little they liked their company as they were treated with little respect.

This is a corporate culture -- low mutual trust or respect, intense control by management, careful, precise, micro monitoring of employees, low pay, no goodwill from customers, no appreciation from employees, meaningless incentives and meager raises -- this generates a similar attitude at all levels., distrust and lack of respect. It starts at the top and permeates downward.

I have done business for years with another national bank, Citizens, and since I travel a lot I manage to visit branches all over the region. I have always been treated exceptionally well, as if each branch I would go into was my local branch where I am well known and friends with all the employees. Again, a distinct corporate culture nurtured at the top and permeates downward, throughout the business.

Review your corporate or small business culture and evaluate whether or not it is working for you and your business.

Maybe you need to inspect it and make changes. Maybe it is not projecting what you want it to project. Maybe it starts with you. Change your approach and attitude and change the entire culture of the business.

Remember it starts from the top and filters down.