Culture by Design: How to Build a High-Trust, High-Performing Team
You can have an incredible product/service, high NPS scores, customer retention rates, & glowing testimonials. But if you don’t have a cohesive, high-performing team, you won’t be able to scale. If you aren’t actively building an intentional, high-trust culture, you won’t be able to attract the top talent you need nor retain the superstars you have, & your growth will stagnate, if not bottom out all together.
Your culture is not the perks you offer - those are tangible representations of your culture, but not the culture itself. Here are tips on how to create & maintain a positive culture:
1. Clearly Define the Culture with Core Behaviors
Culture is defined as your company's values & beliefs manifested in the behavior of everyone at your organization. In other words, your culture is built by the daily behavior of every single person on your team.
So to define your unique culture, you need to clearly identify exactly what behaviors will lead to your organization's success, & then systematically, & consistently teach them to your team. These are the behaviors that bring your company’s values to life & drive your success. We call these your Core Behaviors (like Core Values only better, because they are actionable & allow you to effectively operationalize your culture).
Here are our Core Behaviors at The Perk. One way we operationalize our Core Behaviors is via our Core Behavior of the Week (CBOW). At our weekly team meeting we spend 15-min discussing the CBOW as a team & why it’s important for our success. We tell stories where we’ve lived the behavior, & other times where we wished we would have. It deepens the whole team’s relationship with the Core Behavior & our unique culture.
2. Set-up Consistent Leadership Systems
One of my favorite quotes comes from James Clear: “We do not rise to the level of our goals, we fall to the level of our systems.” It’s not enough to have a goal to create a great culture, you need to put systems in place to make sure it happens. Some best practices include:
Weekly 1:1’s - Have leaders meet with their direct reports on a weekly basis to build connection & trust, review & re-align on the vision, mission, & goals, & so they can help their teammates get unstuck & make progress. The leaders at your startup wear many hats - including that of “Progress Manager”.
Weekly Team Meetings - Hold regular team meetings to ensure that your team is building connection & trust with each other, & so you can ensure everyone is moving in the right direction to achieve the team’s goals & organizational vision. This is a great time to review your company’s core values & Core Behaviors, & reconnect everyone to living them on a daily basis.
Monthly All-hands Meetings - Get the whole company together (virtually) on a monthly basis to build company-wide connection, answer questions, empower & inspire the team to achieve the vision & live the values.
Annual Offsites - Getting everyone together in-person, at least 1x/year, is crucial for remote/hybrid teams to build a high-performing culture & achieve success.
Clarity & consistency are huge trust builders, so make sure your systems are clear (what you’re doing & why), & also make sure you & all of the other leaders on your team are consistently following them. Remember: Culture is built by the daily behavior of EVERYONE on your team. It’s not enough for you to follow these systems, & if your COO decides not to meet with his direct reports 1:1. This will lead to distrust, & big fractures in the foundation of your culture.
3. Focus on Daily Behaviors that Build Trust
Strong organizational cultures are built on a foundation of 3 elements: trust, communication & alignment
If you have an issue on your team or in your culture, it is one of these three things - it is either a trust, communication, or alignment issue. And, in our experience, 90% of the time, it ends up being a trust issue.
To build a high-trust culture, focus on using the CLEAR behaviors when interacting with your teammates:
Curiosity - Ask powerful, open-ended questions that help you get to know your team below the surface - what are their unique thoughts, ideas, perspective, & challenges? Stop giving people answers & telling them what to do. Rather, take a step back, choose an open-mindset, & ask them for their ideas
Listening - Listen with the intent to understand, not just to respond. Enter conversations without judgement, & check your ego & negativity at the door. Eliminate distractions - give them the gift of your full attention. Distraction DESTROYS connection!
Expectations - Expectations exist no matter what, & they’re either clear or stealth (i.e. living in your head). Make sure they’re clearly communicated & understood. Your team wants to exceed your expectations & ‘win’, but they can’t do that if they don’t know the rules of the game. Set clear expectations, & when your team doesn’t live up to them, provide feedback in a way that builds trust.
Yes, AND - When someone brings you a new idea, don’t shoot it down right away, or find all the reasons why it won’t work. When you shoot down ideas, it reduces the psychological safety on your team. When people don’t feel safe to come to you with their ideas, guess what? They’ll stop ideating. Innovation & creativity will plummet. Instead, practice ‘looking for the 10%’. Every idea someone brings to you has 10% of it that is good, that is gold. Look for that, & then build on top of their idea. “What I like about your idea is [instert the 10%], AND what if we [then, build on their idea]...” Saying Yes, AND & using the 10% principle will do wonders for your team’s trust, psychological safety, & creativity!
Recognition - We all share a biological need to be seen, heard, & valued for what we accomplish AND for who we are as people. Take the time to recognize your teammates for the energy they bring, what they achieve, their progress, & for what they’re building in their personal lives, too! Make it personal & specific by following the BFI Model of Recognition: Specify the specific Behavior they do that you think is amazing, how that behavior makes you personally Feel, & the positive Impact that will happen on the team & in the organization if they keep doing it!
4. Create a “How we Communicate Here” Policy
When it comes to having a high-performing team, getting the right things done, & not wasting time or money, internal communication is EVERYTHING. It is amazing to me how crucial clear & consistent communication is & how little attention it actually receives from leaders & organizations. I see teams using Slack, only to find out their CEO only uses email, which creates confusion of where communication & work actually get done. I’ve talked with employees who are failing to progress on key initiatives because they aren’t sure where or when to ask questions. I’ve seen silos form within organizations because some leaders are intentional about using Microsoft Teams/Slack as a platform to build connection & team culture, while other leaders at the same organization don’t use it, & their teams feel left out & like they don’t belong.
When you scale, you move fast, & you need your team to move fast AND in the right direction, all together. This is why your company’s communication needs to be ON POINT. Be proactive & intentionally lay out the expectations for how you will communicate at your organization for maximum productivity, impact, & team connection. The best way to do this is to establish, implement, & oversee a clear “This is How we Communicate Here” strategy. This should include what communication tools you use (Slack, email, Asana, Zoom, monthly all-hands, weekly 1:1’s, etc.), why, & how. Here’s an example of The Perk’s as a reference.
5. Set-up Feedback systems
People want to work for a company that cares about their experience, asks for & listens to their ideas, & makes positive changes based on their feedback. It’s important to keep a pulse on the people & culture by conducting anonymous employee satisfaction & engagement surveys (I recommend at least monthly, & you could use a software tool like TINYPulse, or just stick with google forms) or doing Stay Interviews. You can create & present reports to the leadership team on what you’re hearing/seeing, proposed action plans, & success stories of action taken based on the feedback received. This way, you know that while you’re hustling for the next round, your people are being seen, heard, & valued, & that positive changes are being made to make your culture even stronger.
This can also become a powerful element in your recruiting - tell potential employees about your continuous feedback process, & how/why you solicit employee feedback. Give them examples of feedback received & changes the company has made as a result. This shows them that you are not only a company who cares about their experience, but you also take deliberate action to make the workplace even better for them.
As someone who owns a company that is laser-focused on culture & runs HUNDREDS of workshops, team retreats, & strategic planning meetings with our clients each year, it feels funny to say this, but: Culture isn't built through workshops. Or retreats. Or strategic meetings.
Those events act as the catalyst for your culture—but it's really built in the in-between moments. The quick hallway conversations. The Slack messages. The 1:1's. It's created brick-by-brick anytime a leader takes the time to truly listen, or a team member feels seen & heard, or someone feels safe enough to share a new idea. When you add all those micro-moments up, that's your REAL culture. Focus on the tips above, & be intentional in your actions.
And remember: you don’t have to do this alone. If you ever have any questions, or need any help at all, I’m here for you! Reach out at leah@choosetheperk.com, or connect with me on LinkedIn.
You’re amazing!
Pssst...I LOVE connecting with & growing my community! Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn - see you there! 🤗
