Culture plays a pivotal role in the story of any startup. Create and cultivate a culture conducive to high-performing behavior and values-aligned talent, and great things can happen. Treat culture as an afterthought, and you'll regret it before you know it. Here are seven tips that can help you codify your startup's culture and bake it into the foundation of everything you do.
1: Articulate the specific behaviors your company expects
If you've ever read a job listing recently, you'll see the traits many companies are looking for these days: empathy, authenticity, and ownership, to name a few.
But what exactly do those words mean? If a junior engineer isn't happy with the direction a product is going and builds new features without running it by their manager, is that a sign of ownership? Or is it a breach of accountability?
Instead of relying on buzzwords du jour, codify your culture by very clearly articulating the specific behaviors you expect from your team. Bring the same specificity to the listing as you'd bring to a movie script.
2: Identify your hierarchy of values.
Every startup has a hierarchy of values, and core values are the things that are most important and sit atop that hierarchy. Such values come naturally to us and essentially automate our decision-making. If we love skiing, we don't need someone to tell us to hit the slopes after a blizzard. Similarly, if a startup loves being obsessed with customers, no one must be reminded that urgent requests require immediate attention.
The most successful startups share several core values that permeate throughout their cultures, including: giving direct, candid feedback quickly, holding each other accountable, communicating proactively, hiring and promoting people based on their merits, and being determined to exceed their performance metrics.
3: Determine how you are unique and build on it
Every startup is unique. Many startups struggle to pinpoint exactly how. In large part, that's because they don't try to define it until it's too late.
That said, you can't create a company today and have a culture tomorrow. You need to wait until you've grown a bit — at least to 20 employees — to gather the data you need to describe your culture.
As you begin crafting your company culture and your core values, you need to understand your company's current state and what you hope to see in the future. Tap into what makes your company your company, and aim to build on that.
4: Don't enforce 'perfect' values-alignment; link them!
No one who works at your startup should ever have the same values as your company. Human beings are all different, and there will always be discrepancies to some extent. This is a great thing. It promotes diversity, which broadens your startup's perspective.
Harness diversity by helping your team find ways to express their values regarding the company's values. For example, someone who loves traveling might be the perfect candidate for a company-sponsored year of trying to secure deals and partnerships abroad.
5: Celebrate your culture champions frequently
It's easier to get everyone on the team to embody your culture when they have a role model to mirror. These role models are your cultural champions.
Once you identify your cultural champions, celebrate their behaviors and successes in multiple forums — like all-hands calls, team meetings, company blog posts, podcasts, and videos. Use persuasive storytelling to directly communicate your startup's core values while emotionally engaging them.
6: Create high-speed feedback loops
It's easiest to reinforce behavior when we receive immediate feedback and can act upon it right away. When conditioning behaviors you want to embed in your culture, implement comprehensive feedback loops to ensure all team members hear the message.
Again, various formats are great here, too: company-wide meetings, team meetings, one-on-ones, and casual conversations.
7: Gather feedback from employees to determine how well you are doing
Your employees need feedback loops to embody your culture. Similarly, your startup needs feedback loops to make sure leadership is living and breathing it, too.
From time to time, ask your team directly about their perception of company culture. Are they safe? Do they feel they can easily share difficult feedback with colleagues? Are they able to talk openly with their manager about any issue? These are the kinds of questions that can help your startup determine whether your culture is a guide stone — or just some words written in a doc nobody ever reads.