Employee Engagement: The Benefits of Culture Competence !

Every great leader starts by defining the Culture of their team and organization. The Culture is determined by thinking about the organization's Mission, Vision, and values as well as why it does what it does. Sometimes, even more importantly, how it does what it does and by what rules it behaves!

Every leader must make time to do this! These behaviors determine team engagement.

5 ways to intentionally implement Employee Engagement in the workplace

The Vision is the "Strategic Intent" of the business owner, executive, entrepreneur, leader, or senior management – it should be considered the ultimate goal. The Vision captures the essence of success down the road. Vision is stable over time and deeply motivates the organization at all levels from the bottom up.

The Mission is a realistic, credible, and attractive description of your ideal organization. Mission answers the purpose of the business in general and why the business exists in the first place. It is a carefully formulated statement of intentions defining the business's existence. The Mission will address how the business will maintain and increase its competitive advantage. Further, the Mission will address how the business will treat the other businesses and stakeholders it comes in contact with within the environment.

Your Uniqueness makes you different from everyone else, plain and simple! This Uniqueness is often used in the branding of the organization. Your Uniqueness is your "Why us, Why Now" statement. Once you "own" it – it is associated with you whenever others hear your name.

The Culture is the "rules" of the game and demonstrates to everyone in your organization the core and fundamental values that they are to bring to the other team members, ownership, customers, vendors, and everyone else they will come into contact with while working with your business. There is a saying, "Culture eats strategy for breakfast!" It is true. You may have the best product or service in the world, but without the right Culture to execute it means nothing!

"Culture is determined by thinking about the organization's Mission, Vision, and values as well as why it does what it does."

- Jeff Rogers, CPMBC

The Why do you do what you do, and more importantly, why should anyone care needs to be addressed as well! The why you do what you do matters not because of your compensation; that is a result of what you do. Why you do it matters for numerous other reasons: team culture, mission-supporting efforts, and ensuring vision success, just to name a few. Understanding your personal Why and transitioning that why into the company mission, Vision, and values is KEY to individual and team success. Make NO mistake about it!

Great Culture Drives Business Success

When combined the right way, Mission, Vision, Uniqueness, and Points of Culture are so powerful that they can jumpstart the future of any organization. Creating a laser-like focus and calling forth energies, talents, and resources make great things happen.

The level of team engagement soars dramatically when all are rowing the boat together.

To maximize your organizational Purpose, Priority, Pride, and Passion is the force multiplier that drives best results and overall success. They attract commitment and energize people by providing a significant challenge worthy of their very best efforts.

Defining the Cultural Needs of Your Organization

Tie the "why you do what you individually do", to the company you work withs, Mission, vision, and value statements. Most leaders do not take the time to learn why their team members are even at the company. They are too busy, it is shameful. The power of team engagement is in caring about the team.

Remember, you work with a company and a team of individuals who engage together to forward a company mission. NOT an individual mission.

So the question is, are you aligned with the company's Mission, Vision, and values? Further, are you prepared to adjust to align for the best overall results together? If you are great, engagement will soar. If not, then it is time to move on. No square pegs in round holes. No one has time for that!

This can become interesting to add to the idea personally, professionally, and organizationally. My big thing is your ability to separate these personal, professional, and organizational worlds strategically. It is critical for engagement success. Creating boundaries and understanding commonalities is essential for good leadership. When we lump it all into one space, we miss the opportunity to uniquely maximize each of these worlds. Think about that for a minute.

This was designed to make you think strategically about team engagement. You cannot engage a team of people without a common purpose, knowing where we are headed, and how we intend to play the game together. Knowing what makes us unique is powerful and unifies individuals into teams!