Define the mission, values of your business to create a culture of success

May 1, 2017
We developed a list of 16 core company values, and they are now the basis of how we operate our business. Of the 16, there are five that I will touch on in this article.

Some hear the word “culture” and think of an imaginary concept that will not work in their business; others think of implementing a new “attitude” in their shop. Culture is a deep rooted concept that does not happen overnight. Let me describe it for you as I borrow some concepts from John Coleman in Harvard Business Review: “Your culture starts with your vision for your organization – for us it goes beyond just repairing vehicles. Your vision and its implementation is affected by your values and then those values are put into effective practices that will define just exactly what culture you will have. When it comes down to it, the culture is driven by your people…both those who are your partners in the organization and those you serve outside the organization.”

Our journey to improve our culture started in 2014. We opened our first location in 2001 and a second in 2004; that is when I believe our culture started a downward shift. The owners’ involvement in day-to-day activities changed as we had more opportunities and responsibilities to grow and develop the business.  Fast forward to 2014 — we realized our culture had suffered over the years due to our lack of nurturing. 

Now it was time to decide: is culture important to us and how do we make changes? The first question was easy to answer; yes, culture is important. We want a positive environment for our team members, customers and everyone we interact with each day.  The second was a little more challenging. How do you change culture? 

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We started with a company-wide meeting, including leaders, owners and team members with a mission to develop our core company values. What is it that we use as a company, as a team and individually to help deliver the vision and mission of our organization? We developed a list of 16 core company values, and they are now the basis of how we operate our business. Of the 16, there are five that I will touch on in this article. 

Trust: When people trust leadership and their team members, they work hard for the good of the team and the positive outcome set forth. Let’s say we are working in an organization where the body technicians do not trust leadership or each other. What happens? In most cases, the technician is simply focused on self, whether it be paycheck or otherwise and does not have a sense of caring about the work that he or she performs. But if you add the element of trust, the technician trusts that leadership has his or her best interest in mind and that other teammates are there to support and help. That changes the dynamic in a powerful way. 

Caring: It is important to our team that each member cares about what they are doing, the work they produce and what is best for the team. If people on your team do not care, you will continually have negative outcomes.  But if you have a team who cares if the customer is overwhelmed with the stresses of the claims process, a team who cares about providing a safe and quality repair, then you will find a successful team. 

Commitment: When people have trust, care about the work they produce, the customers they serve and their teammates, that creates a commitment to produce value for the team, hold each other accountable, challenge each other to grow and be a winning team. 

We have found a number of parallels between business leadership and athletic coaching.  Much like a football team, each member our team has a specific, defined role. It is each member’s job to ensure they have taken each job as far as possible to ensure the next player can easily complete his or her task efficiently. In football, if a guard decides he has blocked long enough and stops, the quarterback will pay the price for his incomplete performance.

We are no different, if a disassembly technician doesn’t correctly and completely disassemble a car, identifying all damage, the body technician will suffer, it travels down the line; body to paint, paint to assembly, assembly to detail. It is important that team members take pride in themselves and what they do, we want the guard that gets in his stance and says “There isn’t a man alive that can get past me”.

Teamwork: We have to exhibit teamwork in that we have a defined role, but when necessary we are ready and willing to step outside of that and do whatever it takes to get the job done and be the best. If a quarterback throws an interception the wide receiver can’t say “It’s not my job to tackle, I’m here to catch the ball”, they instantly turn into defenders and do what it takes.  That is the same for our business, we each have to be willing to work as a team and do whatever it takes.

At our organization, culture is not something we simply talk about; it is what we do every day.  It is how we treat each other, leading with optimism, expecting our positive result.  We have all sixteen of our values posted on the walls of our shop, so it is easy to remind ourselves the culture we desire and expect.   

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