The DNA of high-performing cultures

Organizational culture represents your business’s core values, rewarded behaviors, and, ultimately, performance drivers. Culture is a result of deliberate, intentional action, so you’ll need to make sure you take calculated measures to build your culture in a way that benefits your organization. But what does it mean to have a culture that promotes high performance? A high-performance culture can be classified by four characteristics: strong leaders, empowered employees, employee development, and an openness to change. Use the activity below to learn about all four.

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The last piece of the puzzle needed for a high-performance culture is the glue that holds it all together: cultural alignment to your organization’s business strategy. Even for the most talented employees, if your culture does not align with your goals, frustration is bound to occur. For example, if your organization’s main goal this year is to focus on stability and maintaining procedures, make sure you’re recognizing employees who further that goal. Providing incentives for employees who promote different goals—like coming up with innovative changes—will create a misaligned culture and cause friction between employees.