Use your culture to empower
employees. We spent a lot of
time over the years identifying
our culture and then trying to
tie that to a theme each year.
When we first branded our
culture back in 2002, our
theme was ‘Gung ho.’
It was tied to a book Ken
Blanchard wrote called ‘Gung
Ho!’ It’s about empowering your
employees. What Blanchard
had done was take three different animals and tell a story
[that] goes back to the Indians.
He started out with the Spirit
of the Squirrel. It’s all about
empowering your people and
encouraging your people to do
worthwhile work.
The second animal he introduces is the Way of the Beaver.
What we do there is empower
your people to be in control of
achieving their goals. You see
this in a lot of successful companies. They’re encouraging
employees to make decisions
on the lowest possible level
and understanding what good
decisions are.
The last part of the philosophy is the Gift of the Goose —
and that is just cheering each
other on, making sure we’re all
working for the common goal.
The underlying philosophy
with our company and with ‘Gung ho,’ is that everybody in
the company, from the top
salesperson to the CEO to the
people working out in the plant,
understands the role they play
in the overall success of the
company. They all do play a role
in the overall success of every
order we touch for our client.
Tie it together by leading by example.
Our executive team is involved
with our employees on a daily
basis. It’s really living the culture
and leading by example.
We’re out doing a lot of team-building on a regular basis. We
have culture club meetings
twice a month at all of our
facilities throughout the country so we’re constantly talking
about our culture and having
open forums if they’re not
focus groups.
They are ways of communicating to our employees the
importance of living the culture, not just reading about it
or talking about it. (The meetings are) actually empowering
the employees to ensure that
their peers embrace the culture, as well. They all have an
accountability to do that.
Our executive team works
once or twice a month out at
our fulfillment centers working
with our employees. From my
perspective, it gives us a better
understanding of the role that
they play. Sometimes, we can
pick up some better ways of
doing things, but more importantly, it shows our employees
how we as a management team
and as a culture embrace the
employees.
HOW TO REACH: The Shamrock Cos. Inc., (440) 899-9510 or www.shamrockcompanies.net
