Make it personal
When it comes to developing a culture, you should not be afraid
to let your personal traits and qualities filter into what you want
to develop.
“Somebody is a mountain climber, and every Friday, he wants to
close his office because he wants to go mountain climbing,” Clark says. “That eventually becomes a part of the company culture.
Maybe down the road, an exercise room is in the building built
with a climbing wall. … You have to know what it is you want your
company to be and then execute around the things people can see
and things people can touch and things they can just feel.”
For Clark, the design and location of her office says a lot about
how she leads the way at Build-A-Bear. Clark’s office is at the
center of the building and is painted yellow, matching the color
of the company’s store locations.
“Whether we have one person in our office besides me or we
have 15 or 150, we have open communication meetings,” Clark
says. “My door is an open door. I sit in the middle of the building.
People can always come in and talk to me. Everybody has total
e-mail access to me. They have all my contact information. When
I go out of town, I let everybody in this building know that I’m out
of town and if they need me, to e-mail me.”
Clark says employees want to know that their leader cares just
as much about the success of the company as they do.
“They’ll come to work, but it won’t be a fully contributing
opportunity if they think you’re not serious about what you
believe in and you don’t do it yourself,” Clark says. “People want
to have people to look up to. They want to have heroes.
Oftentimes, the only heroes they get to know are the people they
work with.”
Culture is about more than how employees relate to and communicate with their leader. It needs to create an energy that
employees feel when they come into work each day that will
drive them to reach for success.
“You buy comfortable chairs for people and they realize that
they are valuable and they take good care of them,” Clark says.
“They are not just jumping up and down in their chair and then
their chair breaks and you have to go out and order a new chair.”
Clark says simple things, such as having a recycling program to
show the company cares about the Earth or hosting a
Thanksgiving dinner where the company pays for the main part
of the meal, help drive home the company’s culture.
“Sometimes, it’s the most simple thing,” Clark says. “It’s about
how you look at the things and turn them into things that will
energize your company, your vision and make the people feel
good about themselves and feel responsible about the environment they work in.”
One of the best opportunities to show employees they are more
than just a number on the ledger is to be there when they have a
problem in their life outside the workplace. Clark uses the example of an employee who is coming to work late each day.
“Well, Susie is coming in late every day,” Clark says. “What you
might have found out is she has to take the bus now because her
car broke down and she can’t afford to get her car fixed. You look
at it and say, ‘Gee, what’s behind this and what can we do to
help?’ Maybe we change the hours because we don’t want her to
be late. Now she comes in at 8:15 instead of 8, but she stays until
5:15. Work out things for people so that they can see that you do
value their life and who they are as a person.”
Clark says having a culture where leaders care about their
employees is something more easily communicated by action
rather than a line in the company handbook.
“You just have to depend on the people that you’ve done the
good things for saying, ‘Boy, I couldn’t get to work on time, but
the company worked it out for me that I could still take the bus
until my car was fixed,’” she says. “They feel good enough to
share with others. That’s the best buzz that you can have about
what your company culture is.”