Culture: Party of One

Culture: Party of One.

Listening to the EntreLeadership Podcast, you can't go too long with out the word "culture" being mentioned.  I'm pretty sure Chris LoCurto has the word "culture" tattooed on his bicep!

You hear how you're creating culture no matter what. Culture affects productivity. It's up to leaders to set the culture. It takes a lot of work to create and maintain a culture. And so forth.

So I started trying to decide what I want the culture to be like in the business I'm starting.

Hmmm...

 

• a love of soccer

• fun atmosphere

• desire to teach and encourage

• determination to be the best

And then I made a goal to implement it as soon as I had 5 team members!

But then I started thinking that if I didn't try to implement a culture until there were 5 team members, that means there would be 4 team members that would slip into a culture that was created inadvertently by my lack of proactively setting one.

 

How??

But how could I set culture when I'm the owner, CEO, COO, CFO, and every other C-O a business may have???

I didn't know exactly what I could do all my my lonesome. But last Friday night I set my alarm for 6am Saturday morning. I decided I'd take my soccer ball and head over to the park a couple blocks from my house. And I'd just listen to my iPod, kick around the ball, chase it, dribble, enjoy the early morning and "kick around" some business ideas.

So that's what I did (and if you don't believe me, ask Lily Kreitinger... She sent out a tweet at 6:05 am and I responded, so there's proof!!!)

I had a great time.

 

I'd forgotten how fun it was to just kick around a soccer ball all by yourself!  When you're all alone and no one's watching, you can pretend your Landon Donovan, David Beckham, Wayne Rooney, or Christiano Ronaldo!

I headed back to my house, hopped in the shower and grabbed some cereal for breakfast.

 

And that's when it dawned on me.

I was creating the culture of my business! What I'd just done was exactly how I envision brainstorming sessions with my team, and many of the meetings we'll have as a company.

 

Standing in the grass kicking around ideas, challenges, solutions and a ball!

On Saturday, June 9, 2012 the CEO, COO, CFO and every other C-O a company needs of my business called the first brainstorming session of the company to order.  Every team member was present and as we kicked around a soccer ball we kicked around ideas. We got some good ones too! 

I was beginning to create a culture that will grow and strengthen as time goes on and business expands. But on that Saturday morning it was Culture: Party of One. And it was great!

 

 

Question: what do you do to set the culture you want in your business, group, or family?

 

 

 

 

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Twitter: Skropp2