Linking Your Culture to the Community
by Jonathan Jones
Successful companies embrace and use a wide variety of tools and strategies to keep employees motivated and involved in their professional and personal lives. Many employees are preoccupied with territorial and inter-departmental disputes to the detriment of the company’s overall mission, productivity, and customer satisfaction and retention.
Linking your culture to the community will keep your company fresh. Leaders should consider investing time and money using the following tools to improve the company’s internal environment:
1. Membership in a trade association is a great way to meet new people and learn more about your field. As a result of getting to know other workers in the industry and developing relationships, team members gain information and connections.
2. Training and technical courses can help hone existing abilities and educate employees for new careers.
3. Conferences are an excellent approach to providing new insights to employees. Conferences that inspire and foster growth are often the best.
4. Industry trade shows and conventions are great places to attract new customers and ignite new ideas.
5. Chambers of commerce, both regional and local, function as uniting influences. Active engagement strengthens the bonds that connect your people to their community.
6. Youth programs, also known as mentorships, provide an essential bridge to the next generation of workers and have the potential to foster growth and development in all participants.
7. Professional peer groups create new solutions to business problems by exchanging experiences and skills in a private setting with people at comparable stages of professional growth and accomplishment. They provide invaluable knowledge about business and leadership.
Leaders who grow their networks and seek personal development always come out on top. Constant personal and professional growth is beneficial for every business.
Jonathan Jones (Jonathan.jones@vistagechair.com or 314-608-0783) is a CEO peer group chair/coach for Vistage International.