Ideally, firms want employees who are there for more than just the paycheck. Having people in the organization who feel genuinely invested in its values and ideas is always the way to produce the best work. Effort is a function of love, not willpower.
Getting to that point, though, is challenging. Colleagues don’t always see your company in the same way that you do. And many feel like they are just “passing though,” waiting for better opportunities to come their way.
In this post, we take a look at the anatomy of shared company identity. We first ask what it is, and then we look at some of the ways you can build it.
What Is Shared Company Identity?
Shared company identity occurs when people on your team have the same values and mission. Everyone is aligned towards the same goals, and their personal agendas take a backseat.
Think about companies, like SpaceX, that managed to achieve this. Sure, people are showing up for a paycheck, but they’re also invested in the success of every mission. They work hard not because they’re getting paid more, but because they actually want to land rockets on other planets.
Shared company identities like this are invaluable. Once they are established, there’s practically nothing a company can’t do. Individual team members stop doing what’s best for them and, instead, work towards what’s best for the project or brand as a whole. This shift makes operations infinitely more productive. Office politics stop dictating the mood of the business.
Naturally, the benefits of a shared identity are tremendous. But what can you actually do practically to achieve one?
How To Create A Shared Company Identity
Well, fortunately, we have answers for you. In this post, we run through some of the strategies the most successful businesses in the world use. All you have to do is emulate them:
Make Leadership More Conscious
The days of top-down control of employees are now over. Once young people leave the school environment, they never want to return. They don’t want their relationships with their bosses to feel like teacher and student.
That’s leading to the development of conscious leadership, a new approach to guiding employees. Instead of operating command and control models, companies are looking to use soft power skills to guide employees in the right direction.
This approach is creating a new type of ownership among the rank and file. Regular workers feel a sense of autonomy over what they are doing, instead of just being minions at the beck and call of managers. This change in consciousness is laying the groundwork for a shared company identity. Once workers feel like they have a stake, they are much more likely to associate with the firms they work for.
Involve Employees In Decision-Making
Big companies have a bad habit of making decisions behind closed doors and then announcing them to workers at the last minute. This approach, however, can backfire. When employees feel powerless in determining the direction of the company, they are unlikely to take the work they do for it seriously.
The trick here is to turn employees into decision-makers. You want to give them as much control over company operations as possible, while maintaining strategic leadership.
While giving away power sounds like a bad idea, most employees will still act in the interest of the company. After all, their paycheck depends on its success. Leaders can create shared identity by giving workers more choice over when they work, childcare options, and their daily schedule. Managers should also ask workers for feedback regularly to find out more about their opinions.
Create Connections Through Shared Activities
Workers need to feel connected to both management and their colleagues to develop a shared identity. Therefore, leaders should actively encourage employees to create connections through shared activities.
What form does this take? It depends on your business.
Many companies, for instance, arrange weekly meetings where colleagues can brainstorm their ideas. Team building days are another possible option.
Create Joint Committees
Creating joint committees is a great way to bring employees into the decision-making process while also providing management oversight. These groups can discuss company policy and offer opportunities to staff members to engage with the firm more.
For example, if you run a high-growth company, you might want to set up a growth joint committee. Regular employees could join and share their ideas with the rest of the team, informed by their experience on the front line.
Add Tools For Sharing Memories
Creating a shared identity, though, isn’t just another business process. It’s also a very human one. Therefore, it’s often worth doing the things that help to draw families closer together and bring them into your business.
For instance, you can now get digital scrapbooking tools that let team members privately share photos and messages with each other. You could start using these tools to track the evolution of a project from inception to completion. However, along the way, you could add more “human elements,” and encourage team members to do the same. Including “fun” aspects of work and making them available via a digital time capsule can be a great way to create shared identity. Everyone feels like they are invested in the story of the company.
Have Regular One-On-One Meetings With Your Employees
Sometimes the simplest ways to create shared identities in firms are the best. Just talking to your colleagues in your office can be a great way to get them to feel more personally connected to your business, and not just another cog in the machine.
Don’t communicate with them on the level of their role. Instead, go deeper and talk to them as a person. Find out what motivates them, why they want to work for you and so on.
If you can build more connections with team members, they are much more likely to take on your ideas and points of view. Furthermore, they may start identifying with the company as a whole, instead of their own needs. Add monthly or weekly coffee chats to your schedule. Make them informal and just use them to find out what is irking colleagues and what they’d like to do better.
Create An Open Dialogue
In many companies, people are afraid to come forward with their ideas for fear of punishment. Not only is this bad for creativity, but it also prevents the development of shared identities. Staff feel stifled at every turn, unable to move forward with their work in the way they’d like.
The best way to help people feel open is to be more open yourself. Throw crazy ideas out there and expect your team to do the same. Don’t punish people who speak freely. Instead, take their ideas seriously, consider them, and then put them through your approvals process.
Hire More Passionate Leaders
If you’re the only person in your organization who really cares about the business, then it can be hard to convince others to be passionate. You’re on your own, and you’re fighting massive inertia.
Therefore, you might want to consider hiring authentic, engaging leaders. These individuals can take your message and sell it to the company rank and file, getting them excited about the service that you offer.
For instance, if you operate different global regions, assign a passionate leader to each location. Get them to spark managerial creativity and enthusiasm which trickles down to regular workers.
Make Mission-Critical Information Available
To create a shared sense of identity, workers need to know what they are working towards. Unfortunately, many companies have a bad habit of denying employees access to important information, usually because they don’t trust them.
Don’t take this approach. Instead, provide your employees with information they need to make sensible targets. Communicate it clearly so that they understand corporate objectives and where they need to allocate the majority of their energy.
Provide Platforms So Everyone Has A Voice
Not everyone in your organization is an extravert. However, their opinions still matter. Because of this, look for ways to give everyone a voice. Use polling tools to find out more about general opinion and develop tools for anonymous suggestions. Never let anyone feel like they are out in the cold.
Change From Being A “Business” To A Community
Die-hard entrepreneurs insist that businesses are businesses, and nothing else. But while it is true that they are a “collection of people who come together to provide goods and/or services” that’s not the whole story. There’s still a human element. Any collection of people is also a community.
When employees think of your organization as a community, it becomes easier for them to forge deeper connections with other team members. It’s not just about making profits. It’s also about delivering on the mission and making important things happen in the world.
Conclusion
In summary, shared company identities are valuable to businesses because they change how staff work. Productivity and engagement go up, while employee turnover goes down. Customers are happier, too, because workers want to serve them, not just collect a paycheck at the end of the week.
