THE SECRET WEAPON OF DISNEY, APPLE, AND THE PATRIOTS
Have you ever stayed at a five-star hotel chain that made you feel like you were their most important guest? Have you ever visited a store or dined at a restaurant where the customer-service level far exceeded your expectations? Have you ever wondered how a sports team is in the playoffs seemingly every year?
Sure, some people are just good at what they do, and when you gather a bunch of talented people together, you’re bound for success, right? Wrong. It has everything to do with a culture that is easily identifiable, attainable, and respected by everyone working within the organization. Whether your culture revolves around creating a 5-star service standard, a family environment, a winning culture, a customer-is-always-right culture, you must have one—and it must be clear—before your employees can buy into it.
Creating a distinct culture within your organization is everything. Whether in sports or business, you must set a concrete foundation and have an understanding of what your culture is—and it must be found in all that you do.
Although we often hear about the importance of culture, I still find that so many overlook how vitally important it really is. A weak culture, or one that is never firmly established, can completely diminish performance levels within an organization, even if that organization possesses the best strategies, products, and talent. On the other hand, a distinct and thriving culture can certainly make up the difference for just average strategy and talent.
Please don’t get me wrong. Create the best strategies and recruit the best talent for your company. But understand that all of that is secondary to what matters most: your culture.
I have witnessed its incredible importance in my own life. During my time as an athlete, I was on teams that didn’t have the most talented players in the world. We still got the job done and won games as the underdogs. That came from the result of leadership instilling a phenomenal culture from day one.
I have also been on teams with extremely talented people, but results on the field were mediocre at best. That same team lacked a definite culture. Leadership didn’t set the tone of how the team should function, so it was “every man for himself.” In sports, of course, the main objective is to win, but if there is no set process outside of individual talent, no set standard for all to buy into, and no leadership driving it, a star-studded roster means nothing.
In my world as a speaker now, I get the wonderful opportunity to travel and work with leaders from different industries. Prior to each speaking engagement, I sit down with the leadership of the organization to take a closer look at the culture of the organization and identify where I can add the most value. During this time, I usually find one of two things.
In some cases, I find a leader who is incredibly passionate about creating a dominant, healthy, and strong culture. These are the organizations that have great employee retention and morale.
The rest of the time, I usually find leaders who aren’t as passionate about building a strong culture. They unfortunately end up falling into the trap of directing all their focus on outcomes and results. They fail to realize that a strong culture is what largely drives results. All of the championships have great strategy and talent behind them, and the sales milestones have great products and value behind them, but the culture that leadership instills and demands throughout the whole organization is what actually drives results. By focusing only on the what and how of performance—instead of the who and the why—their process ends up backfiring somewhere down the line.
I’m not telling you how to run your organization. I just want to point out the difference in results of organizations that focus on culture versus those who don’t. If you take a close look at the New England Patriots, Disney, Apple, or any other organization that dominates their market or craft, you’ll see they are crystal clear on the environment they want, the behavior they expect, and the experience they create—and they are single-minded in demanding those things in every aspect of their organization.
Culture is and will always be vitally important to an organization’s growth, success, and longevity. It’s my hope as a leader that you make it a major priority to create a crystal-clear culture of your own.
The results will speak for themselves.