Episode 386: Culture Values: Good Culture = GREAT Business

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A strong, cohesive business culture is fundamental to the success of any organization. From maintaining high motivation levels to preventing procrastination and addressing internal conflicts, the culture within a business can significantly impact its overall performance.

In this episode, Adam Stott and Inga Grigaitiene dive deep into the critical aspect of building an exceptional business culture. Drawing parallels with legendary football manager Alex Ferguson, Adam discusses how establishing discipline, respect, and a shared vision can drive a company’s success.

By fostering a positive environment and combating procrastination, businesses can retain high-performing employees and achieve significant results.

Show Highlights:

• Discipline, respect, and a shared vision are foundational elements of a successful business environment.
• Valuing and respecting staff members leads to better customer service and overall business success.
• As businesses grow, the focus shifts from individual contributions to team dynamics.
• A diverse team brings varied strengths and perspectives, integral for a robust culture.
• Setting clear goals and expectations helps in maintaining order and achieving business objectives.

Links Mentioned:

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Transcript:

Please note this is a verbatim transcription from the original audio and therefore may include some minor grammatical errors.

[00:00:00] Adam Stott: How do you build an amazing business culture that allows you to bring high performing A players into your business, keep everybody motivated, and destroy procrastination and problems? That’s what this episode of Business Grows Secrets is all about. Let’s dive in and help you Start to build a better culture in your business.

[00:00:22] You know, when you look at really successful managers like Alex Ferguson, he created a culture at Manchester United and that culture was strict. That culture was discipline. That culture was respect. I think David Beckham is a good example. He was sold. He was removed from that bus because he was so interested in fashion and being a celebrity.

[00:00:42] He said, yeah, he’s an amazing player. But if everyone now wants to get into fashion and be a celebrity on this football team, we’re going to stop achieving results.

[00:00:54] Hey everybody. Welcome back to another episode of business grow secrets. I’m super pleased to have Inga back on the show with me. I’ve really enjoyed all my episodes that I’ve done with Inga so far. She’s She’s absolutely brilliant, asks great incisive questions, and we’ve actually had a lot of good feedback on Inga’s appearances so far on the things that she’s been asking that help you to understand how to build your businesses better.

[00:01:18] So first of all, how are you, Inga?

[00:01:20] Inga Grigaitiene: Absolutely amazing, very confident, and yeah, let’s roll it. Let’s roll it, yeah? Let’s roll it, let’s do it.

[00:01:28] Adam Stott: Let’s rock and roll.

[00:01:30] Inga Grigaitiene: Exactly, let’s rock and roll. Richard Branson. Said if you look after your staff Will look after you and the diversity What role diversity?

[00:01:50] Does play in the company’s culture?

[00:01:53] Adam Stott: Hey everyone. Hope you’re enjoying the podcast We’ve got a free training that i’m doing right now online from the comfort of your own home called stand out brand What this does is it shows business owners how to get noticed on social media stand out Get more leads and get more sales.

[00:02:10] So if you want to make more money in your business, head over to adamstop. com forward slash SOB. That’s adamstop. com forward slash SOB and join us on the free three day workshop, stand out brand. Well, I think there’s two parts of that question. I like the quote from Richard Branson. I think that’s a really good quote.

[00:02:33] Does it go. That if you look after the staff, they’ll look after your customers. The staff will look after your customers and your customers will look after your business. I think it’s really the circle of life, if you like, within within your business. And, you know, he is somebody that. Is a big believer in culture.

[00:02:50] I admire a lot of things actually about Richard Branson, what he’s done with his businesses and the way he’s built brand. So I think it’s a really great question. Then you mentioned diversity as well in terms of company culture. So we tackle them both separately. The first part, well, they’re both interlinked.

[00:03:07] But we’ll talk about them both as individual topics. So the first part in terms of building a great culture in your business, I do believe that if you look after your staff, they will look after your clients. And I do believe that will create a great business. So I think that is a great analogy.

[00:03:25] And the question is, Well, how do you do that? Right? And that’s usually where people struggle. And it is, you know, depending on who’s listening to the podcast right now, you know, who’s taking in this information, there’s different stages of your journey, you know, at the very beginning of your business. It’s 90 percent you, 10 percent other people, you are the business, you’re doing all the work, you’re making everything happen, and then as you start to grow, it becomes less about you, and it becomes more about the team, and you’re still very involved, perhaps it’s 50 percent you, 50 percent the team, and then as you scale and you become a multi million pound company and an eight figure business, it’s less about you and it’s more about the team, so it becomes 10 percent you, 90 percent the people.

[00:04:15] So fundamentally, and I remember when I was a good friend of mine, John’s event this year, early this year, and he had Stephen Bartlett speaking and he was great. And Bartlett said to the audience, what really is a company? What is a company? And it was really interesting. I’ve actually asked audiences of mine a similar questions at times because I really find it fascinating to see people’s responses and what their instinct is and what he boiled it down to, which I thought was really interesting.

[00:04:49] He said it’s simply a group of people. That’s what a company is, and that’s the definition of a company, it’s a group of people. And if you’re gonna have a group of people, it would be helpful, and this is, you know, he gave that answer, and now to then expand upon that, if you have a group of people, it would be very sensible for all of the group of people that you’ve got to want to achieve the same things, because it means it’s gonna be much easier for them to achieve those things.

[00:05:16] It would be very sensible to look after everybody in that group of people, and Make sure that everybody in that group were enjoying their time being treated fairly, yeah, and be inclusive and also you mentioned diversity, it’s also important that in that group of people, your strength comes from your difference of opinion, your difference of background people’s different experiences and people’s unique view.

[00:05:49] On the world so that diversity plays a part in that you’re not just all the same people right with all the what you want to do you want to get a balance of different strengths and different weaknesses throughout your business and for your company and that. really comes from people having diverse backgrounds.

[00:06:08] You know, when you get into other parts of that, you know, for me, it doesn’t matter where somebody comes from. It doesn’t matter what their background is. It doesn’t matter what their race is. All that matters that for me is, are they going to be a valuable addition to the group of people? People that we’re creating and does the culture from a diverse diversity perspective, respect everybody.

[00:06:34] And I think that’s important. Respect is a very important part, you know, in that group, because you have it schools and things you have bullying at schools and you have little groups and little niches and little pockets of people that have a way of thinking. And typically those people come together, but, you know, in a company.

[00:06:50] You’re all adults, right? You know, and and people want to work in a nice place. I think it’s really important. So there’s a sort of a little bit of a background on those different things. I think it’s a good question, by the way. So, so what do we want to do in order to build a good culture? Well, this is where, so the funny thing is, And this is why I kind of framed it at the beginning as there’ll be a lot of people, if you’re sitting here now and you’ve got a business and you’re one man or one woman army, you creating a culture right now is not high on the priority list, frankly, right?

[00:07:26] Because if you’re. You’re fighting the fires. You’re doing the day to day. You’re looking after your customers. You should be creating a culture for your customers and your clients, but your actual internal culture where your team is not there because it’s just you. And if there’s three of you in the business and you’re very small, it’s still not a priority, but.

[00:07:42] It becomes a huge priority, but it becomes one of the most important things when you’re scaling, because now you’ve got that group of people. Let’s say I’ll give an example, the very room that we’re sitting in now. You know, we bring up 40 staff together every Tuesday and we have a meeting and we talk about what’s happening within the business.

[00:08:02] And of that group of 40 people, I love all the people we’ve got, respect all the people we’ve got. I think I’m a lot better now having had multiple businesses is that I also respect that this company has to be good for them and they have to be good for us. So it needs to be a fit for everybody. So we set out the culture.

[00:08:24] And say, this is what we do. This is what we don’t do. This is where we’re going. This is the vision. This is the North Star, which we talked about previously. This is what we’re trying to create. And everyone in this room is invited on that journey because you’re here. You’re a part of that. But I’m not naive to, to think that there will be one or two people or sometimes more And so I don’t want to go on that journey, you know, and I’m what’s in it for me.

[00:08:49] And I’m, and that is a part of business. So, again, these, this question of the North star and the bus. So the analogy is Richard, who was my ex finance director in one of my previous businesses who had a great relationship used to say, Adam. The business is the bus, the people on the bus are the team, right?

[00:09:10] And we’re driving the bus. If they’re getting on the bus, they need to know where we’re going. Cause they’re going to have to trust that this journey is going to take them to a place that they want to end up. Right. And when we have to communicate where the bus is going, we have to communicate what they’re going to get out of it.

[00:09:29] We have to communicate what we’re trying to accomplish here. And if they want to go on the journey, great. But if they want to start throwing milkshakes at the back of the bus and they want to start bullying people and teasing people and causing different issues, we will stop the bus and ask them to get off the bus.

[00:09:45] Inga Grigaitiene: All right. Okay. That was my question. You know, what would we do? You know, what would you do? But you know, you know, that answered it. That, you know, that is really. Yeah. But it’s, it is

[00:09:53] Adam Stott: also, it’s a framework and I think

[00:09:55] Inga Grigaitiene: How people implement themselves, you know, and as a nice, we can talk

[00:09:59] Adam Stott: practicalities.

[00:10:00] Yeah. And I can, you know, I can give you step by step on this in terms of the frameworks, but I think that what metaphorically, that, that metaphor of the bus is a metaphor for. Where you are going as a business, what the journey is that you’re going on as a business because every business is going on a journey and the company is a group of people on the bus.

[00:10:23] And, you know, I would much rather as that bus was traveling to the destination, everybody was happy. Everybody’s singing and everybody’s having a good time, but that is an ideal world and it doesn’t always happen, but what you have to do at scale is you have to do the basics, right? And put these fundamental cultures parts in and build the culture.

[00:10:47] Now, this is the thing. If you don’t build a culture and you don’t put any effort in and your business is growing and your people are growing and you’re bringing more employees on and you’re bringing your staff on and managers on and you don’t focus on the culture, those same people, they’ll create their own mini cultures and it would tear the business apart.

[00:11:08] It will tear the business apart. It will cause you endless amounts of problems. It will stop you from getting to your goals. So you have to set the culture for everybody for the right, especially for the right people, you know, for the right people they want that. They want to know where they’re going.

[00:11:24] They want to know what they’re heading towards. And if you don’t do it often, those people on the bus are going to cause chaos. Very

[00:11:32] Inga Grigaitiene: often that happens, you know, because

[00:11:34] Adam Stott: in

[00:11:36] Inga Grigaitiene: my network, you know, we’re talking about that. We have some people having the problems with the staff and the same. Imagine you’re on

[00:11:43] Adam Stott: that bus 40 people on your bus or 50 people, whatever you got on there.

[00:11:47] And then up on the top left hand corner of the double decker bus on the top left,

[00:11:52] Inga Grigaitiene: there’s one person there

[00:11:54] Adam Stott: talking to the whole top floor going, well, sure we should go on a different bus.

[00:11:57] You know what, I’ve heard that this other bus is better than this bus. Why don’t we all go over there? Why don’t, and they’re causing chaos on your bus.

[00:12:04] Inga Grigaitiene: So how to avoid that?

[00:12:05] Adam Stott: Well, you have to set the rules for the bus.

[00:12:07] Inga Grigaitiene: Exactly. You have to be very strict. Well, it’s not necessarily about being strict. It’s just like opposite.

[00:12:13] Adam Stott: It would be about going up to the top floor. And saying, hey I see you chatting everyone. Let’s come and have a conversation.

[00:12:19] We think this is your time to get off. All right. And going back and saying to everyone, look, you know, if you’d want to get off, that’s okay. You know, we want you, this is our culture. This is what we’re doing. This is where we’re going. Or we want you to come on this journey, but we’re not going to force anyone.

[00:12:32] Joe, it’s quite interesting. I mean, for people that like football

[00:12:35] Inga Grigaitiene: But if it’s taking football, you know, if they’re a really good player. But he’s going

[00:12:40] Adam Stott: quack. You see it a lot. You see it a lot. This is the sort of metaphor that I was going to use to explain it. That, you know, when you look at really successful managers, like, Alex Ferguson, for example.

[00:12:51] If You know, you study him. He created a culture at Manchester United and that culture was strict. That culture was discipline. That culture was respect. And there are multiple stories of him enforcing that culture and what he wanted from his players. And there’s also multiple stories of when people started to.

[00:13:11] Want to go in different directions. I think David Beckham is a good example. He was sold, he was removed from that bus because he was so interested in fashion and being a celebrity. He said, yeah, he’s an amazing player. If everyone now wants to get into fashion and be a celebrity on this football team, we’re gonna stop achieving results.

[00:13:29] So despite him being one of the best players on the team, he needs to come off the team. And it’s the same with van Nitro was another one top class. Striker, he said to Van Nistroy, you’re going to have to come off the bus. Yap, Stan was another one. He did it time and time again, that no one player is bigger than the team and it doesn’t matter who that is.

[00:13:50] No one player is bigger than the team. And I think that’s a, an important thing. And that includes the owner. I think when you scale and the owner needs to be the leader and the communicator. Not the boss. Wow. Really? Yes, I suppose so. They need to lead. They need to communicate, but they have to separate themselves from every last detail within the business, which is often difficult.

[00:14:18] You know, it is often difficult. It’s not pretend that, you know, I’ve had those challenges myself because you want to go and you want to be involved in everything. But it comes a time where you just can’t be involved in everything when it gets too big. So you have to build that culture in the right way.

[00:14:34] You have to have discipline, you have to focus, you have to know where you’re going. You have to get the right people on the bus, the right group of people. You need that group of people to respect each other.

[00:14:44] Inga Grigaitiene: Self respect. Yeah. First of all, you know, if people self respect each other, you know, the self respect, you know, that is really good.

[00:14:52] Yeah,

[00:14:52] Adam Stott: absolutely. You have to respect the differences. But this is where. That part is about being a good team is that if one of them is dropping, it doesn’t necessarily come to the boss to pull him up. The team need to pull him up and the team needs to set the example. This is where we’re going. This is what we’re doing.

[00:15:11] But they can only do that if there’s leadership within the business. So I think it’s really important. I think you’ve got to respect each other. But you’ve got to remember what your goals, your aspirations are. And then the practicalities are communicate communicate the vision. Where’s the business going?

[00:15:27] Communicate what are the do’s in this business? What are the things we, we do as a group of people? What do we do? Right? So when we’re on the bus, what do we do? What are the things that are good? What is good behaviors? What do we not do? What are bad behaviours? What are behaviours that we’re trying to get out?

[00:15:42] Now, will you see these bad behaviours in a business occasion? Of course you will see them, nothing’s perfect. You’re managing a group of people, you’re not managing robots. So there are going to be moments where not everything’s perfect, but then you have the discipline. The systems, the processes, the structures to monitor those different aspects.

[00:15:58] And, you know, if you follow that process you’ll start to build a good culture within your business where you can get to your destination and achieve the goals and the results that you want to achieve and, you know, and do. You have to

[00:16:09] Inga Grigaitiene: be really good with the people, you know, you have to have people skill being a leader not to become a really strict boss, then people wouldn’t.

[00:16:19] But come, you know, only to earn money, but not to enjoy the work they’re doing, you know, that you need to explain to them that, right?

[00:16:28] Adam Stott: You need to

[00:16:28] Inga Grigaitiene: be, the people need to want to come to work. First of all, money is really important, don’t get me wrong, you know, that, but they would like to come and be in the in the workplace.

[00:16:39] Adam Stott: But first of all, which I totally agree is the shift in the business owners mind. There’s a, there is a stinking thinking that some business owners have is I’m paying you, you do what I tell you to do. Like, which is just a stupid mentality because you’re, you are actually then disrespecting that person.

[00:17:00] Right. But look, let’s be honest, you know, I, when I was early, let’s say I was, you know, and to be honest, a lot of people are in the beginning. Right. But you have to grow out of that because you can’t do that. You’re not going to. Build a good culture by doing that so if someone’s watching and i’m always trying to use the experiences i’ve had to try and get somebody else to change their thinking in some way shape or form but it doesn’t empower you or a team to have that mindset you have to shift that mindset and say you know what.

[00:17:33] might be paying that person. And yes, you want them to do certain things and you want them to achieve certain things, but they’re going to do a lot better job for you if they feel valued, if they feel respected and if they feel that they’re a part of something and there is a journey. People won’t want to get off the bus if the end destination is an exciting one.

[00:17:53] And you have

[00:17:54] Inga Grigaitiene: to show appreciations. Yeah. We’re going to Vegas, right? Oh yeah, we’re going.

[00:17:59] Adam Stott: Yeah. Then people don’t want to get off that bus, do they? Because they know we’re going somewhere exciting, right? Wherever it is. Whatever you deem to be exciting, if the destination that you’re going to is an exciting, great place and people miss out because they didn’t stay on the bus, they end up regretting it, right?

[00:18:15] Inga Grigaitiene: Correct, yeah. And they will lose, you know, the something, you know, the, they will lose their time doing some things what they don’t want to, and People probably, yeah, that is interesting. Thank you very much. What a nicely answered everything, you know, they put it together. Thank you.

[00:18:32] Adam Stott: No problem at all. Well, hopefully those of you have been listening and watching and consuming the podcast, hopefully you’re getting massive amounts of value out of today where we’ve talked about culture.

[00:18:44] Tell us a little bit about Your opinions on this in the comments. Be great to hear from you. Perhaps share this with your boss or perhaps share this with somebody that needs to hear the message just by going and clicking the share button wherever you’re listening and share it with somebody that could do with the help.

[00:19:02] Maybe they’ve got staff problems, staff issues. Maybe they need a different frame of mind, a different frame of reference. And I look forward to seeing you on The next step. So thank you again for being with us, Inga. Thank you. Thank you

[00:19:12] Inga Grigaitiene: very much. It’s the put the end, you know, you need to be happy to produce better results.

[00:19:21] Adam Stott: There you go. Are you just summarized it all up?

[00:19:22] Inga Grigaitiene: Yep.

[00:19:24] Adam Stott: We’ll put this at the beginning of the episode, right? So well done, everybody. And I look forward to seeing you on the next episode of Business Growth Secrets.

[00:19:32] Inga Grigaitiene: Thank you.

[00:19:33] Adam Stott: Hey everybody, Adam here, and I hope you loved today’s episode, hope you thought it was fabulous.

[00:19:38] And if you did, I’d like to ask you a small favor. Could you jump over and go and give the podcast a review? Of course, I’ll be super grateful if that is a five star review. We’re putting our all into this podcast for you. Delivering you the content, giving you the secrets. And if you’ve enjoyed it, please go and give us a review and talk about what your favorite episode is.

[00:19:58] Perhaps every single month I select someone from that review list to come to one of my exclusive Academy days and have lunch with me on the day meeting hundreds of my clients. So if you want that to be you, then you’re going to be in with a shout. If you go and give us a review on iTunes, please, of course, do remember to subscribe so you can get all the up to date episodes.

[00:20:22] Peace and love, and I’ll see you very soon. Thank you.