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Your Work Culture Matters
We’ve worked hard over the years to make CCB Technology a great place to work. It has taken time, energy and intentionality.
It didn’t happen overnight.
We have had some tough years, especially the ones during what has now been coined as, “The Great Resignation” in 2021 when a lot of employees were quitting their jobs for greener pastures. Some of mine quit too, good ones. And I began to have moments of panic: What if we couldn’t find more good people? What if they all quit and left me? Of course, they didn’t, but I remember days in which I worried each person who walked into my office was there to lay a letter of resignation on my desk. Those were hard days. But I can honestly say that even through it, we held strong and even grew closer and tighter knit as a company. We hired more people, we fostered their growth, and now they’re the new “good people.”
When I was white knuckling my grip on the company, and super stressed out, I had other employees around me remind me how to foster positive culture. Now that things have settled a bit and we’re back to more stable times, I can see that we’ve grown as a company and I’ve grown as a leader.
Here’s a couple things that I’ve learned through the tough years and the good ones:
Make it Fun
I’ve been taught this by a lot of other people around me. You can basically take any mundane and boring day or task and make it fun, just add a bunny costume. Or call people into your office and hand them a pizza box full of confetti. Or hold an in-office facial hair competition. Get creative, get goofy and get borderline weird—like Peter Rabbit weird.
We always say, “no one drifts into excellence.” It’s a choice. Being fun is a choice too. It doesn’t just happen. You have to make room for silliness, for laughter and for joy. When your employees are having fun, jump in too.
Give Things Away
I like to give my employees gifts. Try a “$100 handshake day” where you put money in your palm and give it to an unsuspecting employee by shaking his or her hand. I also love bringing in special treats or ordering pizza for the entire office. Give away gift cards, golf outings or fancy dinners. If money is tight, you can give things that don’t cost much, like public affirmation to a great employee, a hand-written card saying thank you, a silly song for someone that you wrote on the guitar, or just take company time to share in happy hour in the parking lot. Any gift shows your employees that you are thinking about them, care about them and want them to know that they’re appreciated for the work they do.
Freakin’ Promote People
Screw the whole, “employees have to work for 3 years in the company before getting promoted.” If you have a good person who is talented and shows potential, freakin’ promote them! If you have work that you need done, and we all do, and you want to grow your business, like most of us do, then take good people and give them more responsibility. I recently stepped out of my role as the President of CCB and handed those reigns over to an amazing employee and he’s knocking it out of the park. You’ll never regret showing your employees that you trust them, you see what they can do, and that you’re willing to help them become better.
I’ll be the first to admit that sometimes I can put my head down and just work. I can forget that company culture matters or feel like there’s not enough time or energy to get the work done but then I find myself burnt out, angry and annoyed. And no one likes that. Take the time to create a great culture and the work will get done, trust me.
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