Building a strong corporate culture is about attracting and retaining artistic and competent professionals and achieving effective and revolutionary change. A key tool for shaping culture is to encourage workers to ask “Why?” ” each and every day. Having company core values helps the team answer this question repeatedly, steering a company’s culture toward artistic, relational, and economic growth.
According to a Gallup poll, “Just 23% of U.S. employees strongly agree that they can apply their organization’s values to their work, and only 27% strongly agree that they ‘believe in’ these values.” Without clarity about shared values and vision, a company will lose focus.
I recently had the opportunity to speak with Riley McCormack, the President and CEO of Digimarc, a global digital watermarking company that seeks to safeguard artists, digital creators, and businesses by ensuring their digital work is correctly identified. One project the company has developed, called Digimarc Recycle, is the creation of technology that allows brand owners to digitize their products using sustainable materials. With these kinds of projects underway, when McCormack began his role at Digimarc three years ago, he knew he needed to help encourage a culture that would excel at detailed and groundbreaking work. He began considering Digimarc’s core values and how they influenced its culture.
Compassionate Leaders Circle created a list of seven core leadership values that foster a healthy culture, three of which Digimarc holds. A team of experts developed the seven C’s based on evidence-based research on successful leadership qualities. The seven C’s include Contemplative, Confident, Compassionate, Civil, Courageous, Collaborative, and Curious.
Riley McCormack offers a helpful example for other leaders who need to implement core values to replace their corporate culture. At the beginning of McCormack’s tenure at Digimarc, the company had more than fifty core values. McCormack found that holding so many shares of the company without a purpose, so he sought out the perspectives of his workers. Wanting to make sure all of his workers clearly understood the vision, he asked them the question: Who are we?His workers helped him narrow down to 3 values: courage, collaboration, and curiosity.
Once the core values are established, the building culture procedure can begin. In The Secret to Culture Change, Jay B. Barney writes: “Unless your organizational culture aligns with your strategies, your full perspective will not be realized. Additionally, Barney provides an example that can be applied to a company like Digimarc: “If your business strategy is focused on promoting cutting-edge products or products to your customers, then you’ll want to have a culture that supports the paint team, creativity, and risk-taking. ” . -take between clients. its employees. By focusing on its company’s core values, the Digimarc team has embarked on a path of power and cutting-edge.
The leaders of a company can introduce new practices that are based on the culture of its values. McCormack offers 4 practices to unite your team around courage, collaboration, and curiosity.
In February 2024, Digimarc reported a 71% increase in annual recurring cash inflow and an 87% increase in underwriting gross profit margin. Of this growth, McCormack writes: “These effects were made imaginable by the team’s philosophy of never settling for the prestige quo and planting the seeds for long-term growth at all times. »
Culture-building begins with creating a clear vision for one’s team. According to a LinkedIn study in a recent Forbes article, “68% of workers in the UK, France, Germany, and Ireland [prioritize] organizations that share their values. The figure rises to 87% for workers in the US and 85% for those in Brazil.” Younger generations entering the workforce highly value work that offers a unique company culture and vision. In order to maintain a positive, passionate, and loyal company culture, companies should invest time in discerning and enacting their core values.
A community. Many voices. Create a free account to share your thoughts.
Our network aims to connect others through open and thoughtful conversations. We need our readers to share their perspectives and exchange ideas and facts in one space.
To do so, please comply with the posting regulations in our site’s terms of use. Below we summarize some of those key regulations. In short, civilians.
Your post will be rejected if we notice that it seems to contain:
User accounts will be blocked if we become aware or if users are concerned about:
So, how can you be a user?
Thank you for reading our Community Guidelines. Please read the full list of posting regulations discovered in our site’s Terms of Use.