If you’re a business owner or CEO that doesn’t have a ridiculously amazing culture that is the envy of your business peers, you need to read this post…

Picture it: Rollerblades. Board shorts. A Quicksilver muscle shirt. The sweet sounds of the 90s pumping through my Sony Discman. Reflective aviator sunglasses for the hot summer sun. Eat your heart out Emilio Estevez… #namethat90sreference  

My skin was sweaty and tingling from the massive adrenaline dump as I flew down the hill, the concrete vibrating roughly under my wheels and the wind whipping against my huge grin. 

But in my mind, the only thought was “please don’t let there be any traffic or loose gravel at the bottom of this hill”… Because being a dumb, immortal teenager, I didn’t think look ahead. (Oh yeah, and I had also taken the brakes off my rollerblades because they got in the way when I was doing tricks.) 

As I roared enthusiastically toward the bottom of the hill, I saw a huge patch of sandy gravel in the low spot right before the intersection! 

I would wipe out right before rolling into oncoming traffic. Well crap… that’s not ideal – and definitely not part of the plan. 

So I decided the best option was to aim for the grass shoulder on the side of the road and try to bail out at the last minute. As soon as I hit the grass, my wheels quit moving but I didn’t. I went into a half somersault, half alligator roll across the grass. 

SPOILER ALERT

I didn’t die, but I was pretty scuffed up. But not bad enough to quit hitting the hills on my skates. In light of my new experience and teenage wisdom, I figured the solution was to find a different hill next time. (Which I also forgot to check the bottom of… but that’s a different story!) 

How many times in business do we experience the same thing? We find our company flying along at breakneck speed, experiencing massive growth and seemingly unstoppable momentum. 

And we realize too late that there’s gravel at the bottom of the hill – that point at which momentum and inevitability intersect. We find that all the massive growth and profits and revenue have created a culture that is going to cause problems.

All because we forget to check the culture before jumping on the adrenaline-fueled ride of aggressively scaling the business. 

THE MISTAKE THAT MORE THAN HALF OF ALL BUSINESSES MAKE:

They don’t realize that growth/scaling only amplifies their existing culture. 

Your culture doesn’t magically change as your organization gets bigger. If anything, it gets bumpier and there’s more chance of random rocks or sticks in the road causing a wipeout and destroying momentum. 

So, here’s 5 quick things you can do with your team today to check your culture so you don’t have to bail out at the bottom of the hill (i.e. fire a bunch of people and start over with a new team). 

#1. Ask your team what your core values are and why they’re important.

If you don’t have clearly defined core values, then your team will have no compass to guide them when the momentum and complexity of their work increases as your business continues to scale. 

If your team isn’t clear on the core values, maybe there’s a breakdown in communication and understanding. (Check out my other post from last week on effective communication for help with this.) 

If they can recite the core values but aren’t clear on why they matter, you’ve got a bunch of followers who don’t understand the intent behind the values. Instead of taking disciplined initiative to live out the core values through their work, you’ll end up with a bunch of team members waiting around for you to tell them what to do. 

#2. Shift your focus from “What are we doing wrong, and how do we fix it?” to “What are we doing right, and how do we do more of it better?” 

I once heard Taylor Welch say, “Not all the fires need to be put out.” 

If your focus is on what needs to be fixed and optimized, you’ll end up with an over-engineered machine that isn’t going anywhere and nobody wants to ride in it. Don’t waste time tweaking things that don’t significantly impact your wins as a team. 

Shift your focus to the things that are already working. Sit down with your team and brainstorm ways to do more of those things faster and better. 

Everybody wants to be part of a winning team that is slaying goal after goal! Do the teams that win Super Bowls, or World Cups, or championships focus on doing everything technically right. 

NO! 

They focus on doing the things that will put more points on the board than their opponents. So do that with your team as well. 

#3. Ask each of your team members if they did any work in the last week that they found boring. 

If they say” yes”, ask your team members what they would have done differently, or done instead of the “boring” work. 

If they say “nothing”, then maybe they don’t understand the “why behind the what” and how the work adds to the big mission and purpose of the organization. This indicates a disconnect between your culture and vision. 

Either way, if your team members are rowing in multiple different directions because they don’t enjoy what they’re doing or don’t understand why it matters, it will create the illusion of a dynamic and exciting culture.

In reality, there will be TONS of activity and very little productivity. And then your High Performers will jump ship when they realize they’re not actually going anywhere. 

Easy peesy, lemon squeezy, right? 

“But wait!” you ask. “Where are the other two things you promised me?!”

If you’ve read this far and still want more (you glutton for punishment, you… lol), comment “Tell Me More” below or post a GIF from the musical “Grease” and I’ll add the other two things in the comments. 

Before I go, remember: Everyone deserves exceptional leadership, and you can be that leader!