At CodeGeek, we care a lot about company culture. (And we mean a lot.)
Why?
Because we want the best for all our teammates.
When I started hiring employees many years ago, I knew I wanted to cultivate a thriving and positive company culture because I wanted us to be happy and satisfied in our work and life.
And a key part of that (to me, at least) is all of us enjoying, appreciating and supporting each other.
So, how do you go about doing that?
Good culture is about relationships.
A story about Joel
A good friend of mine, Joel, passed away from cancer at around age 50. A few days before he passed, I had an opportunity to connect with him.
I texted him a positive message, and his response was, “Thank you for the relationship.”
These last words from a friend capture a key part of what matters to many of us in life.
It’s about relationships.
A story about Janet
Recently, I was talking with another good friend, Janet, who is a business coach and is phenomenal at helping people build a great company culture. We were just talking as friends, but soon the topic of culture came up.
She mentioned that for many companies she’s worked with, the reason the C-Suite wanted to build a good company culture was to increase employee productivity and efficiency.
“Gross!” was my immediate, unconscious response. That is a very different type of company than I want to be a part of.
For me, great company culture is about building great relationships.
A story about others
Like many people, I have had quite a few jobs in my life — from physicist to flight instructor.
And from an early working age, I’ve felt that I could do almost any job if I were with the right people. It mattered less about the details of what I was doing, and more about who I was with.
It’s all about the people — and the relationships that develop between them.
Does putting relationships first really work in business? (Yes!)
Two years ago, CodeGeek celebrated its 20th year. That means we’ve had more than two decades of cultivating our own company culture.
Many business owners may not agree with my definition of good company culture because it doesn’t prioritize profit, and that’s their choice.
After listening to what my teammates have to say about working here, however, I’m convinced even more that we’re on the right track.
“As an employee of CodeGeek, I feel like my individual talents are acknowledged and appreciated. I feel rewarded and appreciated for the things I do.”
A teammate directly told me this, and as a leader in the company, it feels amazingly good to hear feedback like that.
Here are a few more things teammates have shared, in their own words:
- We have a great respect for individual talent and ability.
- We’re cohesive — everyone works hard to support each other and work together.
- Everyone is willing to help.
- Everyone is friendly.
- Everyone is very positive.
- I can ask anyone a question. Everyone has knowledge and is willing to share. It is very easy for us to communicate with each other and get things done.
- Everyone is interested in building a community amongst ourselves. People share articles and information in Slack, photos from trips, and show interest in each other.
I feel grateful for every one of our teammates at CodeGeek. I am thankful that they choose to work here, and I smile both externally and internally when I think of that.
Our employees want to be here, we want them to be here, and we are a very high-functioning team.
What about the “bottom line”?
Because our team is happy and supported, a natural extension of that positivity is to want to make our clients happy.
And we make our clients happy by creating the best products and services for them. (We do this not because we have to, but because we want to.)
In fact, we believe in this relationship-first approach so much that we put it on our homepage:
Anyone who works with us knows what’s important to our team: Relationships first. Everything else flows from that.
And our clients seem to be as happy with the results as we are.
Relationships first. Everything else flows from that.
Ron Zasadzinski, CodeGeek
So, what’s your “why”?
For us, the answer to the question, “What’s our ‘why’ for investing in company culture?” really isn’t a what. It’s a who.
The people (our team and our clients) and our relationships with them come first. After that, everything else falls into place.
I’ve shared a lot about CodeGeek’s “why.” But what about you?
Why do you want to invest in company culture?
Connect with me!
What I’ve shared here is a start, a seed planted.
I’ll be sharing more about these types of topics in future blog posts. (If you want to know about these new posts, I invite you to sign up for our newsletter.)
In the meantime, I’d love to hear from you on one or both of these two questions:
- What’s resonating with you in this blog post — and why?
- What would you like to hear more about from me?
You can reach me directly at ronz@codegeek.net — and I look forward to hearing from you!
About the author:
Ron Zasadzinski started CodeGeek in 2002, and he spends his days helping to build amazing websites and web apps — and an even better team. This blog post is part of his leadership and culture series.
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