What does company culture have to do with business results? At 15five, we see an incredibly strong link between the two. So does today’s guest who has used culture and values to build a pool of enthusiastic employees who are motivated to do their best work every day.

About Steve Zahm

Steve Zahm is the president and Chief Culture Officer of Procore where he’s responsible for human resources, learning, development, and facilities and real estate. Steve is focused on the creation and scaling of positive workplace culture as a sustainable competitive advantage for achieving superior business results.

Why Culture is a Strategic Advantage for Business

As the Chief Culture Officer, Steve works to make his company’s culture one of its greatest assets. He sees an undeniable connection between the culture of a company and its success.

Good workplace culture pays back in so many ways. It attracts the best and most enthusiastic talent. When a company has a positive culture, employees are easier to attract, maintain high levels of engagement, and create a competitive advantage.

Putting Your Values Into Action

Stating your values isn’t enough. You need to take deliberate action to ensure that your stated values prosper within your company. You have to hire and fire according to your values. When managing your employees, put the language of your workplace culture front and center. Ultimately, training in accordance with your values ensures that everyone knows how to do their best work in alignment with the company’s vision.

When your workplace culture is able to do this, your people will become strong advocates of your values. This naturally leads to a strengthening of these values into something larger than the founders could have done on their own.

In This Episode

• The role and value of Chief Culture Officers [0:50]
• Signs that your culture is working [7:23]
• The attributes of a positive culture [9:18]
• Intentionally setting up company values to be acted upon [13:08]
• The dangers of not operating according to your stated values [20:08]
• How founders impart their personal values to their company [21:50
• How workplace culture can evolve for the better as a company scales up [27:07]
• The power of strong workplace culture to respond to crisis [28:56]
• Practical steps to creating an inclusive work environment [33:33]

Quotes

“People don’t realize that businesses invest in culture because culture improves the business.” [1:56]

“With culture, not only do you have to speak the language, you have to do the language. You have to do things that are in accordance with your values.” [21:07]

“A crisis is a horrible time to find out what your values are as a company. It’s a great time to have your values as a company.” [30:06]

“One of the goals to enable the success of the business has to be letting my people do their best work. Every single day I should be pushing to get every employee that can into that state of flow.” [36:30]

Key Takeaways

1. Having a clear company vision will lead to a more engaged and motivated workforce.

2. A strong company culture will differentiate your company and make it more robust when there is a crisis.

Links & Resources

Find Steve Zahm online at Procore

Check out Procore’s free courses

Learn about Procore’s social impact work

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Links & Resources