Cover Story

Gut check

Print This Page

Send this page to a friend

The Howroyd file

Live your culture

The starting point to building your company culture is simple: It’s you. You have to let employees see your drive and passion to push growth through risk taking and personal growth in the field up close.

“When you put forth your vision, when you restate or redefine initiatives inside your organization, those shouldn’t just be an academic exercise that people are asked to perform to,” Howroyd says. “I find that the best leaders manage processes, but they lead people, and that requires you to know the people in order to build the business forward, and the flip side is the people need to know you. More of your organization’s culture is influenced by the interaction you have with people than it is just by you putting forth a brand initiative around a product or a service that you’re building.”

So how do you live a culture that encourages people to be creative and grow? Start with creating dialogue with people about personal and professional growth.

“The thing that I do on a personal level is I really do free people up to talk,” she says. “I don’t stick to yes-no questions; I don’t stick to questions. Sometimes I ask them their perspective, as much as they care to share, in areas outside of the immediate business or immediate job that they’re performing in my company and just get a balance on where they are in their lives. That enables me to not just value whether or not they’re able to contribute to my organization, but whether our organization can contribute to their growth, as well.

“That can be very important in a company that’s growing, and it’s something all leaders should be cognizant of — just because my company is growing, does that mean my employees are able to grow, too?”

Part of this process is understanding how to maximize your conversations with people to help them realize what they can do. For example, Howroyd likes to have conversations after someone has failed.

“Not only does this allow both the person and me to investigate for future growth how we avoid future failures, it also implants within their business DNA the truth that it’s all right to take business risks,” she says. “It’s very common for leaders to applaud people on their successes. I just think it’s of value as well to go out and talk to people when they experience failures, give them a pat on the back, and then make sure that the both of you explore how to avoid those future failures or turn those into future successes.”

Again, this is just the work needed to set the tone at your organization, but going through the steps to build culture requires your legwork.

“As your company grows larger, you’re not always able to talk with every person at every moment,” Howroyd says. “But what I think does happen is by you being thoughtful and selective in talking with people where you can, the message moves forward throughout the organization and people come to understand this is a culture that embraces me being able to step forward and take and recognize thoughtful risks.”