Articulate your culture
Potential employees who interview at Silverado will certainly hear about Rose or Edith or Floyd or any other thousands of success stories Shook shares. The test is whether that matters to them.
You want employees who naturally sync with your culture, but first you have to know what you’re looking for. In other words, be able to clearly articulate and illustrate your culture in order to bring in like minds.
It starts with explaining your purpose to ignite passion for where you’re going before you get into the details of how you’ll get there.
“One of the big [mistakes] is to not clearly communicate a compelling vision as to what the company is about,” Shook says. “You’ve got to have that foundation — what your company’s about and what you’re doing. Without that, you can’t build a culture.”
To make your vision compelling, explain not only what you do but why it matters.
“No matter what you’re doing, what you’re doing is important. Any business has a meaningful place to play or nobody would be buying it as a product or service,” Shook says. “You’re making not only just some old shoes; you’re making shoes that have the benefit of this or that. You can look at whatever you’re doing as just turning out a humdrum commodity or you can look deeper at what it is your product or service does for people — and there is meaning.”
Shook, always the storyteller, gives the example of several men laying bricks to build a church. The first one, when asked what he’s doing, says he’s just stacking this brick on top of that one. The second one says he’s creating a building and getting paid $30 an hour. The third one says he’s building a church where people will get married and find peace.
The way candidates respond to your purpose or even a question like, “Why do you want to work here?” can cue you into how broad of a vision they have for themselves, whether it’s just laying bricks or being part of something bigger.
Continue gauging their responses as you zoom into the details of the culture you rely on to achieve your purpose.
“It extends off of the vision of the company and the purpose and the reason the company exists,” he says. “Then you roll that down to the operating philosophies. … Let people know what it looks like.”
To do that, explain the principles that guide your company. For example, Silverado values the get-give philosophy, which means employees should get more out of the job than they put into it, and likewise, the company should get more from the employees than they give them. You can train them more later on how to practice those principles, but for now, just give them an outline of what to expect.
Part of your explanation is also sharing success stories — whether it’s Rose’s winning pitch, products you launched, clients you landed or sales records you broke. Show them proof that the company is actually achieving what it aspires to and that they can be part of that success.
“Let them know that the company does make a difference, the people who’ve come before them have done that,” Shook says. “So it’s not just a dream; it’s reality.”
Their responses will indicate how well they’ll fit the company.
“Going through those stories with a prospective staff member, you see: Does that matter to them? Do they care about that?” Shook says. “The right person will be blown away at what a wonderful change in Rose’s life that is, and the wrong person will say, ‘So what?’ You don’t even have to hear them; you can see in their eyes whether that’s significant.”
Whether they come out and say it or not, you can sense excitement and passion in their reaction. And, of course, you can just ask if they want to be a contributor to that result.
“It’s all about the view that the employer paints for the employees in producing that and what they feel about it,” he says.
