Building strong company culture is one of the main priorities of entrepreneurs with strong leadership skills. Great startups are built by awesome teams of talented people, who share the same vision and core values as the founders of the company, which is why transparency is essential element of every effective startup culture.
Building a culture of transparency is a great way to keep all employees motivated, inspired and truly engaged in the process of growing the company and the establishment of unique team culture and leadership style.
The Team
The first thing that you as a leader must take under consideration when you outline the main elements of your startup’s company culture is related with the establishment of clear hiring policies. Entrepreneurs with good HR skills have better advantage, because they are able to make better hiring decisions and have the ability to sift out the candidates easily and faster.
Transparent company culture can be effectively implemented only if the team members trust each other and feel comfortable enough to share their opinions not only with each other, but also with the founders. Transparency is based on honesty, credence and empathy, so make sure that the people you pick to join your startup family posses these personality traits.
The Communication
To keep the communication between you and all team members alive, it is important that you hold regular open meetings that are solely dedicated to sharing important updates about the direction, in which the company is heading. During these meetings, give as much detailed information to your employees about the future steps that the company will be taking, that they will feel ready to react to the changes accordingly. By knowing more about what is happening in the company, the startup employees will feel more comfortable, more engaged with the work and more motivated to channel their efforts towards achieving the set goals.
Encourage Feedback
We have discussed the importance of receiving feedback from investors, clients and influencers many times, which is why here we will emphasize on the importance of receiving feedback from your employees. If you want to establish company culture of transparency, it is important that you look at the process as a two way road – you share, but you should also receive information. Make sure that every single team member, irrespective of their position in the company, feels comfortable to share their ideas and opinions.
Encourage all type of feedback – from verbal sharing of information to sharing in writing. Put idea boxes in the office and encourage the employees to anonymously share their suggestions about how the work process can be improved. But this is not enough – you should actually hear/read these suggestions and objectively evaluate them. By doing this, you are proving that the opinion of your team truly matters, that their voices are heard and that transparency truly matters to you as a leader.
