| EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’ S PAGE |
How Would You Define Your Agency’ s Corporate Culture?
Think it through because it matters.
DAVID HULCHER KAIA Executive Director
O ver the past six months the association has gone through some change, experiencing some staff turnover. As I was writing the job posting for an open position I wanted to share with candidates a description of KAIA’ s corporate culture. So, what is corporate culture and why is it important?
By definition, corporate culture refers to the beliefs and behaviors that determine how a company’ s employees and management interact to service their customers. Oftentimes, corporate culture isn’ t really stated, but it develops organically over time through the leaders of the organization. How staff approaches their work and treats customers, dress code, business hours, and office setup are all reflective of the organizations culture.
So, as I wrote the job posting, it occurred to me that I understood the culture I was trying to create and facilitate, but does my staff( which is truly the important question)? While I’ m constantly talking about who we want to be and how we want to serve our members, I’ ve never specifically defined our corporate culture as this often is defined organically. So, I took the opportunity to walk around the office and ask everyone how they would describe KAIA’ s corporate culture. Further, I asked them to write down their thoughts so I could compare their version of our corporate culture to mine.
Here were some of the thoughts they provided:
• Work hard, play hard.
• Committed to highest possible level of customer service to our members.
• Ideas are encouraged and welcomed.
• Encouraged to ask the question why.
• Strong work ethic.
• Family-friendly and flexible with time-off.
• Fun, energetic environment.
• Constantly in motion and never a feeling of stagnation.
• Pursuit of excellence through continuous improvement.
• Celebrate our achievements.
Now here’ s my vision for our corporate culture:
Each day we bring a positive energy, working hard to serve our members, but never taking ourselves too seriously knowing that substance trumps form. We want to have fun along the way, providing employees with a balanced work / life environment. Always supporting each other, we are focused on the end results. We believe in continuous improvement and want staff members to feel empowered, think creatively, never staying satisfied with the status quo, while being accountable for our actions. Our mindset is to always do the next right thing for our members.
So, after this exercise, I felt pretty good that our staff recognized the corporate culture I am trying to create. But the other realization I’ ve come to is that you have to have the right people in place to thrive in the culture you are trying to create. You can’ t have someone that only embraces the flexibility and work / life balance without being willing to bring a serious work ethic and be focused on results. One can’ t exist without the other. And it’ s important to realize that the people that are not all-in can erode the culture you are creating and may even influence the way you lead. You can’ t let this happen or your organization will be ill-equipped to evolve and reach its full potential.
I encourage you to reflect on your agency’ s culture and whether your vision matches the culture that actually exists. Also, take the time to make sure that your staff provides real and honest feedback, not lip service, about ways to improve the culture and agency as a whole.
4 KANSAS INSURANCE AGENT & BROKER | May- June 2018 |