How To Build A Winning Company Culture ( Leadership Philosophy )

In this video, I'm going to be talking about leadership philosophy and also core values. So, you know, as you're scaling up your business, it's kind of very important to think about, you know, what are the leadership qualities that you really want to ingrain in your team and what does that core value looks like? So as important as it is to have, like, checklists and, like, you know, things to tick off and make sure the work is kind of carried out the right way, it's also as important to create, you know, what is that leadership? What is the core values look like as you're bringing people in? Because as you start to scale up your business and you start to add more people, it's really important that your culture doesn't get diluted. And the way that I personally do that is I don't be a manager. I always like to be a leader and lead by example. I don't want to tell people what to do. I want to show them how to do it by actually embodying those things myself. You know, I've never looked at, you know, my team members as employees. I never use that term. For me, we're all on the same team and we're all trying to basically achieve a goal altogether. So, you know, I guess the things that are really important for me is like, not having to hire people and then micromanage them. Like, if someone's going to come on board and then have to be micromanaged, that they're just not going to be a great fit for, like, what we're doing and where we want to go. I like to give people the autonomy to really just do the work and get it done. And that's the ultimate. Ultimately, what drives us is getting the results. There are people that are a lot more efficient than others, and basically, you just want to lead. You want to lead your team to really the promised land and lead them to where you want to go. You don't want to micromanage them and basically build a business where you're just, like, managing everybody right, and you're not really kind of keeping your eyes on the seas ahead and charting the course and taking everybody to where you're trying to go and what that end goal looks like for yourself. And I found, like, the best way to do that is really by having, like, a code or core values of, you know, how your business must operate, what you expect, like, what the team really needs to embody in order for you to have that fantastic culture. Culture is a thing that comes up all the time. And it's certainly a hot topic right now amongst all companies. And the reason for that is, you know, when you look at the DNA of the most successful businesses in the world, they have great culture. And that's where a lot of different from businesses are certainly starting to invest a lot of time and energy. And it's not just kind of like fluffy and sexy. It actually moves the needle and you're going to really look at, okay, you know, how do I hire a players? And the way that you hire a players is to build a company where they want to come and work. And the way that you do that is by being the leader and steering the ship and taking your company to where you want to go and being a place that people are super proud and excited, excited about working. And the way that you want to do that is you want to think about what is it that you want to achieve with your business, where do you, what do you, what impact do you want to make, what is it that you want to be doing and why are you in business? This is beyond just you now, right? You've chosen to scale up and to build something that's bigger than yourself. And you must be on a mission and you must kind of rally your troops all together and all fight for this mission and all get to where you want to go. So, you know, in terms of looking at your core values, you know, I'll read you some of mine and maybe that will kind of spur some inspiration. You can start to think about what does that look like for you? A number one core value for me and in our agency is really honesty and integrity. Do the right thing always. In our business, we turn down millions of dollars every single year by not partnering with people that we don't feel that we're a good fit for. And that really ties into, you know, this core value of honesty and integrity. Because, you know, instead of doing a cash grab and just signing a CL on board because the dollars are there, you know, we choose to do the right thing and we choose to treat each client as if they were, you know, our brother in law, our best friend or even our mother. Would we choose to sign that person up, you know, if they were a family member. And if the answer is no, then we simply say no to them and say, hey, look, we're probably not going to be the best fit to get you where you want to be going. We wish you all the best and we've got all these free resources that can help you get there. So, you know, that's a really big thing for us. We will never let like that money cloud our judgment. Terms of doing the right thing. The next one is really customer obsession is our advantage. You know, we have a relentless passion to serve our clients. That's the number one reason that we're in business, right? If our clients aren't happy and they're not getting good results, then none of it really matters because we won't be in business for very long. Another one is first we sell. Nothing happens until something is sold. And it is this results first approach that is the beating heart of our company. You know, ROI is in our DNA as an agency. Like we don't look at any of the kind of fluffy intangible metrics and hide behind any of those. We know that nothing happens until something is sold. So whether it's in our business, we can't provide the best digital marketing strategies if there's no clients to serve. So first we must sell and then we must serve. And it's also the same philosophy that we look at in providing these services to our clients. It's all about results. We know that if we're not providing real tangible ROI and real results, then it's not going to justify them paying a retainer and actually hiring us to work with them. Another one that we look at is we win together. You know, we are fully aware that individuals win games and teams win championships. You know, you might be really, really good at what you do, but if you're an asshole and you don't get on with the rest of the team, then we're not going to hire you. So we understand that, you know, in order to really kind of achieve greatness, it's going to require a whole team of people that are really, really great. And in order to have of people that's really great, you know, you're going to need to have individuals that make up that team and they are able to work with other people. So, you know, we're not just betting on one horse. It's not just about getting, you know, providing really good results in just one aspect. It's about getting that team together and really having a strong, cohesive team that is always in the wars together and really kind of fighting for that one goal and achieving that one goal for the business. The other core value that we have is exceptional is expected. Being good isn't good enough. Exceptional is in our DNA. So, you know, people a lot of the time can be like, oh yeah, you know, it's, it's alright. You know, I've done a Good job. Like, no, that's not the way that you build a thriving and wildly successful business. You need to kind of have standards that you're going to uphold. And for us, it's really in being exceptional. And that's the way that we've been able to kind of create this reputation of really providing the best results that there is in the industry purely by having that really kind of relentless focus on just providing exceptional results. And we're not just happy with. Yeah, look, that will just do that. Landing page is probably good enough. You know, it needs to be the best possible piece of work that we could plate up in order for it to go out to our clients. The other core value that we have is infectious passion. An infectious level of passion is at the heart of our company. We are continuously moving forward, innovating and pushing the boundaries. Right. You know, what's the point of waking up and living life if you're not passionate about the things that you do? If you're going to go to a building and you're going to be working with people for eight, nine hours a day, you know, you better be very passionate about what you're doing. And nothing in life great ever comes without passion. And it's certainly something that we're very conscious of. And we understand that if you're passionate about something, that's where your energy goes. And if your energy goes there, that's where your focus is going. And if your focus is going, that's where mastery occurs. So where always looking to really have that real level of passion and bring it to everything that we do in the day to day operations of our business. These are our core values at King Kong. You know, you need to think about you and you need to think about what change or what is the goal that you're doing with this business. And one of the beautiful things in building and scaling a business, it gives you leverage and it gives you the ability to be able to achieve a lot more than it was just you. Right. You know, because you're only looking at, you know, the equations for how much you're going to need to earn to fund your lifestyle. You're not looking at all the other different areas of your life that you can go and contribute to and give back to and have a greater impact than just your individual enterprise. Now once you've kind of thought about what those core values look like for your business and what's important to you, then really it's about, you know, how do you execute them, how do you make sure that it really is kind of like people are swimming in the Kool Aid and it's kind of like pumped into their bloodstream of they're really living this stuff. And it's not some cute little core values that you've written and have just kind of printed out and left in a drawer in your office. We're talking about literally ingraining this into the DNA of your business. And great ways that I found to do that is certainly to get like murals and paint them on the wall or put them on T shirts or, you know, we put them in employment handbooks. We tell people, you know, in our screening questionnaires from when we're hiring them, is this is how we operate? This is how we expect people to operate that are within this business. Does this sound like it's going to be a great fit for where you are and what you want to be doing? So really, it's like you want to put these front and center everywhere that you can. But beyond all of that, the number one thing that's the most important in order for you to ingrain it in your business is for you to live it as the leader of that business. You can't be saying these things and then not be passionate about what you're doing. Right? That's a contradiction. You need to basically lead by example and you need to let people know that this is how you operate in our business. You know, I make a very conscious effort to get to rally my whole team together at least once a month. And then we have individual meetings throughout the week where I really impart this passion and these core values into what we're doing. We've got something called the waterhole meeting where we all get together once a month and we go through everything and we celebrate wins and we go through hardships and we talk about, you know, where we're going, where the ship is going. And I really try to ingrain as a leader all of these core values by actually showing them what we're doing week to week, month to month, to actually live up to all this stuff and achieve everything that we want to be doing. Think about what's important, think about, you know, what are the absolute must haves and what are the nice to haves and really get clear on what those core values are, write them down and really begin to get passionate about it. So when you hire that first team member, you can make it very, very clear from the get go kind of what you expect and how this business is being built. Because it's really important in the beginning when it's just you and you're making your first hire, that you set the business up on a really strong foundation, and having core values is a really great way to do that. Hey guys, if you enjoyed this video, make sure that you click the like button and subscribe. We're dropping a video on YouTube every other day, and if you've got any questions about any of the content that I covered in this video, just basically leave a comment with heysubree in the comments section. And every week we're also trying to go through all those questions and get them answered. So go ahead, click subscribe, and we'll see you in the next video.