Leaders and founders always want more efficient workplaces. They are in a position to set the cultural inflection for their organization. When startup-owners invest in their team, it leads to greater coherence, performance-oriented, and supportive environment.
Employees benefit from this atmosphere that uses psychological tools to entitle every person to make a productive contribution to the team.
But do you know it’s not that easy as it seems?
Over recent years, I have noticed that many startup-owners fail to recognize that the culture of their organization is because of values, explicit communication, and unexpected messages that employees receive from their team.
Well, these communications are more difficult to control and manage than handling a crucial situation. The most effective leadership competency is not just about directing your subordinates, instead, you will have to understand their psychology to help your startup grow.
That’s why I have mentioned these 8 physiological strategies for intended and unintended messages that build a healthy culture.
1. Establishing Positive Reinforcement
This technique of operant conditioning was introduced by psychologist B.F. Skinner. He found that after a rat shows the desired attitude and then adding a rewarding stimulus will teach the rat to repeat that behavior again and again.
He found that learning a new action is a result of positive reinforcement rather than punishing mistakes.
So, as a leader for you, the priority is to give positive feedback to your leadership team and employees. Always identify and reward them for their good behavior to bolster your organization’s growth with values.
2. Propagate a Safe Space
The other essential part of the organization is to make everyone feel safe and secure. Your organization must have employee retention, less liability with a value-driven atmosphere.
So, to attain this invest your money and time in multicultural training during the building process. By learning about various cultures will make your employees feel comfortable, more productive, and loyal to your organization.
3. Promote Feedback and Authenticity
Authoritative leadership leads to more honest relationships that increase personal accountability and positive feedback.
The important thing is when people get to work and then have to hide behind a facade then there are fewer chances of them giving critical feedback and will engage themselves in their respective work.
Instead, ask and give feedback to your employees regularly for their areas of growth and positive behavior.
Also, if more people will connect to their true selves to achieve the goals of the company, they are likely to enjoy their work and will invest more towards their professional growth.
4. Open Communication
Organizations grow more easily if they prioritize communication. Employees should feel that they have their voice, they are free to share their positive opinions. This will inspire and motivate them to provide their best efforts.
Proper transparency and open communication in decision-making processes help in promoting organizational values and philosophies.
As a leader, you just have to make sure that your front-line managers are making employees feel valued.
5. Generate Meaning from Tasks
In many organizations, I have observed that employees started to feel like their work is meaningless. So, they just count the number of minutes until they close their work.
Your employees should feel that they are generating meaning from their tasks. All you have to do is to help employees get trained to increase their productivity.
Make them realize how their work is important for the organization’s goals. They should know how their contribution is impacting the company’s growth and progress.
6. Applying Mindful Breaks
Mindfulness is important for an organization as it helps in increasing productivity.
According to Time- Humans now have a shorter attention span than a goldfish. Instead of having unreal expectations that your employees will sit at their desks all day and remain focused, just read their psychology.
Moreover, it becomes necessary to take short breaks to increase our willpower, improve concentration, and attain our attention.
As a leader, you will have to take a step forward and encourage your employees to take short and mindfulness breaks.
By modeling, this behavior for the long term will help you to take a positive hold of your company’s culture.
7. Listen and Help People Feel Heard
This is basic psychology that most people want to feel understood. Many successful startup leaders have validated people’s experiences and have made them feel understood.
It becomes important to convey and emphasize that you respect and value their emotions and experiences.
So, you should first listen, emphasize, and then redirect them even if their opinions are wrong or missing some key information.
Implementing these simple fundamentals will improve your relationships and workplace cohesiveness.
8. Practice What You Preach
Always work and take suggestions from startup experts!
Most startup founders prefer to connect with a phycologist co-founder who can understand and enhance the culture of your company.
Regular interactions with an expert will help you in identifying the exercises that enhance your self-awareness. You will even understand how your behavior is affecting other leads in making their decisions.
Wrapping Up
Understanding the simple psychology of your employees is the only way to improve your startup culture. Well, psychologists spend many years exploring human behavior and its functions.
Instead of ignoring them, implement these simple psychological strategies to improve your organization’s culture and growth.
Authors Bio
Claire Mark is an investment and strategic planning consultant at Alcor, a global investment bank. She’s best known for her insightful blogs on business growth, startups, small businesses, and investments. Claire also has a good network in the Finance industry, especially the investors’ community. Apart from her work, she loves to bake and go out for gadget-free nature walks.
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