Jeremy Tauri: Is your work culture just not working?

Jeremy Tauri

Is your business' culture standing in the way of success?

Sometimes you can have your prices right, your processes sorted and the clients lining up — but still things don't go as they should. It could be as simple as needing a culture change so that your team and wider business are happy, engaged and motivated for a common goal.

Signs you might have a problem include absenteeism, mistakes, lack of participation and enthusiasm, a general feeling of lack of energy and even a feeling for you as an owner of "I don't want to be there".

This is something my business went through recently.

For our journey culture didn't only mean the evolving beliefs, values and attitude our business held, it also wrapped around understanding the lay of where we lived and who we engaged with and what was important to them.

It was interesting to see that Maori culture, te reo and some aspects of tikanga are playing a part in how we operate. It's a great fit for our business and where we are in the world. If you're wanting to look and change the culture in your business here are some tips.

1. It's too hard for you to change on your own — get some help. Involve outside help to coach you and your people on the journey together. Your coach will hold you all accountable as equals — as a business owner you can also participate and let others step up without feeling judged.

2. You'll need to find out and work to each team member's strengths. Tools such as the wealth dynamics principles of profiling can allowed you to understand what each person's natural hardwiring is.

3. Find ways of understanding how stress works and how to combat it as a team. Around the office we use hand signals to cope with difficult situations. We know when someone is struggling and we support them — simply ask them if they need any help, smile and give them the thumbs up — it reminds us were all in this together.

This column is dedicated to my team who have trusted me to trust in their abilities to ensure whanaungatanga is at the top of the professional priority list.

Jeremy Tauri is an associate at Plus Chartered Accountants.