How to Create Mission-Driven Culture

Jennifer realized:

• You can’t make everyone happy all the time, and you can’t win or even fight every battle.
  
  
• Your position is a lonely one; you have to be able to regulate your own feelings and inspire your employees even in bad times.
  
  
• But don’t be so independent that you can’t ask your employees for help when you need it.
  
  
• You have to bring out the best in everything: people, product, and customer relationships.
• It’s better to learn and improve than show others how well you do things.
  
  
• Stay on top of what’s going on in your company and how things can be improved. But stick to the important stuff; don’t get bogged down in the details.

Your Relationship with your Board

How you build and manage your board of directors may determine the direction of your company. For instance, if a private equity firm is your sole investor, you will have to do what that firm wants, and hire people who align with that vision.

Jennifer realized:

• If you’re in a majority ownership situation, try to get independents on your board — people who won’t be acting in your investor’s interests and have relevant experience. You need another CEO on your board who can relate to what you’re going through.
  
  
• At PagerDuty, she kicked all the observers out of board meetings and told board members that she was here to manage the business, not the board.
  
  
• Just don’t let the board run you.

It Starts with Talent

This industry places more importance on the product your company produces than the people who produce it. Jennifer thinks it should be the other way around; all about the people.

Jennifer realized:

• You have to recruit good people to work for you, get the best out of them, and give them reasons to stay.
  
  
• Don’t hire for the short-term. Hire the people who will add value to your company two to three years down the line.
  
  
• A company culture that supports and appreciates your talent is essential.
  
  
• Break up the daily grind; find ways to inject fun and camaraderie into the place where your employees spend the majority of their waking hours.

Make Company Culture an Integral Part of your Business

Each room in PagerDuty’s office has a poster declaring its five values:

• Championing the customer
  
  
• Bringing your authentic self to work
  
  
• A company culture that supports and appreciates your talent is essential.
  
  
• Taking the lead
  
  
• Acting and owning
  
  
• Running together

Employees know this is what’s expected of them and their co-workers.

Jennifer realized:

A good company culture must come from the top. If you get the culture right, you’ll attract and retain the best talent. Good strategy and product will come from those people.

Make Inclusiveness Part of That Culture

Most Silicon Valley companies struggle to find diverse talent, claiming that there just isn’t any in the pipeline. Some see it as an afterthought and not part of a good business strategy.

Jennifer realized:

• If the “pipeline” doesn’t have the talent you want, find another one. Try different cities and people with different backgrounds that still lend themselves to the skills you’re looking for. Don’t be myopic.
  
  
• Make diversity a strategic imperative, not just something that would be nice to have.
  
  
• Diversity should be part of the hiring process from the candidates to the interviewing panel.
  
  
• Studies have shown that an inclusive team will always outperform a non-inclusive team.

Published on 09.23.2019
Written by Ashu Garg

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