Build Better Culture: Guiding Leaders to be Agile, Innovative, and Productive
To reach the pinnacle of performance, define your company’s culture, then rise to the challenge of changing it.
If you want your team to perform at its full potential, train your managers to become great leaders.
Having the ability to lead is not an innate talent, it’s a set of skills built on a series of successful habits. While a company’s culture originates from its leadership, every employee plays a part in defining it.
Having healthy company culture translates into high employee retention rates and a good reputation for delivering a quality product.
Improving company culture begins by defining it (which can be tricky) then changing it (which is even more challenging).
In 2020, local HR leader Tom Schin founded Build Better Culture to help leaders evaluate their company culture while also teaching them strategies to improve it.
Get Cultured
Work culture impacts everything from the highest levels of decision-making to the atmosphere in the communal break room. Vibrant, energetic businesses have a company culture that inspires people to do their best work in engaging, nurturing, and collaborative environments.
According to Gallup analytics, 70% of a team’s engagement depends on the manager. Teams with great managers see 27% higher revenues per employee.
Tom Schin refers to himself as an “Engagement Engineer” – a problem-solver and public speaker providing thoughtful, service-based solutions revolving around employee engagement that can have dramatic impacts on your business. With research-based methods informed by observations of practical applications, Schin teaches leaders how to have the critical conversations that move a company forward.
“I appreciate the uniqueness and individuality of humanity coupled with the diversity everyone brings to the table,” he said.
Raise the Bar
Imagine the largest contingency of your company is 10% more productive. Now, imagine the exponential impact their efficiency could have on the rest of your workforce, explains Schin.
Build Better Culture provides high-quality, relevant information that facilitates connections. After graduating with a Bachelors of Arts degree in Anthropology and Psychology, in 2004 Schin earned his Masters in Curriculum Design from SUNY Albany.
With more than 15 years working in the recruiting and staffing industry (as well as creating curriculum through his company, Ask and Learn Instructional Design) Tom knows how to ask the right questions and how to get the answers you’re looking for.
When working with your organization, the first thing Schin will ask is, “How open are you to change?”
There’s a good reason he starts there. For organizations to effectively change, they first need to recognize any barriers that could prevent or jeopardize the transition. This includes discovering resistance to change at any level of the company, which is common and often goes unaddressed. Uncovering and tackling those obstacles helps ensure the desired adjustments and transformations are executed more effectively and, crucially, last longer as well.
Adapt & Adjust
Companies are constantly in flux, but as automation and remote work replace 20th century assembly line tactics, adults entering the workforce today are adapting to the change, says Schin.
“One of the things the pandemic allowed folks to do is to be more vocal about their needs. The leaders that adapted, and who continue to adapt, had an easier time bringing everyone to the table,” he said.
Being a patient, lifelong learner yields better cultures.
“Change doesn’t happen overnight. I can help reinforce concepts and be a facilitator while helping your company grow,” acknowledges Schin. “Some folks have an easier time implementing leadership than others.”
A Formidable Foe
Solving problems in the workplace means developing leadership strategies that consider all sides of a situation. With an experienced perspective, Schin’s light-hearted nature propels culture building forward.
“I provide knowledge and support to everyone, no matter where they are on the journey,” he said. “By being observant to what works and what doesn’t, you stay flexible today, and more at ease participating in that learning journey tomorrow.”
When people are comfortable, they contribute, collaborate, and build better culture.
Be the Hero
Guiding people on a learning journey to becoming their best selves (both personally and professionally), Build Better Culture emphasizes the importance of being true to oneself – and the confidence that instills to motivate people.
As the current Board President of the Capital Region Human Resource Association (CRHRA), the area’s local SHRM (Society for Human Resources Management) affiliate, Tom is constantly sharing ideas and resources to help others.
To get to know more about Tom on a personal level, he and wife, Rhiannon, married since 2009, have three children in their early 20’s, and a 16-year-old Labrador mix named Wyatt. Committed to CrossFit and the ukulele (which he’ll sometimes bring along to Build Better Culture sessions), Tom also served on the Saratoga’s Home-Made Theater Board for five years.
Although there are Star Wars posters hanging in his office, if he were a superhero, Tom says he’d be Batman.
“Batman lingers in the shadows and does good things,” he says. Like the Dark Knight, Tom excels through determination and commitment to the cause, “…but I don’t need a cape,” he laughs. “Bruce Wayne helps people out of a desire and a hunger to make things right.”
A mere mortal, Batman was motivated to push beyond his limitations and channel his strengths to achieve super heroic heights (he also had a lot of great gadgets to rely on).
Schin’s point is there’s a myth to be dispelled– the myth that you need superpowers (alien, radioactive, etc.) to achieve great things. That’s simply not true. The Batman ethos embodies the fact that, armed with intellect and some terrific tools, we can all reach our greatest potential.
Shine the Light
Interested in shaping your company culture but don’t have Bruce Wayne bucks? Follow Tom Schin’s LinkedIn Stream for free articles, advice, and updates on upcoming conferences.
Connect with Build Better Culture on Facebook, Instagram, and by visiting BuildBetterCulture.com.