Lessons in Corporate Leadership – Culture Building

Training is one of the topics that receives serious lip service but little real support in many corporate environments. Research shows over and over that people rate “sense of achievement” and “meaningful work” very highly in their overall job satisfaction. Then, how do employers make the everyday tasks meaningful? How do they ensure that the tasks lead to successes and achievements? I will argue that training is a significant and important component of providing a work environment that supports job satisfaction.

Let me give you an example: All top-level executives were present in the room that was going to be the home for a number of new employees for the next couple of days. The company provided an onboarding training session to all (and, I mean all) of its office employees. The company was going through significant change and a large number of employees were being hired across its global locations. And, every few weeks, a training session would be set up for the new hires.

The sessions started with one of the top-level executives introducing the management team to the new employees and they would ask the new employees to introduce themselves to the rest of the class. The executives did not simply appear and disappear from the sessions. They were present a significant portion of the sessions, socializing with the employees during breaks and evenings.

The training sessions were seen as a way to introduce the company to the new hires, show them the culture being created and ensure that they participated in building that culture. It took serious commitment from the top and they demonstrated their commitment clearly and regularly.

The sessions had two major effects on the employees:
1) A coherent understanding of the vision of the executive management,
2) Belonging to a closely connected team and professional connections among new employees.

Needless to say, the morale and motivation of the newly hired employees were very high during and at the end of these training sessions. They returned to their offices across the globe and got to work.

I hope you find this posting helpful. I welcome your thoughts and comments on the topic.