The Solid "How-To" to Make the Cultural Shift to Your Business Needs
It can feel like an employee-first AND client-first culture is just pie-in-the-sky and an impossible goal to reach.
That’s why I was so excited to have Craig Wood from Premier International on the podcast.
When asked about examples of HOW this combination works in real life, Craig shared a remarkable story.
First, you have to know that Premier International is committed to impeccable delivery. One of their core values is going above and beyond. And their clients often use those exact terms.
Often that means their team members deliver early or go the extra mile to do something. And the challenge is that often going above and beyond means employees work very long hours and work-life balance becomes out of whack and boundaries may get crossed.
So sometimes, as leaders of the organization, that means they need to step in and address the situation.
The leaders have to do two things:
- For the team: ensure the mental health benefits are provided and encouraged, have tough conversations with the team members about the situation, and even deliver meals to them.
- For the client: engage in the tough discussion with them and say, “Look, this is not going to work for us. What you've been demanding of our team (and while they've been delivering) it’s unreasonable. And it's not in your best interest. Because guess what? The quality of work might go down or, you know, we might miss something. And it's just not reasonable.”
And Craig said that those two things happen at the same time. So they can take care of the team, embrace what they're doing, but also help them cut back or get things back in balance.
But at the same time, they’re also working with the client who never wants to hear that their demands are unreasonable. They’re open to the conversation because they want to continue to work with Premier and also because Craig and the leadership team come alongside them as partners.
That’s exactly how you evolve into an employee-first AND client-first culture. And when you’ve done that, you’ve built For Love of Team.
