StartupTalky

Tag: company culture

  • 7 Strategies for Running More Constructive Board Meetings

    Business investors and productive people sit on different boards, so going to executive board meetings is important for their day by day life. For founders, their organization’s board is regularly the main board they have ever been engaged with. This makes it a fertile region for errors and false impressions.

    Overseeing communications with financial investors is a pivotal task for a startup CEO, and executive board meetings give a standard rhythm to this. Time and again they are dealt with like some other meeting- a long update event or a commitment that everybody around the table needs to endure.

    Nonetheless, if managed accurately, viable board meetings can increase the value of the organization. Board meetings are a decent chance to make arrangements, examine vital themes, help steer the organization the correct way, and guarantee everybody is in total agreement.

    Below mentioned are some of the best steps entrepreneurs can practice running effective board meetings:

    1. Keep a Clear Objective in Mind Before the Meeting
    2. Try Creating Space for Communication
    3. Utilize Your Time for Solving Main Issues First
    4. Be an Efficient Leader for All
    5. Make Unanimous Decisions
    6. Discuss the Fund Raising Events for the Future
    7. Make Follow Up Reports for All to Ensure Consistency

    1. Keep a Clear Objective in Mind Before the Meeting

    Send a point by point plan and the full board deck a few days before the meeting for keeping the main objective clear. This gives everybody a plentiful opportunity to audit the deck and the financials and come ready with significant inquiries, and furthermore keeps the meeting from transforming into an update meeting.

    Board meets accomplish better work when each member has had the opportunity to contemplate each issue. And, in case, they don’t do their work even when you explain them, possibly these individuals shouldn’t grab a chair at your board meeting.

    There are numerous approaches to make board meetings less boring, including: “Incorporate understandable materials, information, and updates in a bundle and distribute it to your board members four days before. Advise them to come prepared and set up the location and audio during online meetings”

    2. Try Creating Space for Communication

    Toward the start of the meeting, it’s a smart thought to introduce all individuals if you have another expansion to the group or to the board. Along with that, circumvent the table to once again introduce everybody and ensure all individuals know about each other.

    Besides, commit some time to have some casual discussions with your colleagues and check in with how everybody is getting along. This will fabricate compatibility among the directors and permit you to function admirably together to reach significant decisions.

    3. Utilize Your Time for Solving Main Issues First

    Utilize your time as wisely as possible by picking a couple of basic issues and going directly forthright. Don’t bite off more than you could chew. Choose only one or two issue’s at a time and focus on resolving them from the roots.

    It is suggested that you prepare to stun the world with these profound jumps: “For instance, you may discuss how to structure the most ideal arrangement with a given accomplice. You tell everybody in the room that this is the test and that you need their opinion. This way you could encourage a good conversation for beneficial results of the startup.

    4. Be an Efficient Leader for All

    As CEO, it’s reasonable to be scared by your Board of Directors — after all, they are industry leaders — and they additionally can fire you. Moderate the discussion so that it is useful. Try not to fear calling them out if what they’re saying is off-subject or driving the discussion of the course.  

    In this way, you will find that all the members and workers are significantly more lined up with the organization’s main goal and you can hope to get important feedback and help from the board to push your organization ahead.

    Keep a check on your ego “You can either make it clear to people around you why you’re at the table, which includes a fairly unattractive need to wear your accreditations on your sleeve, or you hang tight for the moment and offer your remarks and prove your value.”

    5. Make Unanimous Decisions

    The reason the top managerial staff doesn’t settle on choices alone is that unanimous choices are substantially more powerful. Hence, you truly need to support the full interest of every person at the meeting. Different points of view will be advantageous to recognize openings for upgrades, objective setting, planning and executing plans for progress.

    6. Discuss the Fund Raising Events for the Future

    Founders should make a point to consistently talk about business objectives to guarantee they arrive at their next round of financing. Since the business landscape or advanced economy or the opposition ventured up, financial investors may rethink their assumptions to further fund the organization.

    7. Make Follow Up Reports for All to Ensure Consistency

    Make the board work for you. During the meeting, you can appoint undertakings for board members (presentations you need, assistance with enlisting, market contemplates, and so on).

    After the meeting, you must follow up with an email to all the members of the board that determines the undertakings they were allocated during the meeting. This will help guarantee they do their part.

    With that, ensure you send regular updates to the board so that members are informed regularly. This guarantees that the upcoming board meeting turns out to be more productive.

    How to Host Your First Successful Virtual Event
    Virtual events are an organized meetup. In this guide we’ll Help you to How to host a successful virtual event and Virtual event platforms for hosting the event.
    StartupTalkyArbaz Sayed

    Conclusion

    Many of us don’t have formal preparing techniques in meeting management abilities, yet anybody can figure out how to do it well – regardless of whether your group is in the workplace, completely virtual, or crossover.

    A constructive board meeting brings an insightfully chosen gathering of individuals together for a particular reason, gives a forum to open conversation, and conveys a tangible outcome: a decision, an arrangement, a list of good thoughts to undertake, a common perspective of the work ahead.

    As a result, the outcome is then imparted to others whose work might be influenced. And, startup meetings can become effective by following these 9 steps mentioned above.

    FAQs

    How do you make a board meeting more efficient?

    Be an efficient leader, Introduce new members to the board, Send the agenda in advance, and follow up with the board members after the meeting.

    How do I prepare for my first board meeting?

    Be confident, Make an agenda, Know more about the people attending the meeting, Practice with a mock meeting.

  • How to Build Best Company Culture – Things to Avoid

    When you begin an entrepreneurial journey or get a job in a startup, it feels like you have got a great opportunity to showcase your skill-sets and the methodology of work also shifts. This shift is due to the different cultures prevailing in different startups. Every organization whether it is big or small have a unique culture to provide diversification. The question that arises here is, what is startup culture and how does it affect the workmanship of employees.

    Numerous scholars and researchers have a different take on corporate culture or startup culture, as the term has a deeper meaning and have a very strong impact on the business. A bad startup culture might ruin the whole business and the foundation also gets degraded. To understand startup culture in brief, we can say that culture is a set of values, morals and beliefs on which an organisation works. The culture of an organisation is based on the leadership of an organisation which is designed by the leader.

    The startup culture depends upon the nature of the startup owner. A CEO has the full responsibility of the culture and he can mould it easily as per their desire. As a leader of an organization is a human and it’s pretty much possible that they might construct the wrong culture in an organization, which instead of boosting the business, lead to the path of destruction for it. So, it’s very vital to develop a perfect professional culture in an organization. Well if you are an emerging entrepreneur and want to avoid bad startup culture, then you’re at the right place, as today we will discuss some signs of bad startup culture and remedies to overcome them.

    Symptoms of Bad Startup Culture
    Characteristics of Good Culture
    How to Build a Great Company Culture

    Symptoms of Bad Startup Culture

    Before finding the cure for the bad startup culture, we need to find out its symptoms. So let’s begin:

    • The leader is the sailor in an organization, so he needs to set a great example for his superiors. If a leader doesn’t work properly and doesn’t delegate his duties to others, then this is the indication, that an organization is going to sink very soon.
    • The optimum example of bad startup culture is when you can’t work, as you desire and you have no creative freedom to explore more. This bondage of culture will affect the performance of the worker and the startup may fail, even before it began its jour.
    • ‘We are good’, ‘future is bright for us’, ‘We Will get profit soon, when you hear that kind of words from your boss, then it means you should start looking for a new job.
    • The fake media publicity and having numerous fake subscribers will never improve your business because it will give you a false picture of your business.
    • When there is any kind of dispute and rivalry seen in the coworkers of an organization, then that is a definition of bad startup culture and this will make the environment of the firm tense.
    • When higher authority keeps secrets from the employees and won’t disclose the true picture of an organization to them, which demotivates the employees and doesn’t see the business as their own.
    • The leader should motivate employees to work hard, but they should never be forced to work hard. Their feelings should be also taken into consideration and fair remuneration should be paid in lieu of extra work.
    • The business houses which forgets to cater to the needs of their customers have no chance to survive in the market. To make a good startup culture you need to satisfy your customers first.
    • Sometimes too much positive attitude can ruin your business. Be realistic and believe only in the facts.
    • If the values of the owner and employees don’t match, then this will create havoc in the office.
    • Fake news or gossip is the reason for bad startup culture and it should be avoided at any cost, as it negatively affects the image of startups and reputation is the only valuable asset of new startups.
    • When the owner is scared to take hard decisions, this is the beginning of bad startup culture.
    • The policies of an organization should not be rigid and the CEO must be capable to twist them, as per the requirement of time.
    • The imbalanced distribution of remuneration to the employees will cause partiality in the organization.
    • Drinking or smoking during work is highly unethical behaviour that is a symptom of bad culture.

    As, we are now familiar with the few indications of bad startup culture, that destroys the startup from the core. Now is the time to share a few remedies to cure this issue of depth.

    Characteristics of Good Culture

    • Strong leadership – The culture of an organization is the extension of its leader’s values. So the leader of a company needs to adopt good values so that they can be seen in the culture of an organization.
    • Creative freedom – The workers should be given the freedom to showcase their ideas freely and leaders must give them some freedom to work as they wish.
    • Mission – People have a shared sense of company mission. They “feel” it and it’s often tied to a problem they care about even if they’re not a primary user. They feel good about what they are doing as a company and are proud of the impact they’re creating.
    • Fast pace – This is the twenty-first century, so an organization should be running according to it and the work should be completed at a fast pace.

    So, after analyzing the symptoms of bad startup culture and evaluating the characteristics of a good culture, we come to the conclusion that leadership is the sole reason behind the culture. So leaders need to gather themselves and run their startup in good working culture.

    How to Build a Great Company Culture

    Good company culture is a practice every company aspires to have. Before we discuss how to make a good company culture let’s define what is company culture? Company culture is the working environment, policies and work ethics a company possess. It is very important to provide a healthy company culture to maintain and create a thriving business. If an employee likes the culture of his workplace, he is more likely to be in a better mood and work more efficiently.

    Below we have listed a few steps that you can follow to improve or make an amazing culture at your company.

    Decide Your Culture Type

    The first and foremost step is sitting down and deciding what your companies’ culture should be like. If you are a new company and are just starting out with a hand full of people, all of you can sit down and decide it according to your preferences. If you are a very big company with numerous employees, you can assign the job to one person who can ask for the popular opinion in your office and then you can decide upon it. No matter what culture you want for your company, make sure it is healthy and is making your employees happy.

    Transparency

    There should be transparency amongst all the people working at the company. Every person in the company should be treated with equal respect and should have access to each and every piece of information. The gap between the boss and the employee should be removed and you should start working as a team. Interaction between employee and the employer is very important, so holding sessions that provide a healthy interaction amongst the whole team is important

    Leisure

    As the old saying goes ‘all work and no play, makes Jack a dull boy’.  The same is the case with your employees. Even though we are adults but working for long hours without rest can hinder our productivity. Studies show that people were more productive when they have enough breaks between their work. Having entertainment rooms in your office or having a gaming room or outdoor activities in your office area can help your employees relax and also keep them healthy.

    Giving Space

    Giving each employee space for themselves and giving them a sense of responsibility helps in boosting the employee’s confidence and also since the work is completely their responsibility, they do it better. It is very important to create a healthy learning environment. An employee should be encouraged to learn if he makes any mistakes.

    Go Tripping

    Taking your employees on a tour of someplace occasionally can be a great way to relax them. If you do not want to take them, providing holiday incentives to the employees can also be done.

    Recognize Milestones

    In every meeting set milestones and goals for the company and reward the person that has worked extra hard in achieving it. Such an incentive from the company not only makes the employees happy but also inspires them to work harder. The reward can be small as well as big depending on the work.

    Hire employees that are suitable for your companies’ culture. If a person does not like social interactions and starts working in a work environment that promotes interactions amongst all employees, he will be more stressed than happy. Similarly, if a person who is outgoing and fun-loving is put in a very serious office environment he will get stressed. So it is important to know the employee’s point of view about your office culture before hiring them.

    Be Patient

    A company’s culture change is a very big step and will not be achieved in one or two days. It will sometimes require months and years to change. There might come some issues at first, but with time everything will fall into place as expected. All you need is to deal with the situation with patience and make corrections whenever anything goes wrong.

    Conclusion

    Almost all the young entrepreneurs like to create a cool company culture in their startups these days. However, most of them only get successful in making the infrastructure cool and not the environment. One needs to be aware of the ways to develop a cool culture, not just the infrastructure.

    FAQs

    What are the four types of corporate culture?

    The four types of corporate culture are clan culture, hierarchical culture, market culture and adhocracy culture.

    What is the ideal company culture?

    An ideal company culture keeps its focus on its employees and clients.