Your culture matters more than you think

The typical employee spends 40 hours at work each week. Whether that's in-office or remote, it's still a massive amount of time.

Let's just pretend for a second here.

We're going to take a woman named "Julia" and make her our test case. (She's made-up, so don't worry about that part.) But here's her usual workday:

• Wake up at 6am
• Make breakfast and coffee by 6:30am
• Help her kids get out the door for school by 7:15am
• Finish getting ready and packing for the day by 8am
• Leave for work at 8:15am
• Arrive at work between 8:45-9:00am

That was just the morning.

Now let's look at her return trip home:

• Leave work at 5pm
• Get home between 5:30-5:45pm
• Make dinner with her family and have it ready by 6:30pm (that's impressive)
• Eat dinner and clean-up by 7:30pm
• Hang out with her family until 8-8:30pm
• Get kids off to bed around 8:30-9:00pm
• Relax and unwind until 10pm, and then go to sleep

And then do it all on repeat the next day.

And the next day.

And the next day.

So where does Julia spend the majority of her day?

At her job.

That's the bulk of her life, at least during the work week. In fact, it's really the only place where she's not jumping from one thing to the next for hours on end. Yes, she may have meetings or calls or tasks or whatever - but even at home, she's bouncing from one task to another every morning and evening, with very limited downtime.

So think hard about your culture.

Do you really want your employees stressed, burdened, fearful, and anxious during the majority of their week?

Of course not. But most employers don't actually care. They don't genuinely care about their people. They'll say they care. Or they'll care as long as it positively affects their bottom line. But they don't work hard to create a culture of care, love, respect, and excellence.

Creating a great culture isn't that hard

So where do we start? These are the four big ones we preach. And fortunately they all start with the letter E. How convenient:

1. Empower. Give your people the tools and freedoms they need to do incredible work.

2. Experiment. Allow your people to take risks, try new things, go way outside the box, and even build real hours into their schedules where they have the freedom to attempt new ideas. Failure teaches us way more than success.

3. Encourage. People need to know they're valued. Inherently. Not because of their contributions. But simply because they're a human being. Constantly find ways to build up, praise good work, and verbally encourage your team.

4. Engage. Ask hard questions. Challenge norms. Welcome conflict. Don't run from difficult interactions. Engage. All the time. Model openness, transparency, and authenticity. Your employees will likely follow suit, and you'll all get to step out from behind your masks. How refreshing.

Give these a shot, and see what your employees think. You may start to notice some actual smiles, warmth, and higher engagement. And even if not, at least you can know that you're giving them 40 hours a week of genuine care. Over the course of an entire career, that's thousands of days where you're making a positive impact.

Either way, it's incredibly worth it.