Sunday, September 19, 2021
Watching how successful people navigate this world that is fraught with pitfalls can teach you a lot about yourself and how to conduct yourself. There are lessons that can be absorbed by seeing what works and you can also find things you shouldn’t be doing.
When it comes to the culture of an organization, there are key things that make it an amazing workplace. Comparably’s inaugural Best Global Company Culture* listed the Top 50 workplace cultures of large companies both in the United States and abroad.
All of the ratings were done in the midst of the global pandemic, so it is as up to date as you can get for this type of research. Nearly 20 different workplace cultures were assessed taking into account their compensation as well as their work-life balance. It delved into professional development opportunities and leadership and also explored the perks and benefits available to them.
Looking at the CEOs of each of the Global Culture top three gives us a solid insight into how successful company cultures are created, and how the CEOs of the most amazing workplaces are seen through the eyes of their employees.
Best Company Culture Winners
Number Three: Samsung
Samsung CEO, Young Hoon Eom is an exemplary model of efficiency. He is also thought well of by employees of all genders and runs an organization that is inclusive and fair. Research showed females at Samsung rated Young Hoon Eom highly for his leadership qualities. Making diversity and inclusion a core part of the workplace culture is key to success in the modern business world. Gone are the days of the old boys’ club. Rather, it is far better to access different people with varying talents and backgrounds so that teams complement each other and are more efficient and effective.
Number Two: Adobe
Adobe’s chairman and CEO is Shantanu Narayen, another immigrant from India. Some fast facts about Narayen show how highly he is respected. He has been named one of the world’s best CEOs by Barron’s magazine time and again. In 2020 he was ranked as a Fortune “Businessperson of the Year. He made number seven on the Forbes list of America’s Most Innovative Leaders. In 2011, the President appointed him to the President’s Management Advisory Board.
President of the Board of Adobe Foundation, Shantanu Narayen truly cares about people. The foundation funds philanthropic initiatives all over the globe. It is no wonder the culture of the organization he heads is considered one of the best in the world. He also serves on the Board of Dell, Inc. and the Advisory Board of the Haas School of Business, University of California at Berkeley, His work ethic and understanding of how to get things done while looking after people and their needs and desires is unparalleled.
Narayan gives back to communities and makes it a mission to help others. It is this perspective that has made him one of the best and most innovative leaders out there. When we take a lens to the Comparably Best Global Company Culture CEO score and look at factors like gender and ethnicity, it became clear that females at Adobe rated Shantanu Narayen higher than non-binary employees, giving the CEO a score of 94 percent. He is a seriously progressive human with an attention to detail and emotional equilibrium that is not easily replicated.
If you want to change the game and be attentive to the needs of others across the board, you could do worse than study this man’s career and take notes on how to develop an amazing company culture.
Number One: Google
Google’s CEO is Sundar Pichai. He was one of the highest-rated CEOs on Glassdoor with a 96 percent approval rating. Pichai grew up in Chennai in India. The family was not well off. He and his brother slept together in the living room of their two-room apartment according to a Bloomberg report.
A highly intelligent young man he earned a scholarship to Stanford and moved to California. Hired at Google the day Gmail was launched, worked his way up and eventually ended up convincing his bosses to design a browser system. Chrome is now the most widely used system in the world.
He has stayed loyal to Google, even though it has been reported that he has been courted by the likes of Twitter. He eventually became Larry Page’s second in command. His skill and innate understanding of what is needed, and his way of handling teams to get to results, has been nothing short of spectacular.
Pichai is now the head of Alphabet, the holding company behind Google. His ability to boost confidence and focus teams has resulted in a company that is lauded both by the people who work there as well las by those who view it from the outside.
One Googler on Quora said about him, “He is literally worshipped inside Google. Engineers love him. Product Managers love him. Businesspeople love him.”
3 Pillars of the Google Company Culture You Can Use in Your Workplace
While there are many different aspects to the culture at Google, these three are the foundation.
Trust
The foundation of building trust is transparency and consistency. Walk the talk. Your company value statement should not be something on the wall. Live those values visibly every day. Open and free communication is another vital aspect of creating trust in your company.
Innovation is Everywhere.
This is one of the major foundations of Google’s culture. All ideas are welcome. Failure is not something to be punished. Innovation and taking risks is rewarded. As Michael Jordan said, “I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
Hire Right.
Google gets on average 4,000 applicants for a job. They are rigorous in their interview and selection process. It’s not about filling the position but rather about ensuring that the company culture is built around uncompromising attention to core values and right fit. “The right fit” means finding the person who can do the job, excel, and be successful.
Being a great leader means making your business an amazing place to work. Ensuring the company culture you create is inclusive and caring reinforces loyalty in your staff and customers alike. They should feel comfortable, and they need to be listened to. Boosting your success and winning overall is a side effect of a great culture in the workplace.
Find out how your company can become an amazing workplace