What is Corporate Culture and Why Is It So Important in 2021?

After what seems like eons, 2020 is finally over and we’re cracking open new calendars with cautious optimism. But no one’s forgetting last year’s biggest lesson as we step over the threshold into 2021: anything really can happen. Now more than ever, we’re thinking about being prepared for whatever we may be facing ahead. If you’re a business leader still recovering from 2020’s fallout, you’re probably experiencing a lot of uncertainty as you gear up for the new year. Standard Q1 concerns about profit, staff, and customers are now overlaid by new challenges. You may be asking yourself things like: …

New Year, New Way of Thinking

By Logan Nance, Consultant As we all step carefully into 2021 jaded by a year that flipped us all upside down and hopeful for a return to normalcy and new opportunities, I think we are in the perfect spot to reflect on what we want to bring with us into this year and what we need to leave behind. Before coming on board to High Performing Culture I spent 6 years in the United States Army. It was during a deployment in Afghanistan that I first learned about David Friedman, the CEO of HPC, and his Fundamentals System. I read …

Coaching through rituals

By Jake Friedman, Consultant In my junior year of high school, I switched from running long-distance for our track team to sprints/middle-distance. Because I was tall and lanky, I even tried the hurdles. One day after practice, my coach walked by as my dad picked me up. “You know,” my coach said to my dad, “Jacob could be a pretty good hurdler.” To which my dad replied, not unkindly but with a bit of doubt, “Yeah, if he practices.” In the moment, I was embarrassed and even a bit angry. I felt slighted by my dad and unsupported. I wanted …

Be the Best Teacher

By Bill Kaiser, Vice President of Sales 11 days ago, our family welcomed our beautiful grandson James into this world. My wife and I were there to greet him as he arrived home from the hospital with his proud mommy and daddy. It’s difficult to describe the flood of emotions that hit like the blast of heat when opening a hot oven. How do I make sure, as soon as possible, that he knows how much he is loved? What have I learned that I can pass on? How can I be most helpful to my daughter and son-in-law? What …

Rituals – An Unstoppable Force

By Al Curnow, Vice President ritual [rit-u-al] :an act or series of acts regularly repeated in a set precise manner.   Storms Are Still Brewing We’re in the center of a number of storms. We’re approaching the ninth month of the pandemic. Social unrest continues to bubble across the country and we’re now facing the impact of some form of Presidential transition (when/if that may be).  As Robert Zimmerman (better known as Bob Dylan) would say, “the times they are a-changing.”  Mental health issues are on the rise.  Anxiety levels are up across all segments of our population.  Regardless of …

Impact of Improving Your Culture

By Rob Wolff, Vice President Why do organizations make the decision and commitment to work on their cultures?  If you’re in the “contemplation” phase of making that decision, it’s important to consider what to expect to get out of that exercise.  If you’re reading this blog, then I’ll assume that you’ve likely come to the realization and understanding that taking action on your culture is much more than a morale-boosting employee engagement exercise. Far beyond a “free pizza on Fridays” program, working on your company culture is addressing the core of who and what you are as an organization.  Culture …

Making Good Companies Great

By CEO/Founder, David Friedman  I was talking to a marketing consultant recently, and as she tried to understand the nature of our business, she posed a fairly typical, but surprisingly interesting question.  “What’s the primary problem your prospects have for which you provide an effective solution?” she asked.  My answer stopped her in her tracks, but it goes to the heart of what we do. Solving Problems In the vast majority of cases, new products or services are created to solve a specific problem.  Processing payroll can be complex and time-consuming, especially for small businesses, and so payroll companies proliferated.  …

The real, unfiltered, impact of a high-performing culture

By, Sean Sweeney, Co-Founder/ Chief Marketing Officer As the “marketing guy,” I’m pretty insulated from the client side of the business. So, even though I’m part of this elite, super-cool, special forces team of culture warriors, I’m the guy back at basecamp doing the un-coolest of stuff. Important stuff for sure but I’m pretty much resigned to the fact that I’ll never see any real action. And so, I’ve always enjoyed hearing stories from the team about working directly with people on the front lines. From the reactions that David gets from CEOs at his Vistage presentations, to the stories …

Transforming high-performing individuals into a high-performing team

By Logan Nance, Consultant In the very early hours of the morning on April 3rd, 2012 I was sitting in a conex (a metal shipping container) located on Kandahar Airfield in Afghanistan huddled around a small computer monitor watching my alma mater, the University of Kentucky Wildcats, play for a National Championship. The 2012 Kentucky Men’s Basketball team was full of young and promising stars, many of the top recruits in the country who had come to play for Hall of Fame coach, John Calipari. The 2012 team was led by one of the best players in the country, and …

Culture: the “secret ingredient” in your success

By Jake Friedman, Consultant A couple weeks back my family and I were headed out of town for the weekend. On Saturday morning as we started our drive, we stopped at a local fast-food restaurant to get breakfast on-the-go. Because COVID had at first eliminated and then severely restricted any “dine-in” option, there were far more cars in line than usual. But that didn’t mean it took any longer than normal to get our food. As I progressed through the drive-thru line I was stunned at the operation I witnessed. Everywhere I looked, modifications had been made in order to …