July 2008
How to Increase Corporate Patriotism, Love of Company

Have you ever wondered what employees say about you and your company when you're not around? With the Fourth of July holiday, and the current political season, we hear a lot about patriotism and loving our country.

And that prompted me to think about what I call corporate patriotism, or loving your company.

As much as possible, people should love working for their company. If they do, it'll come out when people ask what they do or where they work, and how they like working there.

And if they don't like working there, if there are lots of
things to not like about working there, that will come out, too.

You, as the business owner, or the department head, or even as the team leader, have a vested interest in how your employees respond. Of course, you'd rather have them saying good things, and saying them with commitment and energy.

No matter what they say or how they answer, you can bet that those listening will make judgments about your company, and directly or indirectly, about you as a leader. That means what your employees say can influence future business.

That's why you should care, and why you should hope employees have a sense of corporate patriotism. That they love their company, so to speak.

Here are three things you can do to promote corporate,
department, or team patriotism.

First and most important, find out what your employees really think about you and your company. This will give you a sense of what's right, but also what's wrong, with your company.

Just ask them. Any time is a good time, but an especially good time is during performance reviews. A performance review isn't just about how you think your direct report is doing. It's also about how the direct report thinks you're doing.

Or you can ask them in a group setting. Or use an anonymous survey, like the Strategic Alignment Survey.

No matter which method you choose, you have to have built up trust, a sense of openness so that direct reports will share what's really on their mind.

And if they don't tell you anything specific, there's probably something wrong.

The next way to promote corporate patriotism is to communicate relentlessly the company's grand purpose, not just to employees, but to customers, vendors, and suppliers, and anyone else who'll listen. When employees have a sense of the grand purpose of their jobs, they'll be proud and excited to tell others about it.

The final way to promote love of company (or department or team) is to address the company's shortcomings, and in particular, what you're doing to improve those areas. This is important because no company is perfect.

All companies, like people and countries, have flaws, and not addressing them tells employees that you only see the good stuff, and ignore the rest. If they think that, you'll lose credibility and trust.

Find out what employees think. Emphasize the grand purpose.  Acknowledge what needs improvement. That's how you get employees to speak with passion and zeal about their work, that's how you promote corporate patriotism and love of company.

How employees talk about work when you're not around reflects on you and your leadership. We don't want the blind allegiance that leads to illegal or unethical conduct. We want people responding to great leadership.

What are your employees saying about you and your company when asked what they do? What are you doing to find out what they think? How well are you emphasizing your company's (or department's or team's) grand purpose, while acknowledging what needs improvement?

Until next edition, keep leading the way!

Copyright (C) 2008 by Terry Wall

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