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Enhancing leadership success with WOW culture
Back in the day, leadership was about hitting benchmarks without having concerns about how the workforce is affected.
Leading people was about forcing them to do their responsibilities regardless of their well-being.
However, this is a story from the past.
Today, the culture inside your organisation determines success.
It matters that team members share a positive set of values, goals, attitudes, and practices to create high-trust environments that are conducive to high performance and high engagement.
This can be made possible by adapting the WOW culture.
This was most formally coined by Zappos, the American online retailer who took an ordinary business and made it extraordinary.
While their core operation is a call centre—which is not necessarily sexy or exciting—they thrived by building a culture that WOWs from the inside out.
But what does it mean to WOW?
It means having the overriding mindset of delivering a great and memorable experience in everything the organisation does.
This includes delivering memorable experiences to team members, suppliers, clients, and basically anyone the organisation interacts with.
It builds trust and accountability between the leader and the team and provides a space for them to be vulnerable and take risks.
For Zappos, it meant delivering WOW through service by training employees to be real and use their best judgment.
What are the benefits of adding WOW to your organisational culture?
Providing a great experience in everything you do as an organisation provides a wider space for success, trust, and growth.
Having a WOW culture inside your organisation gives you an edge when recruitment, employee retention, team engagement, and customer satisfaction.
Retaining great staff and hiring team members who are aligned with your organisation’s core values surely reduces unnecessary costs and boosts productivity in the long run.
Seeing that your team members are expressing positive engagement towards one another will yield positive customer feedback as well.
Happy customers are likely to give positive reviews and referrals if they witness an authentic and great experience with your organisation.
Once you adapt to the WOW culture, you’ll be surprised by not only your growth as a leader but also the success of your organisation.
Incorporating WOW culture into your organisation
When it comes to culture, there is no "one-size-fits-all" model.
The key is for organisations to bring out their unique personality and shared spirits.
Here are intentional ways to weave WOW culture into your organisation:
Recall your company’s core values & behaviours.
Communicate your company’s higher purpose.
Incorporate gratitude into your work habits to support your employees.
Redesign your organisational systems to align with your company culture.
Transform the way you see, do, and be together!