Soup: A Recipe to Nourish Your Team and Culture

Chapter 9. A Culture of Greatness

Peter's letter went on to explain that whether you are a small-business owner, a coach of a team, a manager, or the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, your biggest priority is to create an environment that fuels people and their performance. Best of all, the recipe is simple. As Grandma said, success is simple, and so is creating a culture of greatness. You just have to do it, and it requires only three principles:

1. You create a culture of greatness by expecting great things to happen—even during challenging times.

2. You create a culture of greatness by expecting your people to be their best. You don't settle for anything less than excellence.

3. You create a culture of greatness by coaching, training, and developing your team to be their best.

Peter wrote that although these three principles sound like common sense, far too many organizations and teams expect their people to be their best but they don't invest time and energy to help them be their best, nor do they create an environment that is conducive to success. They want great results, but they are not willing to do what it takes to create a culture of greatness that fuels performance and develops their people. Peter then encouraged Nancy to make a commitment to create a culture of greatness at Soup, Inc., which would be the key to turning the company around. He said it would be important to consider the following:

• Culture is something that can't be delegated to human resources or to a member of the leadership ...