Everyone knows that a company with demotivated and unhappy employees will eventually go down the drain. Short-term, you might be able to hold it together. But ultimately there will be significant spillover-effects on the customers who are not getting what they’re paying for. The customer will find other options and leave.

A strong and united corporate culture is a strong driver for inspired, ambitious and happy employees. Think about it, we all want to belong and contribute to something. Something good… maybe even something great. We all want to fill a role, serve a purpose. If we can fit into a cultural framework that we really buy into, we’re ready to go all in, over and over again.

From experience we know that it is really hard to build a top-class culture, where employees are desperately longing for Monday mornings. Yet there are some factors that we believe are more important than others. Beneath, we’ve listed seven cultural values that we believe make a long-term significant difference in building our culture. Hopefully they can serve as some inspiration for you, in the everlasting process of building a true rockstar culture.

1. Start with wow

While others start with why – try to start with “wow”. Seek the wow in everything you do. Never settle with “ok”. Wow inspires passion and is the ultimate key to success. It fuels confidence, creates excitement and best of all; passion is contagious.

2. Empower people

You have to believe in every individual’s ability to take ownership and bring his or her best selves. Every individual ought to know how to best plan and execute a day at work.  With great freedom comes great responsibility. Humankind love responsibility, it makes us grow and perform beyond our known limits.

3. Team glory

Respect your coworkers, partners and customers and do your outmost to motivate everyone around you. Embrace the fact that individuals are unique. Act as role a model and inspire everyone around you to be passionate about work. No one can ever achieve the team glory on his or her own.

4. Customer first

The customer is the air you’re breathing. The long-term relationship with your customer is everything. Giving, is the only way to establish a real relationship and a lasting connection. Focus solely on what you can get out of the connection and you will never make meaningful, mutually beneficial connections.

5. Be a nerd!

Be a nerd about what you do. A nerd never settles with what’s right now. A nerd is continuously seeking new ground and potential progress. You must believe in the power of small incremental changes in order to improve efficiency and quality. Strive to challenge and improve every aspect of your work and you will achieve greatness.

6. Keep it simple

Simplicity is about making life easier for everyone. Believe in establishing processes and making decisions that encourage simplicity. If you can’t explain to a five-year-old what you’re doing, you’re likely doing it way too complex.

7. Get shit done

Execute, execute, execute! Constantly turn ideas into actions. Ideas without action aren’t ideas. They’re regrets. You have to get in the zone every day. Tomorrow is always wrong, today is always right. Get shit done.

We are far from perfect, nevertheless, we have a vision of what kind of company we want to build and be. How do your company work with corporate culture and values? Knowledge sharing is one of the keys to success.