014 - Cultivating Legendary Cultures with Aga Bajer

In this episode of the 6 to 7 Figure Women Podcast, hosts Jessica Fearnley and Meghann Conter are joined by Aga Bajer, founder and CEO of CultureBrained®, a boutique consultancy on a mission to make work synonymous with fun, meaning and belonging. 

We discuss the importance of building a positive company culture, highlighting three pillars of a healthy work environment: enjoyment of work, collaboration and meaning. 

We also discuss the importance of aligning with company values, learning from failures, respecting employees, and understanding their needs, and share our practices for creating a positive work environment.

 

What we discussed:

[00:02:48] How entrepreneurs often unconsciously create toxic cultures and the need for intentionality in shaping company culture.

[00:09:11] The three pillars of a healthy work environment. 

[00:10:28] Creating a culture where people can do their best work.

[00:13:01] Finding the right balance between challenging oneself and having the necessary resources and support to succeed.

[00:14:12] Creating a sense of fun and collaboration in teams.

[00:25:06] The importance of shaking up patterns and defining values in creating a positive company culture.

[00:27:46] Using storytelling exercises to co-create values with the team.

[00:34:57] Belonging and psychological safety in the workplace for performance and well-being.

[00:37:29] Learning from failures, taking calculated risks, and feeling aligned with organizational values in building a healthy culture.

[00:48:45] Treating team members as they want to be treated and understanding their preferences for feedback, autonomy, and check-ins.

[00:53:03] The never-ending journey of building a healthy culture.

 

Quotes:

“Never think that it's too early to be intentional about your culture. If you have one employee it's the right time to be intentional because culture is a little bit like scrambled eggs, you know when you scramble them it's quite difficult to unscramble. So being intentional, starting right, building that right foundation, it's never too late. It's a little bit like planting a tree - the best time for it was 30 years ago. The second best time is today.” - Aga Bajer

“I think that there are some really exciting and important things that we need to have consciousness of as we are building our businesses, because we don't build a bad culture on purpose, but we do it without realizing, because we're building it without realizing that that's actually what we're doing.” - Jessica Fearnley

“My top two values are fun and love. And so everything that I've created in the Dames is all about a culture of fun. In fact, we have an annual funference instead of a conference that we just had last week. So fun is a crucial ingredient embedded into the culture of my community.” - Meghann Conter

 

Links:

Find out more about Aga and CultureBrained at agabajer.com

Connect with Aga on LinkedIn

Join The Dames virtual roundtable: www.thedames.co/roundtable

Connect with Meghann on LinkedIn

Book a discovery call to work less and earn more: jessicafearnley.com

Connect with Jessica on LinkedIn

 

Guest Bio:

Aga is the founder and CEO of CultureBrained® - a boutique consultancy on a mission to make work synonymous with fun, meaning and belonging. 

She has been recognized as Top Culture Change Voice by LinkedIn. 

Aga is passionate about cultivating thriving cultures where people do their best work and solve wicked problems together. Before establishing CultureBrained®, she led consulting teams in companies like Hay Group, Korn Ferry, and PwC.

In the past 20+ years, Aga helped hundreds of clients to attract, hire, develop and retain A+ talent, accelerate personal and business growth, drive impact and create legendary cultures that scale.

Aga is also the founder of a one-of-a-kind, global community for Culture Leaders, the CultureBrained, where members connect with outstanding peers to discover new ways of cultivating thriving cultures at scale in the brave new world of remote and hybrid work. She is the author of Building and Sustaining a Coaching Culture and the creator and host of one of the most popular podcasts on culture, the CultureLab.

Aga has worked with senior leadership teams of many major organizations, startups, and scaleups. Her client portfolio includes Microsoft, AWS, Nordea, ANZ, Ideo, Toyota, Porsche, Hilton Hotels and Resorts, Citibank, GlaxoSmithKline, AstraZeneca, Leo Pharma, Hellenic Bank, Eurolife, Bank of Cyprus, Eurobank, Wargaming, Sanofi, Amdocs, SAP, Mambu, and many others.

For more information, you may visit www.agabajer.com