Discover the practical, step-by-step guide to creating a workplace culture that’s better for employees, customers, and stakeholders—and your company’s bottom line.
For decades, talented people have tolerated old-school leaders who put results before respect, toxic company cultures, and workplaces that suck. But those days are over, and if leaders want to attract and retain the best employees—while improving productivity, customer service, employee satisfaction, and profits—it’s time for them to create work cultures where good comes first.
The problem is that because the corporate world has too often been driven primarily by results, we seldom ask leaders to change their work cultures. Even if we did, most leaders don’t know how. This book provides the actionable inspiration and practical direction needed to make that change happen.
In Good Comes First, S. Chris Edmonds and Mark S. Babbitt go beyond theoretical advice, using their combined 50 years of experience to present proven strategies for creating purposeful, positive and productive work cultures. Cultures where good comes first for employees, customers, leaders, and stakeholders—and where improved business outcomes quickly follow.
In these pages, readers will learn to:
Appreciate why a good comes first culture is a business imperative – especially for younger generations.
Distance yourself from the competition that maintains its undefined work culture (one that most likely sucks).
Identify what “good” means for your company in today’s business climate – and in the future of work.
Define your uncompromising work culture as you build a foundation of respect AND results.
Formalize your team’s servant purpose so that everyone understands how what your team does improves lives and communities.
Specify respectful behaviors, so your desired values are observable, tangible, and measurable.
Align your entire organization to your desired work culture – where good comes first every day.
Assess the quality of your current work culture by measuring and monitoring how well your leaders and your executive team demonstrate your servant purpose, valued behaviors, strategies, and goals.
Hold everyone accountable for both respect and results through modeling, celebrating, measuring, coaching, and mentoring leaders and team members.
Implement real, needed change – and quit “thinking” and “talking” about change (but never really get change started).
Become a change champion while creating a lasting legacy as a business leader.
Build a team of good people doing good work in a good company.
What’s more, Good Comes First shows you where potential barriers to success hide—and how to push through them—and illuminates the moments when you’ll feel the most satisfaction and gain the most traction.
After reading this book, you will see that when done right, change is not only possible—it’s practical, powerful, and profitable. And you will realize that you are the right person, at the right time, to make that change happen.Industry Reviews
"""By making certain that good comes first—that team members are treated with respect in every interaction and validated for their contributions—every business can retain and attract talented, engaged employees. Good Comes First guides business leaders to create an uncompromising work culture that works for all businesses, big and small.""
—Nicole Leinbach, Founder & Publisher, Retail Minded
""Like many business leaders, those in healthcare are now tasked with driving that change while defining a 'new normal' that better meets our team members' mental, emotional, and physical needs. For those forward-thinking leaders, this must-read book is beyond timely.""
—Susan Thorn, Director, Clinic Operations & Employee Health Services, Community Medical Centers
""A foundational element of the WD-40 Company tribal culture was formalizing our values. The most impactful element, though, is holding everyone accountable for modeling our values and behaviors daily. Good Comes First maps out a path to success for both elements.""
—Garry Ridge, Chairman & CEO, WD-40 Company
""Good Comes First is an essential tool for building organizations where trust and transparency are constant and teamwork and respect contagious . . . If you lead a team, read this book!""
—Kris Malkoski, CEO, Home Solutions, Newell Brands
""Culture has almost become a buzzword. And yet, for business leaders, Chris and Mark have created a practical field guide for creating a meaningful, deeply human company culture. Good Comes First is a must-read!""
—Tamara McCleary, CEO, Thulium
""Good Comes First outlines detailed steps on how to bring a contagious culture to your company and truly create a differentiating model where respect is valued as high as results.""
—Joel D. Anderson, President/CEO, Five Below, Inc.
""Good Comes First is not just another book about why a healthy, vibrant, productive workplace culture is an essential part of any successful company. Chris Edmonds and Mark Babbitt have combined more than 50 years of experience to show us HOW to do it. They outline the steps required to lay the foundation, explain how to create an effective Organizational Constitution, and show how to build an effective culture from the inside out.""
—Jesse Lyn Stoner, Founder, Seapoint Center & Member, Board of Directors, Berrett-Koehler Publishers
""Perhaps the biggest and best part of the book is when it talks about the starting point on creating a great culture. The starting point is you. This is gold. Leaders have to look within and live, breath and sleep the culture they want to create. Good Comes First nails it.""
—Jeffrey Moore, Former Director of Staffing, Google
""This is not just a feel-good, inspirational business book (although it is that too!), it reads as a playbook for how to create architect a culture that creates the conditions for meaningful work, sustained motivation, and performance. These practices are needed now more than ever. Read and apply!""
—Zach Mercurio, Author of The Invisible Leader
""What excites me most about Good Comes First is that I now understand that company culture can be, and should be, intentionally crafted. It does not need to be overly organic or accidental. We can design an ideal culture for our employees, customers, and stakeholders that also emphasizes the strategic goals of my start-up. For any business owner or start-up founder, Good Comes First is a must-read!""
—Julia Gabor, Founder, kid-grit
""Clear, no-nonsense, and coming from a place of both accountability and heart . . . Super, super actionable.""
—Elisa Camahort Page, Former Co-Founder and COO, Blogher"
