Spending the time on culture will deliver benefits to your business bottom line.
Never has understanding and intentionally investing in your culture been more critical to staying alive, executing, rejuvenating and approaching your next phase of growth.
In Part 1 we challenged you as a leader to set about evolving the cultural shift you need in order to get in shape for 2021, by starting with yourself. Culture forms the critical foundations of any organisation and what its people achieve together, but it is the leaders that first and foremost impact performance and culture.
Not convinced? Here’s what failing cultures often produce: negativity and burnout; declining company value, increased costs, low appetite for risk, missed market opportunities, inefficiencies, apathy, inability to adapt and attract quality talent, and the list goes on.
Now, we will dive into three important factors that you as a leader need to consider when modelling the behaviours critical to your 2021 culture. For the purposes of this article, we will assume, for example, that you have identified the values of being responsive and responsible, as the focus for your culture in 2021.
Here’s what “being responsive” or “taking personal responsibility” actually looks like…
The first step is to consider how you as a leadership team are “living and breathing” these values in your daily actions and interactions.
After all, people will interpret what the organisation really places value on by the messages they receive and from what they see and experience in action – and as always, perception is reality!
The messages your people receive are conveyed, by the little things they see along the way – each behaviour and each decision of each leader is interpreted by those around them as a reflection of what is valued by the organisation. Consider, for example, what happens when things go wrong? Do your team members start pointing the finger or deny involvement? Or, is it normal for people to take it on, seek feedback and then take appropriate action? Their response is a reflection of your leadership.
Identifying what “responsiveness” or “personal responsibility” look like for individual leaders?
This is a complex question because each leader brings with them their own set of:
- personal values
- previous “ways” that have served them well
- issues or situations they will avoid
- interpretations of what “being responsive” and “taking personal responsibility” look like for them.
Furthermore, different personal values can cause personal dilemmas for us all, impacting what we choose to do at any given time. For example, if it is important for a leader to be right, it may be difficult for that leader to put their hand up and openly admit to a mistake. In this situation the organisation and personal values collide, and one of them will take priority. Each leader will be situated somewhere along the continuum of practicing behaviour that models these values.
Start prioritising values “responsiveness” and “personal responsibility” in the leadership team
One of the most effective ways to keep the values alive is to call them out or refer to them when choices have to be made. For example, if you notice that your leadership team is slow to course-correct when circumstances require it, you need to call this out. What is getting in the way of us being responsive? How can we identify and remove the hurdles so that we are quicker to act? Who will commit to making this happen?
Getting culture right, evolving it to where it needs to be will only happen if it is made a priority across the business. The people side of culture, the patterns of behaviour that are fostered (or not), as well as those that are left to grow below the surface will inevitably impact your long-term capacity to deliver growth.
If you’d like to learn more about how to understand and evolve your culture for business impact, please contact Joanne Fisher for a confidential chat.
