Category: leadership

Culture is alive

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Culture is not a statement.

It’s not a nice quote on the wall, a deck, or the list of principles on your website. It is not something you can decide in a meeting. It is not something you can survey. It is not something you can benchmark.

Culture lives in what you do. In the habits of the day to day, in what your leadership says, in the things that get rewarded. It’s in all the meetings, in the 1-1s, in the informal chats by the coffee machine. It’s in what you communicate, what you focus your attention on every time you stand in front of the camera and broadcast to the whole company. It’s in the details. It is there when nobody is watching.

Crisis

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When crisis hits, make sure you have an answer to these three questions and share that with all those involved.

Who is in charge? This is about establishing who has the responsibility to take us out of the crisis. It does not mean they will do everything, make all decisions, come up with all ideas. It means they are in charge.

How often will people hear from who is in charge? Make a calendar, ensure communication is constant, better if it happens every week, at the same time, on the same channel. If there’s nothing new, share there is nothing new and take the chance to gather thoughts, feelings, ideas, opinions.

What is expected of people involved? This is arguably the most difficult, because asking us to wait is not really an option. Establish clear roles to enable change, make us feel that we are part of the solution, give us a specific purpose. Tell us we matter with facts.

If you tackle the crisis before having answers to these three questions, your efforts will probably do more damage than good.

What else?

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There is no company in the world that does not want to increase their revenue.

So, if that is the main message you are giving your people, both internally and externally, be aware that your company is no different from any other company in the world.

What else do you stand for?

Systems

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An extraordinary performer will add little to a toxic environment – an environment that puts results above people, that promotes performance at all costs, that prioritizes external over internal input, that assumes lower ranked people are less important than those higher up.

So before you get to hiring (and firing, and hiring again, and firing again), make sure your internal system is working as you intend it to work. Make sure you have rewards that promote the behaviour you wish to promote. Make sure you have rules in place, or even better norms, that will guide people to speak up, to share ideas, to flag issues, and give them the freedom to follow up.

Shaping systems is a long-term effort that requires high levels of awareness, and not many organisations want to committ to that.

It’s a mistake.

All good

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When we ask “how are you?”, let’s sit down and take in the full answer.

I am fine, I wish I had more time to dedicate to this project.

I am alright, unfortunately I was not accepted for that online programme.

I am well, thanks, there has been a bit of a misunderstanding with my colleague, but I am well nonetheless.

We often rush to labelling our exchanges as “all good”, and we fail to grasp the issues we might want to act upon. And then we are surprised when the minor crack turns out to be a foundation problem. We withdraw – they said they were fine, how could they lie to us? – and we make the whole situation irreparable.

Forget the first part of the answer, hand in there until the honest reality kicks in, and tackle that head-on.

How could you make more time for the project?

How can I support you in your learning and development?

What happened, and what can I do to facilitate a conversation between you too?

That’s the way to be taken seriously, to build a relationship, and to maintain the people around you engaged and motivated.