Hey Business Leader it’s time to look in the mirror. The reflection staring back at you is the pivotal driving force of your team’s cultural environment. What does the reflection reveal? In this blog, we are going to reflect upon your team and your leadership. Thoughtfully review the following categories of successful leadership to make an impactful change on you and your team’s cultural environment.
Culture: Your team’s culture is a collection of shared attitudes, values, goals and practices that characterizes your organization. It is the moral and intellectual faculties of your brand. It provides the innate ability for how you and your team will act. What does a measurement of your culture say about you? An honest, open and thoughtful review will clearly provide the answers.
Leadership: There is an old saying: “The speed of the captain is the speed of the ship.” It is your vision that establishes and reinforces the culture. Your ability to communicate, model and provide vision sets the framework for your team to do the right things. It is required to sustain and drive your business to be successful. If your company, business or team is currently not charting the proper course then ask yourself: Why is my team not as successful as I would like it to be? As you gaze in the mirror the individual responsible is revealed.
The Story: Every great company and team has a story. This story is the motivator and the glue that unifies your team. The story captures the legends of your organization and is the compass that guides and impassions every member of your team; it is the fabric that that your team adheres to and will vocally support. You must have an engaging story that will provide the vision and embrace the moral compass of why your business exists. Explain what each team member’s role is in the company story and how their performance is essential to success. The story creates “Raving Fans” of your employees, your customers and your vendors. Raving Fans excitedly share your story consistently to others!
Trust: The pivotal litmus test for any great company, business and/or team culture is Trust! Ask yourself: does your culture provide confidence to your employees so they will be willing to embrace it 100%? A successful culture demands that employees rely on and support each other to achieve results, while recognizing the team’s individual and collective efforts. Successful teams trust each other to take risks with out fear of repercussion. They treat unsuccessful attempts as learning opportunities and are then shared by all. Is this the environment that exists under your direction?
Open Communication: A direct result of trust is open communication. Does your culture encourage open communication that challenges or questions the status quo? Do your employees feel they can question the leaders in a professional manner in public settings or does your team remain silent and nod in obligatory approval? If you believe it is the latter, then I would guess the real discussion is taking place in private grumbling sessions that yield only impediments to the team focus. They have the potential to crater your ability to drive success.
Preach the Gospel: Do you promote your culture and vision, constantly reinforcing the message to all of your team members? Do your team members continually reinforce their actions by aligning with your message? Take a lesson from a time honored practice by religious leaders and reestablish your message consistently in a meaningful and impactful manner.
Here are some useful exercises you may employ to impact your organization:
Evaluate the current obstacles and opportunities that are preventing your team from improved performance and create a list on a column of paper. Identify which category above might be able to rectify and correct it and create a plan to address these areas of opportunities. Evaluate if you are seeing a trend?
Ask yourself if you are creating obstacles that are preventing your team from being successful? Identify a plan for self-improvement to compensate for this.
Review your culture; identify what is great and what might be lacking. Envision the ideal culture you would like to have and then compare it to what currently exists.
When you have success utilizing this information, or would like to share your views, please write me a comment and let me know how you are doing. If you can’t figure out how to begin this process, or would like to refine your current process, then please contact me here and let’s work on this together!