It makes sense. When a business culture allows people to be at their best, productivity and profitability increases.
What then is needed to build a strong, healthy culture that allows individuals to be at their best?
1. Trust
2. The ability to have constructive conflict.
3. Commitment
4. Accountability
5. Measurable results.
When these five pieces are in place in a business organization, they foster self responsibility, enthusiasm and tangible results.
How many of these apply to your company?
People are:
appreciative of each others skills and experiences.
are comfortable admitting mistakes.
ask for help when they need it.
give others the benefit of the doubt and check out assumptions before drawing conclusions.
take risks by offering help and feedback.
offer apologies and accept them without hesitation.
look forward to opportunities to gather and work together as a group.
focus time and energy on important issues rather than on politics.
There is an amazing energy that is released when individuals are able to focus on shared issues rather than using energy to promote or protect themselves.
The responsibility for creating a culture that allows everyone to be at their best lies with the leader. Building this type of environment takes commitment coupled with practical objectives and results.
A CEO needs to embrace and believe that when people are given the opportunity to build trust, speak out, be committed and accountable it builds a solid foundation that allows their people to be at their best. This belief is needed in order to go through the challenges that come up when implementing this type of culture. This is not a flavor of the month or a fad but rather a 'way of being' that requires the understanding that building a healthy, viable culture allows the leader and business to tap into the enormous potential for creativity and problem solving within individuals and teams.
How does a leader create this type of culture? As mentioned above there are five building blocks.
Trust.
Without trust people will not speak up. They will keep quiet about what they feel or know and instead of being able to put their concerns out openly will talk instead at the water cooler or at home. People need to know that they can say what they need to say and that it will be taken seriously and without penalties or fines.
With trust comes a happier employee, smoother execution, more freedom and most importantly a release of potential....all the good stuff!
Conflict
Conflict and passionate debates are essential for organizations to grow and thrive. Yet people will spend an amazing amount of time and energy avoiding this type of debate. In order to grow productive conflict is needed. Productive conflict is focused on an understanding of team members that the value of the conflict is to produce the best possible solution in the shortest amount of time. It is not about destructive fighting or interpersonal politics.
Commitment
Commitment comes as a result of two things. Clarity and buy-in. Within an organization, individual's need to understand the importance of finding buy in when complete agreement is impossible. With trust and the ability to speak out in place, reasonable people know that they do not need to get their way, but that their opinions have been heard and considered. They are then willing to rally around the decision made.
Accountability
The most effective and efficient means of having a high standard of performance within an organization is the use of peer pressure. This may be a politically incorrect statement but time and time again it's been shown that when people have to be accountable to others for what they have said they will do, performance improves. Accountability is the willingness to speak up and call others on behaviors or performance issues that might hurt the organization.
Measurable results
A healthy culture is focused on the collective goals. Every good organization specifies it's objectives for a given period of time and ultimately this drives profit. Ideally individuals are engaged and committed. There is a deep desire to achieve because there is an understanding that as the business grows and reaches its goals everyone wins. How does an organization go about making sure that the attention of the group stays focused on results? Simply by making the results clear and giving positive attention to those behaviors and actions that contribute to the results.
To see how your business is doing in these areas, see if any of these ring true for your organization:
People hide their mistakes from one another.
They jump to conclusions about intentions of others or make assumptions without clarifying them.
Valuable time and energy is wasted on managing behaviors.
There is a sense of dread around meetings.
Individuals receive little or no constructive feedback.
People are hesitant to ask for help or offering help outside their areas of expertise.
There is a lack of commitment to the vision and values.
There's limited accountability.
Although people are showing up at work there is a sense of something missing.
If you found, as you read through the list, that some of this behavior is going on in your company, you are not alone. Buy why let it continue when you can have a healthy, vibrant, exciting culture that taps into each persons potential and offers your organization enormous advantages in growth, productivity and results?
To build this type of culture in your organization or enhance the culture you now have, send us an email or call for an appointment. We can help you create and implement a plan that builds the bench strength of your organization and creates a culture where your people are at their best.
If you would like to have a list of recent books on this subject, please send an email to Victoria@WayOfDiscovery.com and put the words 'Book List' in the subject.
