By Michael Pochan

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This is a skill that every leader needs in spades.  It is a must have, not a nice to have, skill if you want to become the leader you always wanted to work for.  This was a recent post to Ask Eli. Ask Eli is a great place to get practical answers to all your leadership and organizational cultural questions.

Question
My subordinate is performing his duties well, but his interactions with co-workers are abysmal.  He talks too loud and too often in meetings and pretty much bowls people over in one- on- one interaction as well.  What do I do with this guy?

Answer
Hard conversations at work are a reality of any work situation.  How we handle them is what separates highly effective people from average performers. The conversation to be had here is about delivering potentially unsettling news to a subordinate.  This conversation is about helping a subordinate understand the destructive effect his influence has on those around the office, as well as making efforts to preserve his identity (ego) in the process.  When people can separate their behavior from their identity, they are much more apt to hear the feedback, and make positive changes.  Let’s look at how an effective leader would handle this situation.

Leading others is primarily about our influence relationship with our followers.  Do we have the track record in place with them to be influential or not?  If you can honestly say yes, then we will have an easier time setting up the conversation.  If not, then you have a little more work to do.  Let’s assume you do have a positive track record for the time being.  First, this is a face-to-face conversation and not one to be done via email or phone call.  You need to be able to read all the cues that are being presented during that conversation, and email and phone drastically limit your ability.

Set up a time when you and your subordinate can meet.  Let’s call him John.  If he asks what the meeting is about, you can tell him it about leadership development.  This will initially set the tone that this is not a meeting about coming down on him.  As his supervisor, you owe it to him and his fellow workers  to bring John’s perceived behavior to his attention.  It is the most caring and effective action you could take.

You will want to do a little bit of preparation before the meeting.  I find that committing the following to writing really helps to clarify the conversation.  What is the ideal end goal of this meeting?  What is your purpose for calling the meeting?  What is not the purpose of this meeting?

Here is what I would write down.  “The purpose of this meeting is to bring to John’s attention that a perception of him is keeping him from being a more effective executive in your company.  The purpose is not to negatively criticize him or come down hard on him.  The ideal end goal would be for John to hear the information you brought to him and seriously consider it as something that could increase his influence around the company and beyond.”  By doing this little bit of homework you now have a very straightforward and helpful way to start your conversation.

After you use an introduction such as the one seen above, you need to take another  vital step: ask permission from John to share the perceptions with him and then brainstorm some ways to increase his influence via addressing the perceptions.  This step reinforces that you are on his side and want to help him become a better professional, not just reprimand him.  It is also inviting him to an adult conversation where you and he look at the behaviors as just that, behaviors, and not John’s identity.

If you gain John’s approval, which most likely you will, then you need to give him some concrete examples of how his past behavior has kept him from being influential with his fellow employees.  Often people need to see their behavior linked to consequences in order to see how it is affecting them.  This is another place you need to do some prep work and have your examples very clear and prepared.  Make sure you don’t water down these examples .  Sometimes when people talk to stronger personalities like John, they weaken their stance because they are afraid of the response.  Remember, that if you can help John see what he is doing with others, it will benefit him in the long run.

In this process you want to invite John to share his perspective of the situation.  He needs to have some say in this conversation.  Hearing his perspective can help you and him figure out the best course of action.   You can do this by saying something like, “Now that I have let you know my perception of the situation, what is your take on the it?” If John can see that he may at times be bulldozing people, then you are ready for the brainstorming phase of the conversation – figuring out ways he can create more space for others, and figuring out why he feels the need to bulldoze situations.  If John is very defensive in his reaction, you will need to back up a step and reiterate the purposes for the meeting.  You need to reassure him that this is not about criticizing him unfairly, everyone has growth edges, and that you are trying to help him professionally by bringing this to his attention.

One of the actions you can have John take is to track how much he is talking in group settings.  He could track how many times he feels the need to respond to what is being said.  If he finds  that it is a large proportion of the things being said triggers a reaction,  then he will have to pick and choose his moments better.  He needs to reflect on the acronym WAIT – “Why am I talking?” Ask him to write it on top of his notepad at meetings as a visible reminder.

Another way to handle this situation is to introduce a concept called “Limited Resources”.   “Limited Resources” is an experiment he can conduct in public settings where he is only allowed to add comments to three things within in the meeting unless specifically asked to do so.  This will cause him to prioritize what he thinks are the items important enough to comment on.

Another exercise he could try is to make sure he is capturing the message before he responds.  John is only allowed to comment when he has demonstrated that he has heard and understood the message others are sending before adding his opinion on the matter.  That could be by paraphrasing back to the sender the essence of the message, or by simply repeating what he has heard.  This can operate as a mechanism to slow down John’s thought process to more of a listening stance.  People probably feel that he is not a good listener. Reassure John that practicing these newer behaviors will have a positive effect on his ability to influence others.  Offer your support and coaching on the matter and follow through with him. Changing ingrained behaviors can be challenging.  Only with the support of a leader who shows genuine interest can John make progress in his leadership development.

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Take a minute and think about a positive team experience. What was it about that team that made things work well? Maybe it was your ability to get along or the trust that you built with other team members. Perhaps it was the clear focus on what you were trying to accomplish.  Chances are you can identify several important elements that contributed to your team’s effectiveness.  Sometimes you can luck your way into a positive team environment without being deliberate about it.  However, to ensure that your team is most effective, it is better to be deliberate than lucky. Taking time at the beginning of a team’s formation to sort out key issues can go a long way toward creating an effective team. Moreover, team development is an ongoing process, and it will take more than just dealing with these issues at the beginning of the team’s work.  As long as the team exists, you will need to dedicate time to talking about how you work together.

Before we begin, it is important to be clear about what we mean when we use the word “team”.   In his book Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Patrick Lencioni defines team as a small number of people – no more than a dozen – that:

• Share common goals
• Share rewards and responsibilities for achieving the goals
• Set aside personal needs for the good of the group

Now that we are clear on what a team is, ask the question: Why does the team exist?

The answer to this question will serve as the team’s purpose – an essential first step for creating effective teams.  Why should you articulate a purpose?  Here are some key benefits:

• It gives meaning to the work
• It provides  common understanding and direction
• It enables team members to function with clarity and focus
• It serves as a beacon to guide the team through adjustments and changes

It is imperative to develop a short, but meaningful purpose statement.  One example for a team might be: To develop new media strategies for our product launch. Even if a team purpose has been assigned to you – handed down from an executive or superior, it is important for the purpose to be overtly articulated and discussed within the team to create buy-in and avoid confusion later on.

A good second step is to create team agreements that document how you want to work together. My experience is that there are four areas in which it is most important to come to agreement:

• Participation – how do team members contribute?
• Communication – how do team members interact and share information?
• Conflict – how does the team deal with disagreements?
• Decisions – how does the team make decisions?

It is best to work through each of these areas (and any other key ones that the team identifies) and capture your outputs in writing.  Once they are drafted, each team member can sign-off on the agreements to create accountability.   These agreements will have to be revisited on a regular basis – and will need to be honored and enforced by all team members.

The third step in creating effective teams is to be clear about roles that team members will assume. For starters, make sure each team meeting has a facilitator, a timekeeper, and a note taker.  These roles can often be rotated to give each team member a stake in the smooth and effective operation of the team.  When meetings conclude, it is imperative to be clear about the actions for which each team member is responsible.  Some teams use a regular format that makes it easier to keep the meeting agenda and minutes consistent.  This creates accountability and empowers people to contribute.  As a challenge, use the team environment as a place to stretch the roles that people are accustomed to.  If there is someone who always likes to do research, have him/her do something different and suggest someone who is less comfortable doing research assume that task.  This way, team members are able to develop new skills.

Creating a team purpose, crafting team agreements, and establishing roles will go a long way to ensure the effectiveness of your team. Remember teamwork is an on-going process. Talk about these items when your team is just beginning and constantly revisit what you developed together.

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Do you cast a vision like a toddler with a Fisher Price rod, or a Bassmaster with a Pflueger Supreme.  For the non-fishing enthusiast, professional anglers have a knack of casting their lure far and accurately.  Landing it just where there are fish that grab that lure hook, line, and sinker (forgive the cliché.) Giving people a solid vision is a primary method of leading well.  Ancient wisdom literature stated that “Where there is no vision, the people perish.”  Are your people perishing?

Vision gives people direction, hope, and motivation - three things vital to success.  Direction allows people to multiply work efforts because they know what tasks/work need to be accomplished.  Hope given by a strong vision lets people envision a brighter tomorrow.  A brighter tomorrow gives meaning to a person’s work.  Meaning in work overwhelmingly produces better quality work.  The other things a well-painted vision does are to create urgency, innovation, and focus for your staff in the midst of unclear times. If I can look back at a compelling vision when I feel a bit lost, it focuses me and I keep pressing on towards the goal.  Urgency is created because of a strong call to action that needs to be part of the visioning process.  So how does one cast vision for those you lead?  Here are a few guidelines to consider in order to improve your vision-casting ability.

Visions are value laden.  They give people meaning.  Too many people lead their vision casting with the “Whats” -What needs to happen.  This is exactly opposite of how you should start.  You should start with the “Why”.  Why do we do what we do, and why is it important? Communicate a larger belief behind the “Why” before you communicate the “What”.  For further study in this area please reference “Start With Why” by Simon Sinek or check out his TED presentation.

Make it personal for yourself and others.  Connect your personal belief in the larger Why,  and invite others to hitch their wagon to that larger belief. A good vision connects people’s personal missions and beliefs to a larger cause.

Make your thoughts crystal clear – I have to vet my ideas sometimes until they are clear and understandable, and most importantly, compelling.  So know what you want to say before you say it.  This is not the time to speak spontaneously.  Refine your ideas and the wording as much as time permits.

A Couple of Technical Notes:

• Use vivid language and paint a picture for people to visualize.  If you can create a vivid image that people can recall, the vision is more likely to be remembered.

• Use allegories or stories as a way to communicate the vision.  It lends itself to creating that memorable vivid image.

• Involve others in fleshing out the details of the vision.  Once you have a direction established, let others make input into that vision.  It allows them to paint themselves into the picture of the future.  It empowers them.  You get buy-in. It helps create a richer vision.  They can now see a future with themselves in it.

To Summarize

1.     Start with the Why. Connect larger core beliefs with the intended outcome .

2.     Make it personal for you and them.  Help them to see “Why should I care.” or “What’s in it  for me.”

3.     Vet your vision before you present.

4.     Use vivid language that powers  the story and creates  a memorable image.

5.     Involve others in vision creation to promote buy-in.

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This is a leadership skill that is a must for influencing others.  Leaders who can disagree with the ideas of other people without making them feel like they are being alienated are ones that gain allies and attract people to them.

Here are a few basic tenets we need to keep in mind as we approach ideas that we disagree with. When people volunteer an idea, they have taken a risk to share that idea.  We need to recognize that risk and honor it. We honor it by not “blowing it out of the water.” You may not think it is rational, but the way they are seeing things seems rational to them.  Try to understand the model from their perspective not just yours.  Seek clarity in understanding their model.

Certainty about your position is the fastest way to kill a conversation. It communicates, “I am better than you are.” Demonstrate some room for negotiation in your response to their idea. Don’t get trapped in Binary Thinking. – black and white, yes or no, right and wrong.

Often the best solutions are a combination of several ideas.  You need to be open to different solutions that solve the problem. Overall, the goal is moving the business forward while protecting each other’s dignity.  Now that we have discussed a few generalities about raising objectives, let’s turn to a model that you can use to actually do it.

1. Acknowledge what you are hearing from them (clarify the model they are proposing.)
2. Let them know what parts of their model you agree with (acknowledge that the model as a whole has merit.)
3. Raise concerns about the parts of the model, which seem problematic from your perspective.
4. Ask them if they know how to meld the two models or suggest your own way to work the models together.
5. If you notice defensiveness reassure the person you don’t think the entire idea is problematic and that you want to work towards a solution.

Example:

“So Jan, what I hear you saying is that we should pick Wile E. Coyote and the Acme company as a technology partner. I think that Acme is a cutting edge company and has a lot to offer us as a technology partner. However, I have some concerns with Wile E. Coyote working with us.  He tends to be a bit erratic in his approach, and I do not trust his ability to interface with other prospects without being off-putting.  Is there a way we can work with Acme without working with Wile E. Coyote or controlling his time with possible prospects?”

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This brief article is focusing on one aspect of leadership.  It is the idea that Leaders do not have all the answers.  Exceptional leaders display a dual nature of courage to act as well as the humility to learn from those around them.  Sounds a bit like level five leadership (Good to Great), but it has a few twists and turns to it. Let’s explore those twists and turns.  The law of reciprocity states that in order to influence others you must be able to be influenced. No one follows a know-it-all for long.  Eventually, we grow weary of always being told that our version of reality is skewed or that it is not a valid perspective at all.  We then tune out that person, and stop letting them influence us.  So, how do we balance exercising our own voice when we are in authority, but also let room for others to influence the process?  As usual, this leadership practice it is about balance, and not about picking a side.

People who excel managing the polarity of influencing and being influenced need to see themselves in a certain light in life.  It starts within.  A recent Harvard Business Review article titled, Discovering Your Authentic Leadership, stressed the importance of never casting yourself as a victim of your circumstances.  Further, the authors said this:

“First and most important, they [leaders] frame their life stories in ways that allow them to see themselves not as passive observers but as individuals who develop self awareness from their experiences… Over and over, you replay the events and personal interactions that are important to your life, attempting to make sense of them to find your place in the world…Rather than seeing themselves as victims, though, authentic leaders used these formative experiences to give meaning to their lives. They reframed these events to rise above their challenges and to discover their passion to lead.”

If you are not a victim of life circumstances you can listen to others openly without having to control the situation.  If you are a victim, you try to control the circumstances so you will not be hurt again.  It is the source of immense power in your life if you are not the victim.

You are then free to let your passion direct and influence others in order to mobilize them in a particular direction.  You are free to Challenge the Process as Kouze and Posner write.  You can proactively look for ways to improve whatever system, process, or project you are working on.  You can experiment with innovative ideas and learn from them if they are not an instant hit.  Moreover, you can passionately pursue making a significant difference because you are not wasting energy casting yourself in a victim’s role and all the protection mechanisms involved in that behavior.  Next time you find yourself in a tight spot at work, ask yourself this:  Am I letting circumstances shape me, or am I actively shaping them around me? The former is the victim’s stance, and the latter is not.

There is another part to this polarity that we mentioned earlier and that is letting others influence the process or us.  This is as important as trying to influence others passionately.  Leaders need to create space for others to lead the processes that go on around them. Otherwise you will quickly train your staff to be reactive to the boss’s lead.  I often hear people in authority complain that their people are not proactive problem solvers.  Usually that is because we have trained them to be reactive to what we want, and not to create their own solutions to the problem.  If I am a subordinate in this case, I say to myself, “I will just wait until my boss tells me the answer because if I suggest something it will be corrected anyway.”  How do you create proactive problem solvers?  You can accomplish this by drawing the vision out of your people, not bringing it to them.  People want to be part of creating their future. When you create space for them to do that, most will get on board with the plan.  If they are resistant at first, it is a sign that they have been well trained to be reactive.  Fight that urge to take over and continue to draw out that vision.  Then when you have helped them create a vision of the future, make sure that you trust in the plan to help them stay accountable to it.

Other Author’s Works Referenced:

Discovering Your Authentic Leadership by George, Sims, McLean, and Mayer

The Leadership Challenge by Kouze and Posner

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By Seth Hufford

The ability to think beyond our day-to-day  and gain perspective on the context in which we operate is an empowering cerebral exercise – and something that is uniquely human.  So when engaged in meaning of life conversations with family and friends, I find that the subject often turns to the era of human history that we are currently living through.  How will historians describe this time?  It will be recorded (in digital format, of course) that in one generation we have seen a shift from an industrial to an information age.  This rapid change has had and continues to have a tremendous impact on lives and on our society.

With the shift from industry to information, the world is increasingly complex and connected; the options are endless.  Putting my two-year-old son to bed the other night, I thought about the options my wife and I had to fill the evening with…and how much that had changed since we were his age.  Back then, our own parents may have put a record on the turntable, watched a drama on one of the three TV networks, or curled up with a book or the evening newspaper.  Now, my wife and I can “virtually” go anywhere in the world from the comfort of our home.  We can access millions of digital songs online, watch any type of program on hundreds of cable channels – whether live, from the DVR, or on-demand, or choose to access instant news and information from thousands of sources around the globe.  The choices are dizzying…and so is much of our world.  To function in this age, we need to be prepared to make sense of complexity and to manage change.

So the question is then not if or when we need to develop and practice new approaches to operating in today’s world, but rather how we should go about doing it.  This “how” question can, at least in part, be answered by a change in how we define leadership.  We often still hold on to an industrial model of leadership – the person at the top of the organization or society gets things done and everyone else follows – that does not work in today’s day and age.  It is time to let go of the old and begin using a new definition for leadership that reflects the reality of the information age.

One constant in my experience of running leadership development programs over the past decade was the wide variation among participants about a consistent definition of “leadership”.   A room filled with ambitious professionals, all of whom considering themselves to be “leaders”, resulted in a different understanding of leadership from each and every person.  It was only after reading Ron Heifetz’s book, Leadership Without Easy Answers, that I gained some much needed insight.

Heifetz separates the term “leadership” from the term “authority”.  He refers to authority as providing protection, direction, and order.  Authority often comes from the position or role that you have – formal authority (such as the President, a mother, a police officer), but it can also be informal (think of the person in your office who everyone seeks out for the latest information – he or she may not have a high ranking title, but does have informal authority as a source of information).  Leadership is then more about managing change – mobilizing people to tackle tough problems.  By defining leadership as an activity, Heifetz allows leadership to originate from multiple positions in an organization or society.

Separating these two concepts of leadership and authority is a start to changing how we think about leadership in our era.

Gone are the days when we look to the “leader” at the top of the organization or society to provide the solutions to all of our problems.  One only needs to look to the world of politics to see how people are still struggling to adjust their definition of leadership.  How many times have you heard people say, if only we were able to get our candidate elected, things would be better. To my own regret, such sentiment amounts to no more than wishful thinking and only leads to disappointment – not to mention it absolves everyone from owning a piece of the problem.  By contrast, the definition of leadership as an activity permits people at all levels to bring about change in a fast-paced world – not, as in this case, just the candidate running for office.  Additionally, this is the reason that so many companies are investing in emerging leaders within their ranks – business knows it cannot fall behind in generating new solutions at all levels to the challenges it faces.

How is redefining leadership relevant in your day-to-day?  If you are trying to solve all of the problems yourself and expecting people to follow you – in other words, being the industrial age leader – you are bound to fail.  In the information era, you need to think about the resources around you – and how they can be used to address the challenges that you face.  Realizing that you don’t need to have all the answers is a big relief – but it doesn’t make leadership any easier, it just changes your approach.

Continue your transition to the information age, by redefining leadership yourself.  For one day, keep track of how many times you use the word leadership when you are actually referring to people in positions of authority.  You will be surprised at how often you are using the word “leadership” when you are actually talking about the concept of “authority”.  On another day, keep track of how many times your colleagues are interchanging “leadership” and “authority” as concepts.   Finally, let these new definitions marinate for a couple of days and then rethink one or two new strategies for approaching a current problem – ones that don’t rely on the people in positions of authority to provide all of the solutions.   Allow this new definition of leadership to assist you in managing change in today’s world.

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Written By Seth Hufford

Today’s workplace finds us in team environments more often than not.  These teams exist both within our work functions and across business functions.  If you are responsible for directing the work of a team, you know it is not an easy job.  By paying attention to the following four areas, you will find yourself on the way to creating an effective team.

BUILDING THE FOUNDATION
The temptation is to rush right into the project or projects at hand.  However, it is essential to take a step back and build the foundation for working together.  Start by creating a collective purpose of what the team is hoping to accomplish by gathering input from all team members.  Assist the team in defining outcomes to ensure that everyone agrees on what success will be.  Develop and be clear about the process or processes that the team will follow in working together.

A FIRST STEP: If you are just convening a team, you can begin your initial meeting by asking everyone to share what they hope to accomplish in the team.  Even if you have an already established team, you can use an upcoming meeting to ask team members to share their views on how the team is doing thus far.

COMMUNICATING OPENLY AND DIRECTLY
Communication is a key element of leadership.  In order to make your team as effective as possible, foster open and direct communication by inviting differing and conflicting viewpoints.  Being purposeful and thoughtful about the language we use will result in a common understanding.  Practicing active listening will ensure that team members are heard and feel that they have made valuable contributions.  Encouraging team members to ask questions will clarify what people have said and draw out additional information.

A FIRST STEP: Do some work prior to the next team meeting by talking individually to team members, in person, or by phone if the team member works off-site (avoid email as it lends itself to greater communication misunderstandings).  Ask each team member what questions are lingering about the work for him or her.  Rather than answering these questions right then and there, collect them – see what patterns emerge in all of the questions – and use the next team meeting to address them.

ESTABLISHING AND MAINTAINING RELATIONSHIPS
Encourage team members to build relationships with one another.  Understand the agendas and perspectives of others by recognizing the competing priorities that each team member faces.  Manage disagreements by bringing conflicts into the open in order to resolve them collaboratively.  Know your team members’ capacity to handle change and how to deal with resistance that may surface.

A FIRST STEP: An easy way to establish working relationships among team members is to build in time  at the beginning and the conclusion of meetings for people to air what’s on their mind – both work-related and personally (i.e. I had a nice weekend camping with the family).  Also, take breaks in your daily work routine to informally check in with team members about how they are doing and what they are thinking.

DEVELOPING TEAM MEMBERS
To get the best out of the people you are working with, take the time to assess the strengths and development needs of the team members.  Encourage team members to give direct feedback in a timely manner – balancing what people are doing well with areas for improvement.  Value the diversity of experiences and approaches that people bring to the work and use it to strengthen the team’s capacity.  Encourage people to step out of their usual roles and to take risks by approaching problems in new and innovative ways.

A FIRST STEP: Early on in the team’s formation have members submit to each other one area of expertise or strength that they are hoping to provide the team and one area of development or learning that they are hoping to take out of working with one another.  By having a record of these, people can keep track of whether they are delivering on their strengths and working on their area of development.  They can also get support from other team members and be valued for what they are bringing to the team.

Our fast-paced and results-oriented culture often does not allow space for creating and maintaining a way to work together in a team environment.  If you keep your concentration on the four areas detailed above, you will be on your way to creating an effective team.  Remember, investing time in people will result in better projects.

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Transforming Culture is not for the faint of heart.  It requires effort and work.  Here are a few ideas on how to make it work for your company.  This is not an exhaustive cultural transformation cookbook, however it should get you on your way to making a difference in your company.

Distance Runners Wanted:  Sprinters Need not Apply

When my college soccer team fitness test changed from 3500 meters (two miles plus about a lap) in 12 minutes to a five-minute mile, I was ecstatic.  It meant moving from two 5 and a ½ minute miles to one five minute mile.  While it is still a distance run at fast pace, it was a lot less pain to endure by half.  The simple truth of the matter was that it took more discipline to run the longer distance than the shorter one.  The thought of either distance today makes me nauseatingly short of breath – ahh the glory days.  While not as physically demanding, transforming culture requires the same amount of discipline that my distance running friends possessed, and that I despised.  Sprinting is easier.  It does take skill and ability, but the race is over in less than 15 seconds.  Not so for cultural work.  Cultural transformation takes leaders who have the tenacity of my distance running colleagues.

It does not happen overnight.  It takes time and discipline.  It is not necessarily an activity that takes rocket scientist intellect, rather a person who will eat, live, and breath the cultural transformation effort.  This is why most efforts fail.  People do not have the discipline to keep it on their radar, let alone anyone else’s radar screen.  The key to doing this is making it into a mission beyond a goal on your MBO plan for the year.  You have to care about it as something that will be for the betterment of the people in your organization.  I know, I know, I am asking you to care about work.  Well… you should.  We spend far too much time there not to be happy in what we are doing.  Bottom line is cultural work has to be tied to a greater vision about how work and life could be at your company.  It requires PASSION.  The passion displayed by goal scorers at the World Cup or the announcers who yell GOOOOOOAAAAAALLLLLLL!  for five minutes afterwards. (Do you blame them?  After all, goals are few and far between in soccer.)  Passion is the fuel that gets us over the hurdles that life throws in our way.  Cultural change must be a passion, not a project.

Listen Intently and Understand Your Organization

Opening your ears and shutting your mouth is one of the best ways you can make significant progress in understanding your culture.  I occasionally tell clients to WAIT. I instruct them to ask themselves the following question: Why Am I Talking?  It is a simple truth, but listening intently will help leaders understand what stories are being told about the organization.  Stories are symbols and metaphors that represent how people feel about organizational culture.  They are a great barometer for reading how your culture is doing.  Are the stories about your organization more positive than negative or vice versa?  Are they told as war stories at happy hour, or as inspirational stories of a great work culture?  Nordstrom’s and Southwest Airlines are examples of the latter.  Look no further than the Top 100 companies to work in any state or nationally to hear stories of great places to work.  Listening for anecdotal evidence will allow you to informally benchmark where your organization is and where it may need to go to close the gap to cultural excellence.

The point of all this listening is to understand what kind of culture you currently have at your organization. You should make it part of the leaders’ routine to create special time to listen to subordinates in each meeting they have.  Leaders need to ask questions like, “What do you like about working here? Or What would improve your experience working here, if you could ask for anything?”  By doing this you are gathering qualitative data on what the culture of your organization is like.  The next step is to do this listening more formally.  Undertake a cultural survey.  This will provide you with quantitative data on how your organization is doing culturally.  It will give real teeth to your development efforts.  I would recommend orgSCAN by Echo Strategies as a very user-friendly, thorough instrument for this purpose.

Stop Moving the Target

The big complaint I hear from C-suite leaders as well as their followers is that the development of core purpose and values is a waste of time because they just collect dust on someone’s desk or bookshelf at work.  In those instances the cynical part of me wants to hold up a mirror to them and say, “look here and blame that person.”  Core purpose and values have to be more than documents, they must be the DNA that drives how people act.  This is a leadership issue.  If you can’t enact your core values at work, how do people know what the expected behavior is?  You have to set up a stationary, dependable cultural target for people to hit.

Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, says that core purpose and values need to be committable beliefs. In other words they (Zappos) are willing to hire and fire people based on their core values, independent of their specific job performance.  They planted the Zappos flag on the hill and said this is what we stand for.  This process has to be an authentic effort that has follow-through and leadership from the C-suite.  I have seen too many companies get their employees engaged in a robust core values process, then drop the ball by not following through to make them real guidelines used daily as the measuring stick.  This leads to the self-fulfilling prophecy that it was just a waste of time.  The brunt of that responsibility has to rest with the leadership.  Organizations need to risk defining who they are.  Everyone knows the value in niche marketing in sales, but how about in cultural development? Strive to be amazing at a few things culturally – you can’t be all things to all people.

Link Cultural Targets to Bottom Line Targets – Make the Connections Clear

This is one of the rules that most people really struggle with.  How do you take something fuzzy and intangible and link it to your earnings?  Great question; the smartest organizations figure a way to do it.  Let me point you to some general resources first, and then show you a way to map it.  Several studies have been done which empirically link strong cultures to higher earnings.  One of the grandparents of all cultural studies was done by Daniel Denison out of the University of Michigan’s Organizational Psychology Department. The study conducted on 39  different companies over five years demonstrated that the cultural and behavioral characteristics of organizations have a measurable effect on a company’s performance.  Organizations with a participative culture not only perform better than those without such a culture, but the margin of difference which widens over time, suggests a cause-and-effect relationship between culture and performance.

The work of John Kotter and James Heskett at Harvard produced four major findings, highlighted in their book Corporate Culture and Performance (Free Press, 1992). These are:

• Corporate culture can have significant impact on long-term financial performance.
• Culture probably will become an even more important factor in determining corporate success or
  failure in the future.
• Cultures that inhibit long-term financial strength are common and develop easily, even in companies full of reasonable and bright people.
• Corporate culture can be managed and changed.

So the research exists to support the case, now you need to know how to map it in your culture.  One way is to map the logical pathway.  This is a process that helps illustrate how a cultural behavior can lead to increased financial performance.  A very simple pathway may look like the following:

Don’t Just Play for Chips – Play for Real Money

The last step to cultural transformation is to play for real money.  Occasionally, I participate in a small pot Texas Holdem’ Game.  High roller that I am, I have noticed something, as probably all of you have if you ever played poker.  If you are just playing for chips and there is not real stake involved (e.g. money), people do not play a serious game.  They dump their chips in like they are not worth anything…. because they aren’t.  Attach a real monetary value, even as little as a $5.00 buy-in, and suddenly  you have a game on your hands.  The same holds true for cultural transformation.  In order for an organization to make progress, leaders need to link the targeted cultural behaviors to real consequences.  The most basic connection is to incorporate the cultural targets into an employee’s performance evaluation.  Make it part of their job to engage in the cultural behaviors you require.  After leaders have shown their employees via logical pathway mapping why they should buy-in to a cultural value, they need a little help staying accountable, as does everyone.  This is where tying cultural values to real performance appraisal measures is a must.

The five steps listed above will help get you on your way to making real change in your culture.  The key is to keep the effort in front of people and be vulnerable enough to risk showing your passion for a workplace where people can thrive, not just survive.

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