Your culture is your personality. It answers the questions, "What's it like to work around here?" and "What's it like to live my life?". It is the "how" people perform within your organization and "how" they go through life. A culture strategy is formed by shared belief systems and values that are intended to support both business and life strategies. It supports the human behaviors that bring about enthusiasm, passion and commitment that are critical for success.

Components of a Culture Strategy

1. Vision of the Future
2. Shared Values Aligned With Systems and Processes
3. Critical Success Measures
4. Walk of the Talk
5. Accountability

What is "your" vision" of "your" future? it has been proven over and over again, people who are proactive and future oriented versus those who are complacent, reactive and past oriented, are much more happy and fulfilled with both their personal and professional lives. Those who remain stuck in the same old, same old are just watching life and careers pass them by instead of living and embracing all of the world's vast, wonderful opportunities.

If you want your organizational culture to become employee-retention focused, you will have to align your human resources systems within your culture and business strategies to model behaviors that support your new focus. If you want your life culture to be balanced with human relationships and fun, you will have to align your personal activities with your core needs and values. You must do something different for something different to occur.

To help you discover your values, think about how you want your organization and yourself to be perceived by others. Jot down the adjectives that you want your board members, community, customers, employees, family, friends and significant other to use that would describe your ways of being. These adjectives will help you shape your future by mirroring them with the appropriate actions and goals. They will help you know your values. Once you determine what you value both personally and organizationally, it will be extremely critical to walk the talk. If not, cynicism, pessimism and failure will surface.

What do you value in your life and your organization? But more importantly, are you living and working according to those values? The answer to the later question will determine your daily frustration levels. When you live and work according to what you truly value, you are living and working with integrity and being your authentic self. And that's a good thing.

Values shape daily actions and decisions. For example, If you value authenticity and initiative, you will take risks to leap out of your comfort zones to do something that may stray you from the norm. You will persevere regardless of what others may think or say about you. You will not let others false assumptions and insecurity judgments stop you from supporting your core beliefs. You will be true to yourself because you and your needs do matter.

To your living and working by the ways you value,
Nancy