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Q:
"How do I know when it's time for me to change jobs, or do something else with my life?"
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Greetings!
Welcome back! I enjoyed hearing from so many of you in the last month. And thank you to those who answered the survey question. Please notice we've added an ARCHIVE button on the left hand column in case you missed any of our newsletters. So now, if you didn't receive the March newsletter or you joined us after January, it's an easy click to find all 2012 newsletters. Also this month, the answer to the "ASK ROXI" question has a "click" feature, making it easier to read.
I had the privilege this month of working and playing with 26 local non-profit leaders at Highland Lodge, our retreat center in upstate NY. What an amazing group of people! Each agency leader is creating miracles on a daily basis with and for people in our community - in so many ways you and I often take for granted. I am very grateful to each of them and for the experience of learning about leadership together.
One of the most powerful take aways this group of leaders shared from our time together is the realization - no getting around it - LEADERS are, within their sphere of influence, RESPONSIBLE for the creation and nurturing of their organization's culture. While everyone within an organization contributes his or her own style and experience to the workplace culture, leaders have a particularly powerful impact. And, when the leader is the founder, we see a deeper impact that may or may not survive the founder.
So...the topic this month is... ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE.
It seems we are born with the ability to "sniff" out the atmosphere of a place in a nanosecond if we choose to pay attention. It's a safety feature built into our intuition sensors. Culture is in the "air" and we can "smell" it and can quickly determine if we are walking into a safe "fresh baked bread" culture or a dangerous "rotten egg" culture. We each can do this as well as those of us who study and work with organizational culture all the time. All one needs to do is stop, look, listen, and then simply "breathe" in the atmosphere. You'll know and you know you know.
So, who cooks up the "happy aroma or the stinky smell" and everything in between? Well, there's no escaping it...the Leaders call the shots in the "kitchen!" While everyone contributes to the "smell" of our place, the culture is definitely driven by leadership style, actions, behaviors, attitude, values, vision, humanity, goals, strategy, and approach to the work within her or his sphere of influence.
This month we will examine types of 4 types of work cultures: Clan, Adhocracy, Market, and Hierarchy, and look at how the leadership at the top (within sphere of influence) impacts the actual work environment where business gets done.
The really GREAT NEWS is: we can measure and identify what we have and what we want; we can choose how to lead our culture; and we can strengthen and change it if we decide it matters enough for us to do so.
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 Click here to see a short video
 | | Culture Eats Strategy For Lunch |
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WHAT IS CULTURE?
"...how things are around here. It reflects the prevailing ideology that people carry inside their heads. It conveys a sense of identity to employees, provides unwritten and often unspoken guidelines for how to get along in the organization..." Cameron and Quinn (2006)
WIIFM? (What's In It For Me)
HEALTHY ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURES DELIVER
- Higher productivity
- Higher ROI and save $$
- Higher retention of high potentials
- Greater loyalty from staff and customers
- More innovation and risk taking
- Higher discretionary effort
- Higher performance from staff
While everyone in the organization contributes their energy, attitude, actions and behaviors, to the culture, the leader writes the recipe, gathers the ingredients, and turns on the stove.
There are 4 Core Competencies leaders, in particular, would do well to learn/master to be effective in creating and maintaining a healthy, ethical, high performance culture.
Through my observations and research, I've concluded there are also at least 3 Core Processes that every organization must have in place to allow the system to be agile and aligned within the culture. Having these processes in place will significantly help sustain the desired culture through good times and tough times.
It's important to have your cultural "DNA" strong enough so a leadership change not only survives the change, but in fact drives the kinds of leaders you hire to replace departing ones.
If you want your organization to be agile and sustainable over time, you will need a very clear, mission and values aligned culture that is well-supported and therefore deeply embedded.
Even in our families, we have our unique cultures. We've seen the whole range in family systems: mama and/or papa rule it all, or we make decisions with everyone's input, or nobody knows who is where doing what, or every decision is about the budget...or. Think about it. What is the culture within your own family? Within your own sphere of influence at work? How are they different? How are they the same?
All of this month's information is relevant to our home and work cultures. Take a look and see if you can identify the CULTURE in your home and work that is operating today.
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3 WAYS LEADERS COOK (+) CULTURE - The leader's words and actions are consistent day in and day out
- Values results are measured as well as business results within performance metrics
- What is desired in the culture is rewarded and what is not desired is not tolerated
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3 WAYS LEADERS COOK (-) CULTURE - The actions and/or words of the leaders are not consistent with the espoused values
- The HR/OD processes and policies do not support or enhance the desired cultural norms
- The leaders insist everyone must "drink the koolaide" or get out
These cultural behaviors and actions are, once again, closely related to your leadership Emotional Intelligence. Be honest with yourself. Where might you increase the positives and decrease the negatives in your culture within your sphere of influence? Where might you be getting in your own way? |
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SEE YOU IN MAY!
If you haven't already, please take a moment to join my mailing list (just click on the "Join My Mailing List button below) so you will be sure to receive our monthly, "ASK ROXI" newsletter. Of course, you may always opt out anytime by unsubscribing (also below).
I encourage you to forward everything in this newsletter to anyone you think would enjoy and benefit from it. We're close to 3000 now, and growing daily. We'd love to see 10,000 by the end of this year! So, bring it on!
Remember, you have access to archived newsletters by clicking on the left column.
Culturally yours,
Roxi Bahar Hewertson
CEO and President - Highland Consulting Group, Inc.
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