Category: Personal Development

For many leaders and senior-level executives, the phrase “company culture” may sound like a soft, feel-good slogan, but in fact research shows that having a positive work culture is a hard core business practice.

Maybe you’ve actually bought into the importance of your work culture, however, it’s tempting to look for the “hack” for creating your optimal company culture. Wouldn’t it be great if you could just click on the ‘download’ button and, after just a few short minutes (depending on your wifi connection), voila, your new company culture would be installed?

Company culture is created slowly and improves slowly, like a good thick gumbo. Like most southern Louisiana cooking, it’s not finished in the blink of an eye, and it will take some time – and effort – to perfect a recipe.

If your employee engagement is down, gossip is running rampant, and your team members are not trusting one another, efforts will need to begin with a cohesive, committed, collaborative leadership team. Notice I didn’t say you should start with a strategic plan. That’s where many team leaders start, and that’s their first mistake.

All of the strategies and all of the plans in the world won’t work if your leadership team is pulling against one another instead of all rowing in the same direction.

I work with executive leadership teams to help them to function effectively so that they can achieve results in a much shorter time frame. Once we’ve accomplished that, then we get to work on strategy.

Think about what kind of experience you want to create for your customers and then what kind of environment you want to cultivate for your employees. The two are intertwined.

Try these steps to reshape your company culture:

Don’t take yourself too seriously. Southwest Airlines experienced a major computer outage right before my flight. Needless to say, there were delays, passengers were, uh, cranky, and stress was high. Once in flight, our flight attendant had everyone in stitches, served drinks on the house, and literally turned what could have been a nightmare into a pleasant experience. Southwest has worked hard to build a fun company culture. Team members are given latitude and encouraged to express their sense of humor. Throw some spice and spirit into your workplace culture wherever you can. Throw a mini office parade next time your team hits a mile-marker, complete with noise-makers, music, and beads to toss.

Place people over profits. Your team members will treat your customers no better than you treat your employees. Take an interest in your people. Ask what they’re working on, struggling with, what stresses they face. Talk to them about their learning and growth goals.

Know what business you’re in. Zappo’s is not just in the shoe business and Harley Davidson is not just in the motorcycle business. These CEO’s are all about creating exceptional experiences for their customers. Ensure that your employees understand the business they’re in and this will drive the company’s work culture.

Provide challenging work. Studies show that ease is actually a path to dissatisfaction. In fact, when it gets easy, we tend to check out. Provide work that allows team members to stretch their super powers and use their strengths to make them feel valued.

Ask employees what you could be doing better. Don’t assume that no news is good news. Ask for feedback. Ask how the work environment could be improved. Ask what employees like and dislike about their jobs. Ask, ask, ask. Then listen, listen, listen and then take action to make improvements.

Improving your company culture can seem daunting, but you can do it by consistently applying these practices over time. The message must come from you, the leader, and be consistent throughout all levels of the organization. Oh, and in case you didn’t pick up on that, consistency is the key.

CHIME IN:

• What are some areas where you’d like to improve?
• What would you add to this list?
• How you created a positive company culture in your organization?
• Leave a comment below and share your insights with our community.

A myth is a false belief used to explain natural phenomenon. We tend to hold onto our myths for years and we often continue to use language which is consistent with the myth even after veracity of the myth has been put to bed.  For example, for hundreds of years people believed the earth was the center of the universe.  Thanks to Copernicus and Galileo we know this myth is false, but we still use language consistent with the myth e.g. “The sun will rise at 7:05 AM EST in CT.”  The sun doesn’t rise. The earth rotates.

Myths can be fun and useful.  They can also be damaging.  Believing lightning never strikes the same place twice is comforting in a thunderstorm, but this too is a myth.  Lightning strikes the same place often because the taller the object the greater the probability of a second strike.  NASA proved this in 2003. (Rob Gutro, 2003)

Myths about how to communicate feedback to people can be damaging to employee engagement, can increase turnover, reduce productivity, and damage quality.  We need to dispel these false beliefs because, as leaders, we can’t afford to lose good people and we can’t afford to have ineffective feedback upset employees who might then upset customers.

Myth #1: Managers Are Omnipotent and The Most Useful and Actionable Feedback is from Managers

Managers are not omnipotent and yet many organizations continue to rely almost exclusively on a manager’s feedback for performance improvement of individuals.  The reliability of the typical performance appraisal has been discredited and some organizations have rejected it.

Leaders need to reject the idea that managers are omnipotent first because they’re not and second, this myth leads us to the false belief that more frequent feedback from managers will help performance.  Instead, senior leadership must first accept responsibility for the culture of the organization. They must know how to create an environment of trust.  Then and only then can frequent feedback make a difference.

Yes, managers can help set up how employees receive feedback, but there is no way we can depend on managers to be a consistent and useful source of feedback for improvement.  Thinking that managers are omnipotent is inconsistent with systems thinking.  Employees are adults who self-manage at home. Why can’t they self-manage their own feedback at work?

Myth #2: Frequent Feedback Fixes Performance Management Failures

The typical performance appraisal has been largely discredited and rejected as an effective tool for the modern workplace.  Many organizations have instead shifted to managers providing more frequent feedback or check-ins.  PwC, a major consulting firm, found that up to 60% of employees (especially millennials) want feedback either weekly or daily. Virtually all performance management consulting companies recommend more frequent feedback now (in place of annual reviews) because they claim it improves employee engagement.

But, how do you know the feedback is any good in the first place?    If the food in a restaurant was bad, would you decide to eat it in smaller bites more often? This incomplete approach still maintains that managers are omnipotent feedback gurus. It’s still a “manager dependent process of feedback”.

This myth also assumes feedback given by managers is useful, accepted, and implemented.  Many Human Resources executives complain about the quality of the feedback from managers.

Frequent feedback is a great idea but is not enough to create optimum value and optimum performance improvement.  The feedback needs to be credible and useful for it to be acted upon.  Without systems thinking, the feedback quality will fall short.

Myth #3:  Majority of the Feedback Must Be About How the Person Must Improve

In my daily Google alerts there are at least 6 items about performance management.  Nearly all these articles or blogs focuses on how managers must give more frequent feedback to the employee and how managers need to improve their feedback delivery skills. But, is that the highest priority?

We refuted myth #1 above by asserting the need for managers to create an environment where employees can self-manage. This includes finding ways to access their own feedback. Employees are adults who can self-manage.  They don’t need to depend upon the manager.

We have all seen aggressive drivers weaving in and out of traffic to shorten their drive times while ignoring both traffic laws and the safety of other drivers.  When I see one of these drivers, I often provide immediate feedback using my horn.  This is especially true when they nearly cut me off.  Leaning on my horn is my way of providing feedback to the person.  When necessary it can be effective to at least create awareness if not change behavior.  But, 99% of drivers are NOT aggressive drivers.   How do they receive feedback?  Does it make sense to use my horn with them too?  There is no reason to do that because they are following traffic laws and behaving with integrity and with respect.

Feedback about behaviors is appropriate when those behaviors are observed and inconsistent with a standard.  Systems thinking explains how results come from methods and processes not people not just employee behaviors.  Poor results are most often about the quality of the methods people use and not about the quality of their character or their behaviors.  And, individuals rarely, if ever, have control over all the factors of these methods.  Employees are interdependent.  They need to rely on the quality of interactions between all the methods.  One employee’s ineffective method can prevent another employee from implementing their methods. In other words, one employee can impact the performance of another employee.

Therefore, employees need feedback about their methods or processes and the manager doesn’t always have the knowledge to provide credible feedback about those methods.  An alternative is receiving feedback from their customers (internal or external) instead.  Feedback about methods from customers can be much more useful and credible.

Dr. W. Edwards Deming helps us to appreciate systems thinking and the learning cycle.  His Theory of Profound Knowledge is way to avoid these three myths. They myth of “managers are omnipotent and can provide effective frequent feedback” needs to be replaced with systems thinking.  Systems thinking helps us to appreciate that feedback about the quality of the interactions between people and departments is what creates performance improvement.

Check out the interview on C-Suite Best Seller TV to learn more about how to stop leadership malpractice and replace the typical performance review: https://www.c-suitetv.com/video/best-seller-tv-wally-hauck-stop-the-leadership-malpractice/

Wally Hauck, PhD has a cure for the “deadly disease” known as the typical performance appraisal.  Wally holds a doctorate in organizational leadership from Warren National University, a Master of Business Administration in finance from Iona College, and a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania.   Wally is a Certified Speaking Professional or CSP.  Wally has a passion for helping leaders let go of the old and embrace new thinking to improve leadership skills, employee engagement, and performance.