THE WHY and HOW of CULTURE

WHY culture is so important

Culture is the key to commitment and commitment is key to employee engagement, which leads to customer and client satisfaction. 

Fuse a strong company character and culture and a clear purpose and vision. Then focus on a great customer and employee experience and align these ingredients with all core aspects of your business, and you can develop the all-important commitment you need to accelerate business performance and success.

HOW to cultivate the right culture

There are different approaches that can be taken to changing a culture and, although the high involvement approach requires more work than the top-down limited involvement approach, it is the most effective in the long run.

It’s about listening to what colleagues on the ground have to say.  What do they think will make the company perform at its best? You can then build a desired culture around the areas that they feel need to be addressed.  Once a company has a clear indication from its colleagues of what needs to change (do read my blog to see how if you missed it), then build a programme that aligns, connects and enables the desired culture.  This takes focus, perseverance and medium-to-long-term commitment.

Organisations that are making great gains in this space are thinking longer-term (Jacob Morgan’s article is worth a read). They’re going beyond the engagement scores taken ‘in the moment’ and asking colleagues to work with them to create a place where people want, not just need to work each day.

It’s also important to remember that from a pyschological point of view, colleagues feel committed when they are able to meet their survival, safety and security needs, and their work is meaningful.  If you look at most employee surveys, you’ll see this more often than not play out in the results.   

Purpose continues to be ‘on trend’ thanks to the Millennials who are driving it. 40% of those polled by the Deloitte Millennial Survey 2018 believe the goal of businesses should be to ‘improve society’.  Personal alignment, Purpose and Vision Alignment, Values Alignment and Structural Alignment are key.  An integrated strategic culture approach helps to accelerate change once the purpose, vision and values have been set.  

Commitment is further boosted if Leaders treat their team members as equals, listen to what they have to say, are fair, empower and give them opportunities and challenges to grow and develop both professionally and personally.  When you get to the heart of what matters, it’s all about mutual commitment and respect which builds trust.  Trust also shows up in organisations when there is a commitment to internal cohesion – a shared purpose, vision and a shared set of values.

The Leaders as The Drivers of the culture change; The Engagers which include a strategic communication and engagement approach, together with a change champion programme and The Enablers which looks at aligning all the people initiatives, structures and processes.

If colleagues connect to the purpose, vision and values of a company, understand the direction of travel and what role they play in the delivering the bigger picture, then you’ll start to cultivate a healthy and committed environment. Making it meaningful is key. 

It’s the Leader’s role to bring this to life and inspire, connect, align and empower the colleagues in their team.  The people initiatives and processes that are brought into alignment then help to pull the levers that help support the behaviour change required to cultivate the right culture.

Organisations don’t transform, people do.

TRUST, THE ULTIMATE CURRENCY

Frances Frei’s TEDTalk about ‘How to build and rebuild trust’ is a must to listen to.  She talks about how achieving it falls into three components – authenticity, rigour in logic, empathy – and if any one of those wobbles, then trust is undermined.

She shares her story about going into Uber to see if she can support them rebuild trust from within and how in some parts of the business she’s able to find highly effective fixes in the empathy area, but in other areas the mountain to climb is never ending.

I absolutely love a couple of her quotes which I wanted to share with you as they resonated with me and I’ve continued to ponder them:

• “I believe there’s a better version of us around every corner.” How powerful is that and can you imagine if we all challenges ourselves with that day in day out.

• “Leaders, your obligation is to set the conditions that make it safe and welcome to be authentic in the workplace, as this will achieve excellence.” No-one should feel they have to be someone or something else at work as with that comes having to spend additional wasted energy being someone else.

• “Don’t mute yourself.” Everyone has something worthwhile to say at some point and what a waste if you don’t have the guts to share it.

Food for thought for everyone – do they resonate with you too?

In Patrick Lencioni’s two New York bestselling books, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team and The Advantage, he says that in order to create high-performing teams and cultures, we need to be the Chief Reminder Officers or CROs. It is our job to continually create clarity and keep reminding people of our purpose, vision, who we serve and what we’re trying to achieve.

Whether you’re a business owner, in an organisation or leading a team, there are three effective strategies to help build trust and connection.

1. Communicate effectively: You need to communicate consistently and poignantly and be clear on your key messages and call to actions.

2. Use data and insights: Making use of the data and insights will create far more connected conversations with your teams and customers. When something is backed by actionable insights, it helps to build the confidence and trust in you as a leader.  

3. Focus on who you’re communicating with and when: Ensure that you are strategic in what you communicate, to whom and when.  This builds relationships and trust.

Trust, so hard to build and so easy to lose……

Why it’s so important to smash your first 100 Days as a leader (including the Capitaliser Checklist)

Wouldn't it be valuable to have someone by your side every step of the way, helping you to be at your best and most strategic, rather than being pulled in every direction and feeling you're not accomplishing anything and time is slipping by. 

Being a success rather than a failure in your first 100 days is critical as it will impact your whole career.  It’s important to look at the bigger picture as you step into your new leadership role – smashing your first 100 days and succeeding faster than expected, will mean it’s likely you’ll get promoted quicker and remain on the leadership career fast track.

Let’s flip the coin and consider a different, less palatable scenario. If you get off to a slow start and fail to make the right impression and deliver quick wins, you seriously risk your chances of success in your new role, which can stall or reduce your future career prospects.  Seen in the bigger picture context, the importance of your first 100 days in a senior leader role cannot be underestimated.

Never has it been so important to prove yourself quickly. In the current climate, there’s huge competition, change and scrutiny, and high expectations and demands on a new-to-role leader. The pressure is on and although you have a three month ‘honeymoon’ period, once you hit your 101st day, you are expected to make a positive impact within the business – it’s a tipping point.  No-longer are you perceived as the new kid on the block, consuming value.  It’s the breakeven point at which you’re expected to start to strategically contribute and value add.

What I’ve experienced myself and heard time and again from other leaders I’ve coached, is the fact that a new-to-role leader is seen as a knight in shining armour, there to transform the relevant business area and fix all the problems and dysfunctions. What tends to happen more often than not is that leader gets inundated by requests, meetings, initiatives and projects and tends to become the fire fighter, being rushed from pillar to post and taken off strategic track. Think of the alternative, however, a focused, visionary, high-performing leader who at the end of the 100 days is perceived as credible and marked for succession and the career fast track.

My First 100 Days Capitaliser coaching programme will give you a step-by-step guide to keep you in control, highly strategic and intensely focused on what will give you the best return. Sign up on the homepage of the website and you’ll be able to download the high-level First 100 Days Capitaliser Checklist which is a snapshot of the programme.

Ambitious leaders who want to ensure success and guarantee their top talent and succession status within an organisation should take heed.

The Holy Grail - finally an effective way to measure culture change with an added bonus!

As we all know, company culture is currently a hot topic and there’s widespread agreement from CEOs and Boards (92%) that investing in culture has improved their organisation’s financial performance*.

Over the years, I’ve worked with a lot of companies on their culture transformation programmes and the one thing that they all had in common was the frustration felt at not being able to accurately measure success along the way.  In a lot of cases complex measurements were put in place, albeit with the best intent, but which fell far short in accuracy and caused a lot of discontent and conflict internally.

There were several reasons why I was attracted to becoming a Barrett Culture Transformation Tools Practitioner recently.  Not only do I value Richard Barrett’s core model, the Seven Levels of Consciousness Model, is cleverly mapped to Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and was developed to give a better understanding into people’s motivations, but the quick-to-complete Culture Values Assessment delivers an insightful report that subsequently acts as a benchmark to measure against – in my opinion the Holy Grail!

What’s also powerful is the fact that this Cultural Values Assessment is completed by colleagues across the organisation. Not only do colleagues therefore feel involved and respected, but they are the ones that know the company inside out, where it currently stands from a culture perspective - warts and all - and what they feel it would take for it to become a high performing entity.   For those at the top of the tree who don’t necessarily have a finger on the pulse of internal organisational sentiment, this gives invaluable understanding and something concrete to act and focus on.

Organisations don’t transform, people do. The annual culture assessment allows companies to determine the personal needs of their colleagues and monitor the extent to which they feel aligned with the culture (values) and the extent in which they feel on track (vision alignment).  Together with the level of Cultural Entropy (dysfunction and limiting core values) and Health, these indicators enable the company to assess the level of colleague engagement and the relevant levers that need to be pulled in direct response to the employee feedback.

At a time when company culture is so crucial to bottom line success, the Culture Capitaliser Phase 1 and 2 approach I’ve created can hugely move the dial.  The high level outline of the programme you’ll see on my website and can be tailored, but the model and assessment report bring a much more robust framework to follow.  Do get in touch if you want to find out more or take a look at my website here.

*Culture and Boards at a glance (Ernst & Young 2016)

Two exceptional women stood out last month for me and one was a bit of a surprise….

Two exceptional women stood out for me last month….

Having recently watched A Star in Born, her Oscars’ acceptance speech and a short video at Yale, I’ve totally changed my mind about Lady Gaga.  A few months ago I would have called you ‘gaga’ if you’d said I’d become a fan of Lady Gaga but this Lady is worth listening to as she’s one smart cookie.

There are a couple of things that she says that really resonate.   ‘If you have a dream, fight for it”, she continued “There’s a discipline for passion.”  I’ve never heard that latter expression before and it’s so wise.  In her powerful acceptance speech, she shares and reminds us that success comes down to smart work and refusing to give up on what’s most important to you.

If you have time to watch the short clip of her at Yale, she also talks about nearly giving up music a few years ago as she felt “overworked and that her passion and creativity was taking a backseat because of it.” Time and time again in the past, I’ve fallen into the trap of overworking, becoming burnt out and resentful and when I talk to clients and friends, particularly, women, there seems to be a pattern here.

 Lady Gaga goes onto to say “Regaining self-awareness is an act of uncovering your own personal narrative. What you stand for, where you’re going and why anyone else should follow.”  She added “Part of my identity is saying no now.”  It’s not that she’s being difficult here, but she realised that she was getting passed from pillar to post, doing too much and doing things that didn’t sit well with her and it was sucking away her passion and creativity. She advises the students “Know who you are and then choose what you want to do.”  She’s right we all have a choice.

It doesn’t matter what you do and where you work, but staying true to your core values, embracing what you’re passionate about, knowing you have a choice and not being overworked, will ensure that you continue to shine at your brightest.

The other phenomenal lady that stood out to me in March from a leadership and communication perspective - and I’m sure you won’t be surprised at this - is Jacinda Ardern, the PM of New Zealand. 

She not only voiced a nation’s grief, she led with empathy, she united people and avoided language of division, she galvanised the community and she communicated quickly, consistently, acting with good intent and with pace, with gun reforms announced two days after the terrorist attack.  For me she is a fantastic force for good and at a time when there’s a lack of trust and truth in what we hear, she has it in spades.  She’s not only competent and prepared but she’s has huge integrity and purpose and that’s why when Arden talks, people listen.

So two different leadership styles, both fantastic communicators, with strong beliefs and who have a great following. What are your core values and what kind of leader and communication style do you have or want to aspire to?

Profit with purpose is set to become the norm

Profit with purpose is set to become the norm  

It’s interesting that in recent years CEOs have gone from being symbols of aspiration to objects of intense scrutiny.  The same can be said for organisations that can no longer hide with social media empowering customers and colleagues and weakening the position of businesses. It’s been quite a shift that CEOs and their companies have had to consider and react to.

Trust has become the ultimate currency and as Patrick Lencioni states in his great book ‘Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions of a Team’; “No quality or characteristic is more important than trust.”

Millennials are driving this trend and 40% of those polled by the Deloitte Millennial Survey 2018 believe the goal of businesses should be to ‘improve society’.  Companies should be listening to this group as research shows that by 2020, millennials will make up 40% of all consumers, influencing about $40 billion in annual sales.

Profit with purpose is set to become the norm. A shift from a short-term business perspective to a longer-term perspective is evolving.  Leaders are understanding that the bigger picture counts. It’s pretty simple - if the environment fails, our society will fail and our businesses and economies will fail. Fact!  A bigger picture purpose also motivates colleagues within an organisation, I remember my time fondly at Bupa and all the colleagues I worked with there were very focused on playing their part to deliver the company’s purpose ‘Longer, healthier and happier lives’.

Interestingly, a new shorter and sharper 2018 UK Corporate Governance Code was launched last July designed to set higher standards of corporate governance in the UK to promote transparency and integrity in business and, at the same time, attract investment in the UK in the long-term, benefiting the economy and wider society.

Section 1 of the revised Code named Leadership and Purpose, emphasises the need for boards to determine and promote the culture of their company and to engage with shareholders and their wider stakeholders.

In the Culture and Boards at a glance report by Ernst & Young 2016, 92% have said that investing in culture has improved their financial performance. Culture starts with setting the right purpose, vision and values for an organisation.

The organisation must be looked at as a whole, not in parts.  If you’re to carry out a successful transformation (culture) change, there are a number of steps to embrace:

• Commitment to the change from on high

• Baseline measurement

• Executive team alignment

• Setting the purpose (WHY) and vision (WHAT) and aligning to the other ‘what’, the strategy

• Setting the values and behaviours which will achieve your purpose (HOW)

• Personal, structural, values, purpose, vision, strategy and change alignment

• Communication and engagement

• Embedding programme

• Measurement

• Reset

Leaders remain the drivers of culture change and are critical to its success.  Engagement and communications are essential to bring the purpose, vision, values and roadmap alive to colleagues and keeping them motivated by progress. The enablers and levers are the people processes, structures, incentives and procedures that must all reflect the espoused values, vision and purpose.

Leaders are the most critical in my mind and Richard Barrett states and I’m wholly with him on this “The culture of an organisation is a reflection of leadership consciousness. If you want the culture of your company to evolve, you must either change the leaders or the leaders must change.”

To be effective, any change management or cultural transformation process must focus on the whole system, not just part of it. The three main factors that need to be focused on if you want to build a values-driven organisation are the personal values of the people leaders, the structural alignment of the company and the well-being of colleagues (values and vision alignment).

Look out for my next blog that looks at the importance of measuring culture change and how using colleagues across the organisation to do this can be the most powerful approach.

Connect and Capitalise monthly magic

“Career and Entrepreneur Capitaliser”

• Meet Jane Anderson, someone I met over 9 years ago and who has become a phenomenal entrepreneur success. You’ll find her in My blog called Connecting to Capitalise – find your 15!  It’s based on a blog she sent me (do read hers too – the link is in my blog).  Both of them will give you real food for thought and a powerful action to take away with you. 

• A brilliant article I read from Stephanie St Claire is called the 11 Things I Wish I Knew When I Started My Business. Love the way she writes and the content is very good – I’m sure you entrepreneurs out there will feel some if not all of it resonates!  What can you take from it to help you on your journey?

• I loved this podcast 'I was told British people wouldn't eat dark chocolate': Meet the Mentors with Green & Black's Jo Fairley.  Great listen with some really sound business advice. 

• For those corporate chicks out there, I’m absolutely loving this website  https://corporette.com/ 

“Communications, Culture and
Performance Capitaliser”

• My blog called Strong Company Character and Culture: The Foundation of Accelerating Organisational Performance introduces you to three impressive leaders who empowered incredible cultures.  Any businesses looking to create a high performing culture should read this.

• I read an interesting article relating to communication called Your Brain On Stories - Stories are powerful because they more fully engage the brain.  Storytelling continues to be a brilliant way to engage, why wouldn’t they as most of us have been brought up listening to bedtime stories.  How can you story tell to hook the people you want to?

Don't forget if you're a leader, job seeker, entrepreneur or company looking for support, to perform at your best and stand out from the crowd, do take a look at the ‘working with you’ section on this website to see how I can help.

CONNECTING TO CAPITALISE – FIND YOUR 15!

I met Jane Anderson about eight years ago when I was in Dubai and was coaching and creating performance-enhancing programmes for the likes of M&S and Ikea. She was zipping across the world meeting up with people to pick their brains, grow her network and start to build her vision for her future.

Since then Jane has done phenomenally well.  She’s helped thousands of people, received numerous awards; she’s written six books and done so much more, but don’t take my word for it though, take a look at her website.

For me Jane typifies how having a clear vision backed up by sheer willpower and focus can be the winning formula.

I reached out to her recently and asked her what she would focus on if she was setting out and in the early stages of her entrepreneurial journey.  She sent me a blog that I think is so powerful and something to really consider if you’re serious about setting up your business and taking it to another level as quickly as you can.  Here’s a synopsis with my lense on it.

Find your 15!

I believe that one of the toughest things for entrepreneurs is to keep the faith and keep going. Most entrepreneurs set up their businesses as they feel there is a certain something that consistently pulls them in a certain direction and tugs at their heart strings. However, the entrepreneur journey is never straight forward and is like being at the fairground on a roller coaster ride it’s exhilarating and terrifying at the same time and a lot of the time the terrifying can be all-consuming! It’s very easy to give up when the going gets tough, particularly at the start of the journey, and the stats show that many entrepreneurs do.

Research shows that 50% of executives feel uncertain about their confidence in their abilities to address obstacles for business growth and cites that one of the biggest contributors is not having the right people around them.

It’s so important to be able to be your authentic self and unlock your full potential.  When you have the right people around you, willing you on, encouraging you every step of the way and blowing your trumpet, it helps to infuse your confidence and keep you focused and driven.

In Jane’s blog, she references Social anthropologist Robin Dunbar who has identified the metrics of leaders and tribes that have survived through time. From Indigenous tribes in Australia to tribes in the Amazon, he identified a metric to ensure that a tribe survives – and not only survives but thrives through the test of time.

Having created the first draft, I started to ponder and reflect about both blogs and although both primarily focused on the world of the entrepreneur, I believe using this same approach in the corporate world or in agency land, will also be effective. It doesn’t matter what world you’re inhabiting at present, pick the right 15 people for you to help champion and encourage you as you step through your working day and navigate complexities and challenges. It’s a simple tactic, but could bring real value to you.

That number is 15.

Who are the 15 people around you who are committed to your success? They’re the ones who have your best interest at heart and can help you make decisions when you might not be able to. They’re the ones you can depend on when you’re unsure or struggling and will help build your confidence and resolve along the way.

In 2019, who are your special 15 people going to be? When you are choosing them, think how they could support you and make you feel in the good times and the tough times?  And how are you going to connect and work with them so you stay on track and capitalise on every opportunity?

Do read Jane’s full blog Who’s in your Corner for 2019? It Takes a Tribe to Build Confidence as it’s fantastic and worth it.

I hope both blogs give you food for thought….

Joss