Last week I had the opportunity to meet an old school friend, Maria Sarkar, who I hadn’t seen for many years, which as well as a providing a trip down memory lane, and a reminder of how old we are, also gave me the opportunity to take a look inside a dynamic company with a great culture.
In discussion with Maria about her company it was obvious how passionate she was about her business, not just profits, but mostly her products, her customers and most importantly her people.
There are many companies I have seen that have tried to create, or should I say copy, great corporate cultures, but often they fail because the key ingredient that they haven’t copied from these cultures is the leadership.
It’s easy to put in break rooms where your people can come in early and enjoy breakfast, rest & relaxation areas with comply chairs, TVs, and video games, or look to offer staff other perks such as flexible working arrangement, free days where they get to choose what they work on.
But if this is not something that leadership is fully committed to, then the culture will remain the same as it always was, but with a few nice features.
Leadership needs to walk the talk, not just make things available to their teams, they need to make sure they become embedded, that they are used, that the teams feel comfortable when using them.
At one firm I worked at we had a break room where they installed a table tennis table, unfortunately, it was right underneath the bosses office. It wasn’t just the location that put people off using the facilities at any other time but lunch time, it was the snarky comments of the boss, who would say things like ‘I wish my days were free enough to be able to just put in a couple of games of table tennis‘.
In this firm we wanted to look like flexible, open company, but the leadership was anything but that, but they wanted to show that they were moving with the times and had a bit of that silicon valley spirit about them.
But you can’t just copy a culture and expect people to adopt it if leadership continues to go about things in exactly the same way as before.
Maria told me that she thought of her teams as her family, and you could clearly see this in the way she interacted with them, and more importantly with how they interacted with her. Her leadership approach was part of who she was, how she acted, not just something she had read in a book.
Maria’s leadership philosophy was shared with others in her leadership team, which meant that there was a consistency of approach from the top down. This is very important because with this type of consistency the teams can really see and understand the culture and be comfortable in adopting the culture.
In companies where there is no consistent culture, it makes it difficult for staff as they need to operate in different ways depending on which member of the leadership they a dealing with, which can be confusing, frustrating and also exhausting.
The philosophy that Maria and her team had defined was implemented into pretty much every aspect of their operations. This is important because you now have consistency from everyone on the leadership team and also in every area of the business, which again reinforces the culture and makes it much easier for teams to adopt, and then thrive in them.
To create a great corporate culture one of the things that we need to do is to give our staff freedom.
But often, as managers, we are too afraid to do this, we do not know what our teams will do with that freedom. Maybe if we put pool tables and pinball machines in break room then our teams will spend all their working time playing, rather that working.
It’s why many people don’t do this, they lack confidence in their ability to create the culture that they want, or they don’t understand how culture is created.
Work hard, play hard is a phrase you often here when people talk about their company cultures, but if you take a closer look what they really have is a work hard, work harder culture with very little if any play at all.
In Driveworks there was a work hard, play hard culture and the leadership was focused on both equally, which is the only way to make this kind of culture work and give your staff confidence that the culture is real and not just a whim.
During the discussions Maria talked more about the play hard aspects of what her business did than the work they did. This was all the people aspects, about training, social events, encouraging cooperation and collaboration, and providing learning opportunities.
It was also interesting that the company as well as providing recommended reading lists, such as Who Moved My Cheese, etc, Maria would also follow up with people and get them to discuss their thoughts on the books, she wanted to make sure people understood what it was they were trying to do, why and get people to buy into it.
In many companies, books are bought, handed out and management has no clue as to whether people read them or not.
What does this say to our teams and departments? I know when this has happened to me, often I have wondered why they gave me the book, and what was I supposed to do with the information? So usually, like others, I did nothing.
I asked Maria how she managed the aspect of giving people so much freedom and then being sure that people also did a good job.
Her answer was that she was very clear with her teams about when it was time for fun, and when it was time for work.
For her the most important aspect was people’s attitude, and she worked very hard to ensure that she got the right people into the company, people that would fit with the culture that she was looking to create.
Everything started with recruitment, it was a rigorous process, but if you have spent time defining your culture, it’s important to find people that are going to be a good fit, people that will thrive in it and compliment it, rather than fight with it.
As Maria told me, ‘it’s hard work, we don’t always get it right, but the efforts pay off in the long run’.
The right corporate culture doesn’t happen just by chance, it takes effort on behalf of the leadership, they need to walk the talk, manage the culture ensuring that they get the right people into the culture, and look to make sure its consistent in everything they do.
When Maria asked me what I thought, I told her if I was consulting her, I would tell her to continue to do what you are doing, change nothing, you’re way ahead of many companies.
Her answered surprised me, she said ‘that’s fine, but I’d like you to tell me what we could do to make it better!’.
Leadership defines culture, and those leaders who want to continually improve their culture will continually improve their companies both in terms of performance and staff retention.
Take the time to examine the culture your company has and ask yourself is this the culture you want, and if not then do something to change it, remember Leadership defines culture!
If you like my leadership article, then check out my books which are available to buy here, they are packed with great insights, and practical hints and tips on how to be a better leader, explained in a simple easy to understand manner.
Hello Gordon, thank for sharing your thoughts.
“The right corporate culture doesn’t happen just by chance…”
Given the three lines below I suspect that dysfunctional corporate cultures happen on purpose, employers get the culture they create by who they hire.
1. 80% of employees self-report that they are not engaged.
2. 80% of managers are ill suited to effectively manage people.
3. The two 80 percents are closely related.
Successful employees have all three of the following success predictors while unsuccessful employee lack one or two and usually it is Job Talent that they lack.
1. Competence
2. Cultural Fit
3. Job Talent
Employers do a…
A. GREAT job of hiring competent employees, about 90%
B. good job of hiring competent employees who fit the culture, about 50%
C. POOR job of hiring competent employees who fit the culture and who have a talent for the job, ABOUT 20%
Identifying the talent required for each job seems to be missing from talent and management discussions. If we ignore any of the three criteria, our workforce will be less successful with higher turnover than if we do not ignore any of the three criteria.
1. Competence
2. Cultural Fit
3. Job Talent
There are many factors to consider when hiring and managing talent but first we need to define talent unless “hiring talent” means “hiring employees.” Everyone wants to hire for and manage talent but if we can’t answer the five questions below with specificity, we can’t hire or manage talent effectively.
1. How do we define talent?
2. How do we measure talent?
3. How do we know a candidate’s talent?
4. How do we know what talent is required for each job?
5. How do we match a candidate’s talent to the talent demanded by the job?
Most managers cannot answer the five questions with specificity but the answers provide the framework for hiring successful employees and creating an engaged workforce.
Talent is not found in resumes or interviews or background checks or college transcripts.
Talent must be hired since it cannot be acquired or imparted after the hire.
Employers keep hiring the wrong people to be their managers and then they wonder why they have so few engaged employees.
Bob, great comments and i fully agree. If you don’t have the right managers then your doomed to the wrong culture.
Hi Gordon, thanks, now how do we get employers to hire the right managers?
I know how we do it but most employers don’t seem to care.
i know its bizarre that when promoting people we never ask the people they will be managing what they think 🙂
Gordon, great post. Thank you, and I’ve shared it.
Inconsistency in management — having to walk on eggshells with certain managers, while enjoying freedom to be open and honest with others — can make a person a little bit nutty (he said with the voice of experience). Also, the disconnect between what leaders say they want and what they model creates a climate of distrust between leadership and workers, and that’s never healthy for a company.
Bob Gately, your comments are excellent. Thank you for sharing them.
Rob, i met someone recently who attended leadership training at their company. I asked how was it, they said it was a waste of time. I asked it was no good? The said no it was excellent, just nobody in a senior position manages in that style. So we get to see what good leadership is in training, only to know we will never see it again. Demoralizing
Excellent article Gordon!
Leadership is less about wielding autocratic power today and more about influencing your team to go with you on a journey to accomplish a vision. For too long, business strategy and technology have been the focus to leverage for advantage. These no longer provide long-term sustainable distinction or long-term competitive advantage. A disturbing metric is that only 11% of organizations today have high levels of trust (Source: LRN)
Institutional mindset has been Closed, Selective, and Controlling (CSC). We now are in a “Networked” world which requires Open, Random, and Supportive (ORS) mindset. It took me 12 years to transition to this ORS mindset. Organizational culture can be nurtured and leveraged for greater trust, innovation, and financial performance. The firms that get their culture right outperform in every category: lower operational risk, greater employee engagement, more innovation, and much higher financial performance.
How we connect, collaborate, engender trust, deepen loyalty, keep promises, and earn relationship capital is the source of long-term distinction.
Fortunately i have always been good at connecting with people and making them feel engaged, although it did take a while to leverage these skills and have the confidence to go with them, but once i did the results were excellent. My boss on the other hand was different, in one meeting he said to us, his direct reports Yes I am on Facebook, but don’t send me any friend requests as i have enough friends already. To be honest he didn’t need to say that as no one would have dared or would have wanted to be his friend.
I agree completely. If you do not have the right people on the bus you won’t go far and to the right direction.
Michael, you need the right people on the bus, and you need the right person driving the bus, if either of these are wrong then the bus won’t get to the right locations 🙂
I’ve been part of many organization that talk and try to play a good “leadership” game. What I’ve noticed is it is very necessary that the leadership practices what they preach. There should not be two ways of doing things … 1. What the executive/leadership follow as their culture 2. what the leadership is promoting to their workers as the corporate culture. When their is only ONE culture that fits both the leadership and the workers, culture is properly reflected for all whether that be good or bad culture. The workers will not be invested and/or believe in the promoted culture if their leadership do not lead by example.
Michael, fully agree, one road for all 🙂
Great post Gordon.
Heather, thanks for the compliment, much appreciated 🙂
Well thought and well put. At times i tend to think that many leaders in organization do not have a boundary between organization culture and organization environment. Are these two the same? According to my understanding, the organization or business environment should focus on the objectives of the organization which is customer satisfaction in service or product. In this sense, the organization should try as much as it can to provide what employees need to satisfy customers “reasonable” needs. This may include employee empowerment i.e. training, tools provision etc. On the other hand, culture which must be imbedded in the organizational environment has to do with issues that will re-energize employees on the social status not business status for them to achieve that business objective. In essence, leadership should project these two dimensions at the right time in the right place. When it is time for business, let it be time for business and time for play let it be play time. The leadership should emphasize on the two environments because they are intertwined. Leaders as agents of an organization, (an entity, a person) should make sure that the organization achieves its goals. The organization has no sense of feeling but its goal is to achieve the objectives. The organization as an entity, does not know what culture is but it knows that the objectives of why it was formed should be met. Yes, Mr. Gordon, leadership should focus on organization environment in which culture is embedded an in essence, leadership could define organization culture.
We need to create that perfect storm of organisation environment and organisational culture when we get those correct we will be able to hit optimal performance