Culture, for me, is summed up in 2 things: actions and attitudes. It’s the actions of your team, it’s the actions of your leadership, it’s the actions of your clients.
It’s the attitudes of your team, your leadership, your clients.
If you’re a leader and you’re overloaded and you’re finding that you can’t spend time with your team members then I can promise you this: culture is sneaking in your back door.
People are sneaking in bad leadership, like not taking ownership, like possibly gossip, like not having buy-in in the direction or vision that we’re going in, or silently sabotaging the vision in the process.
For you to have great culture you have to understand the starting place is to force it. You have to literally force the culture that you want in your business, period.
Sometimes it’s very confrontational because you have to show people that, “This is going to be our culture.” “What is our culture? We are going to take care of the client.
We are going to take care of the team members inside. We are not going to show up late. We’re not going to gossip about team members or leadership.
We’re not going to think that we are entitled to something. We’re not going to sit back and sabotage the vision, the direction that we’re going in.”
Now let’s look at the other side of this. I have to, as a leader, be willing to fight for you guys in my own culture.
If I had somebody who came in who was just a gossip and a backstabber and somebody who was sabotaging processes and just that, “ugh” person, if I don’t do something about it, if I allow that to happen in my own business then what does that tell you guys?
It says, “I don’t care enough about you in the culture to stop this one person.” It is up to me as a leader to make sure that I also protect you, that I protect the culture, that I protect the team.
It’s your job as a leader to do exactly the same, to take and protect your team. We’re all one, but every leader has that role. If you’re not willing to fight for your team’s culture then, guess what?
Nobody else will. Nobody will stand up and do anything about it as well.
For those of you who know that you don’t have the culture you want, this is about digging in and learning what is it about me that I don’t have the culture that I want, what is it about me, and owning this.
That’s what culture is about. You have to own what happens in your business, from the smallest things to the biggest.
Those are things you can put in place this week to start forcing your culture. It’s a small portion of what you need to do to have a highly successful culture.
I can tell you this: it is the absolute best start. It is the absolute best direction.
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Hi Chris, your blog post was a really interesting read about “forcing” the culture you want in your workplace. Usually, any use of the word “force”, let alone actually engaging it in a workplace is frowned upon…but you make a really good point – Unless you take care of creating and nurturing the culture you want, it’s not going to happen and some kind of culture is going to evolve and it might not be a good one. Great article and podcast!
Haha…that’s so true. I’ve been out of cultures that frown on that for so long that I’ve forgotten. The moment I read this I went right back. One thing you’ll find with me is I’m not really worried about being politically correct.
Thanks for the input Harry!
Haha…that’s so true. I’ve been out of cultures that frown on that for so long that I’ve forgotten. The moment I read this I went right back. One thing you’ll find with me is I’m not really worried about being politically correct.
Thanks for the input Harry!