LEADING CULTURALLY
Stop and imagine:
Investors, Boards of Directors, Executives, Senior Leaders, Directors, Managers, Employees, and all other key stakeholders, partners, consultants, and contributors that prioritize, align, and care about the organizational culture, climate, and employee engagement. These critical stakeholders are all in alignment to knowing, understanding, exhibiting, demonstrating, encouraging, and communicating the company’s values that increase the likelihood of talent optimization, co-creating and collaborating for effectiveness and efficiency, streamlining strategy and execution, and achieving collective results thus maximizing excellence!
If not, they should.
Now, let’s dabble in reality:
Culture reveals itself daily and is a natural forecaster for motivation, capability, creativity, innovation, learning, development, goal attainment, affiliation, collaboration, outcomes, and results. Culture is biological, indeed. It is too often and unfortunately defined by the worst behavior exhibited at any time that trends into norms throughout the organization. The causal factors that shape the operating culture (current culture, or real culture) of the organization may not be in alignment to the expected, espoused, or ideal culture (the preferred culture that represents the organization’s values in terms of the core behaviors that members believe should be expected and encouraged to maximize the organization’s effectiveness).
Culture is not shared perceptions and attitudes about the organization, that is the climate which reinforces and helps shape the operating culture. Humanity impacts culture. Therefore, culture is the collective beliefs, shared values, and assumptions that lead to behavioral habits, norms, and expectations, derived by the group. Culture is often not set by leaders. Culture can be measured. Culture, climate, and engagement are critical to business success and should be focus areas, experienced through ongoing strategic alignment, commitment, and priority.
Leading culturally goes deeper because ultimately it impacts, and is impacted by, the #1 asset in the organization – people. Leading culturally, most importantly, is one of the key factors that determine the organization’s operating culture effectiveness. Leaders who are responsible and commit to leading culturally impact the well-being of the employees (stress levels), employees’ intention to stay, engagement, teamwork, the quality of work produced, resilience and adaptability, and the financial health of the organization. It is the basic collective humanity, in the day-in, day-out workplace behaviors that co-create the energy to get things done – hopefully, consciously, effectively, and according to plan.
So, what about leading culturally is the game changer and positively fuels competitive advantage? What are the key questions cultural leaders can ask that can help them understand the causal factors that are negatively impacting the organization and in-turn lead culture transformation effectively? Let’s begin by looking at game changing insights for leading culturally:
3 Questions to Kickstart Leading Culturally
- Ask WHY: Why do I, you, we want to transform the culture?
- There needs to be a compelling and meaningful reason to start a culture initiative AND a deep willingness and responsibility to see it through.
- Inventory and collect culture, climate, and engagement data and feedback (at all levels) – Identify and prioritize your top 5 business situations/circumstances that are negatively impacting the business.
- Ask WHAT: What areas of business, and which aligned culture levers, will increase the likelihood of optimization of culture transformation priorities?
- Ask HOW: How will the change transformation be led so the strategic and expected norms and outcomes are collectively achieved?
- Action Plan – Bridge the gaps of culture transformation that is customized, focused, and prescriptive, derived from collected data, inventories, and optimized by generative AI and traditional analytics.
Leading culturally with excellence, requires inventory and assessment data on culture, climate, and engagement. In parallel, it also requires setting the tone, continually exhibiting and expressing the espoused values, and intentionally measuring and upholding the cultural behavioral expectations. Leading culturally with excellence requires an ongoing responsibility and commitment to encourage others, through coaching, challenging, and creating, to engage in the same behaviors and acts to ensure ongoing transformation of a constructive culture. Collectively, these behaviors are critical to creating and ensuring that the organization and its employees have a workplace environment where they engaging willfully in fulfilling their potential. And that they are learning and growing, seeking to be effective in the day-in and day-out operations of the business, which ultimately has great potential to positively impact the company’s success.
Culture does not eat strategy. Culture is the vital nutrition that creates the energy that fuels optimization of talent and company success. Culture (people) are the strategy!
Kickstart your culture transformation, call +1 (910) 409-0202, email: info@harriswhitesellconsulting.com to coordinate a discovery meeting. To learn more about our company and its services, visit: https://www.harriswhitesellconsulting.com.
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About Harris Whitesell Consulting
Harris Whitesell Consulting LLC has 35 years expertise in culture transformation. We are an authorized consulting firm, and accredited practitioners with Human Synergistics™, the world’s leading pioneer in workforce culture research. We use the Human Synergistics™ integrated suite of inventories, assessments, and simulations to produce measurable and actionable improvements in individuals, group, and organizations.
We are a business management consulting firm headquartered in Wilmington, North Carolina that specializes in Human Resources Talent Management. Our mission is to create valued partnerships based on trust, excellence, and impact – from assessment to action. We offer assessment, coaching, development, culture, and engagement, change and transition, talent optimization, and customer strategy solutions. Our team of certified and highly qualified experts maximize organizational and leadership effectiveness and business success by working with people and businesses to accelerate value, optimize growth and opportunities for their leaders, teams, and organizational success!
We Maximize Excellence!
About the Author
Lori Harris is Co-Founder/Co-Owner and Managing Partner of Harris Whitesell Consulting. She is an experienced Talent Management Executive providing world-class service in Organizational & Culture Effectiveness| Talent Optimization| Organizational, Executive, Leadership & Team Development & Coaching | People Data Expert | Author, Speaker, and Thought Leader.
