Every leader and entrepreneur is familiar with the saying “structure follows strategy” but legendary Peter Drucker is the author of one of my favourite quotes, because he added what makes the true difference with really good leadership: “…and culture eats strategy for breakfast!”
Company Culture is the sum of individuals
Every organization has its own distinct culture that evolves based on its purpose, priorities, values, and most importantly, the individuals who are part of this business structure. It is a combination of these factors that contribute to a company ecosystem, which is also referred to as the company culture or company spirit. So, how do we define a healthy and positive work culture? Is it one that helps employees feel comfortable, safe, and valued? Is it one where there is an ample scope of prosperity and growth? Is it one with high levels of productivity and team spirit?
The Fundamentals of Company Culture
Company culture plays an integral role in the operation of any business. It is the backbone of a happy and high performing workforce that not only helps in recruiting the cream of talents in the industry but also enhances your overall employee experience factor. On the one hand, many employees struggle to find meaning and real value in the work they do without a positive company culture. And on the other hand, organisations with a strong and positive work environment witness bottom line financial success by helping employees produce best results.
Talking about “Human Resources” is misleading
Employees are humans, not “human resources” and humans want to be valued. No doubt about it. They want to enjoy their work, have a feeling of autonomy, relatedness and competence which motivates them to go above and beyond. A successful organisation has a company culture that is strongly maintained and widely accepted. Not only are the structures, habits and strategies implemented in a way that is in sync with the anticipated culture of the organization. Even top management is interacting with their talents across levels in a way that reflects the purpose, values and principles of this ecosystem and the implemented reward systems are aligned with the present company culture.
Why you should care about company culture as top-level leader
Successful companies have a consensus on their top priorities, focus on individuals as well as the enterprise as a whole and make sure their goals and objectives are in line with their values. Here are top 3 reasons why you should make your employee’s experience and your company culture a personal priority for 2021:
#1 – Hiring the cream of talents
Let’s start at the very beginning. As leaders we understand that a strong company culture helps in attracting the best talents in the industry. Positive employee experience and workplace atmosphere ensure that all individuals have a fair chance to achieve healthy high performance which will become more of a competitive advantage than we‘ve seen in the past industrial age. When the best employees work for an organization with a healthy company culture in place, the outcome is not simply about employee satisfaction but the ultimate customer experience as well, which directly relates to bottom line financial success. Yep, this is the new KPI you should look out for as a visionary leader building an organization for the digital future!
#2 – Having a herd of unicorns
It’s in the DNA of any good leader to develop things further, not to be satisfied with the status quo but to outperform and to reach new horizons. In a perfect world, you want your employees all to be potential “unicorns” regarding the skills, talents and the passion they bring to work. This means though, that employees can’t be treated equally with a standardized approach when it comes to formal training or personal development. Instead, companies with a true employee experience commitment, understand the value of treating each talent individually, ensuring the growth of the entire organization by best possibly supporting the growth and development of each and every employee. Effective leadership development and people development programs at this kind of organization aim at providing key talents with 1:1 sparring partners or leadership coaches as well as facilitated peer groups and mastermind programs, making sure that all the potential within each team member and leader is given a chance to rise and grow.
#3 – Outperforming your not-yet-known competitors
All companies at some point arrive at the decision of documenting not only shared beliefs as value statements but also strategies, processes, procedures, etc. All of these documentation efforts are worth nothing, if at the core of your organization’s operations the talents at work do not FEEL what your organization, your products, your service level and your defined values are truly about. As responsible leader, you have to make sure, that every talent in the organization understands how the company’s values impact the experience your customers have with your brand. And every talent should be able to identify the organization’s core values and purpose when experiencing your leadership and way of guiding people. If you picked the purpose and values carefully, if you can make sure they are reflected in every day work, every customer touchpoint and in your leadership style, then you are for sure way ahead of the competition when it comes to employee experience.
Conclusion: It’s a mix of 3
Making it a priority to be spot on purpose and values with any business initiative and assuring as top level leader, together with your leadership team, to live according to these principles, you’ve for sure won half the battle. Adding then the right dose of listening to your people and providing them the best possible environment to grow their skills but also to leave their comfort zones and develop themselves as human beings, that will empower your organization to achieve the bottom line impact you might be dreaming of.
Unsure where to start? No idea where your organization is now? No clue about your status quo as a leader with the way you work today? Feel free to reach out to me personally as a reader of the GlobalBusinessPlaybook and we get on a personal 1:1 momentum session to identify possible strengths as well as areas for improvements. Contact me via office@braininspa.com
My daughter and I have recently visited the butterfly house in Vienna, where hundreds of colorful flying creatures were causing lots of “AH” and “UH” amongst the handful of visitors. We used our cameras to zoom in and zoom out in order to see the detailed structure and the beauty of the wings. In the next moment we had to zoom out so we could catch a group of wonderful bright blue butterflies enjoying the morning sun high up in the air. It’s not a big deal to zoom in and zoom out on any camera – just using 2 fingers on your phone, right? And both perspectives are essential for me and my daughter in the butterfly house to catch the beauty of the moment – in small detail as well as high up in the air.
From BIG to small
“Zooming” is not a skillset that recruiters currently look for actively, but it’s my personal synonym for being able to adapt, being agile and nimble, yet not overlooking the beauty of the moment and the bigger picture. To go from “big” to “small” just with a tiny move – like 2 fingers in case of our camera – will allow you in the volatile world to investigate the latest little detail on bites and bytes level and with the blink of an eye change perspectives and see the bigger connections.
We need that type of thinking that allows us to detect patterns, networks, cycles, symmetries on all levels. It’s those dynamic, vivid structures and relationships of people as well as data that play a key role in our digital future. The one who is able to recognize these patterns has a huge advantage to navigate through a fast-paced, complex world. Because this ability does not only help to have guidance in whatever you are doing it also allows to create new, simple, sustainable yet viable solutions on all levels.
There is so much power in this interplay – to zoom in and zoom out with the blink of an eye. Unfortunately, we have been trained to be consistent. To start in one way and not switch right in the next moment. We’ve been encouraged to study 1 subject and become an expert. We’ve been advised to stay with one employer at least for a certain time. We teach our kids to “decide what you want” and stay with their decision. It seems we are constantly tempted to play around with the zoom-factor whilst we are being told to decide for one over the other.
Right? Wrong!
The more perspectives you can have, the higher the chances are to discover even more impactful patterns. It’s about sharpening your awareness for the big differences as well as the most obvious commonalities, in the “big” and in the “small” world. In a disruptive environment the one who is able to use the zoom in both ways will be the one ahead of the game. What’s easy to do on a camera for catching the beauty of butterflies, is in the real world of business an art, a true skill that you need to start practicing if you haven’t done so. Give it a try in the next hour: whatever task or challenge comes your way, try to zoom out for a moment to check the perspective and then zoom in within the next minute and see what if you did a deep dive to uncover the underlying patterns….it’s worth a try and both perspectives will be attractive, just like the colorful pattern on the butterfly’s wing as well as the group of butterflies dancing in the air!
If there is one thing for certain for me in these uncertain times, life is not only extremely complicated, it has become horribly complex. I deal with a whole plethora of different demands these days, but my personal resources available – my body and my mind – remained more or less the same for the last centuries: My fingers are the same, but need to do fast text messaging now instead of doing manual work. My brain – by medical definition – is still the same, but needs to juggle virtual meetings, augmented reality and distance learning instead of interacting with others face-to-face.
Interestingly enough, what remained constant over years though is the advice I have received from the people around me in order to succeed and handle all this complexity: family, friends and colleagues keep telling me I need to try harder to make it to the top – which “top” they are speaking of remains unclear. I am told I should learn and practice more in order to achieve – what to achieve is not being discussed. They tell me I should be grateful for what I have and bring passion to my work – if I’m really clear on my true passion is not being asked. They never talk about how important it is to have the permission to be yourself. To me that sounds like a whole lot of well-intended pieces of advice. However, I am not seeing any gamechanger moves here! Do you?
Getting back in the driver seat of my life and finally getting to where I feel I deserve to be is what I truly want! I do not believe it is a question of age, gender, personality, experience, income or education. I believe it is a question of having the right structures, the right mindset, and the right habits in place.
It is about giving myself permission to simply “Be Me.”
Starting with myself first does not feel like it has been very in vogue for decades. People say it is considered selfish, egocentric, self-obsessed. But, Hey! How can I possibly hope to guide and lead teams, or entire organizations for that matter, without fully understanding myself first?
As an experienced leader I have mastered the arts of achieving goals, getting things done, and motivating others to follow and to perform. The better I become as a leader, the more I find on my plate. This is mainly because the more I accomplish, the more I am given
The question though is not, if I can do what is being put on my plate, but if it is the right – the most important things – that move the needle for ME? Giving yourself permission to be focus on your things first is simply one aspect of self-care.
“Be Me” is a call to action for rearranging my focus-laser on me and my life. – It is for you too!
I know – now – that I do not have to deal with all the grins and bear it in order to achieve what matters most to me. I have found this hidden, beautiful trail aside from stressful hustle, overwhelm, and burnout. It is a path where I can trust my resilience and self-confidence muscles, instead of going through painful distraction, fatigue, and frenzy.
I know – now – that there is no trading in health for success because it simply does not work in the long run. It is a rather clear roadmap, which I found that allows me to feel energized, not only on a physical, but also emotional and mental level
I know – now – that I can take on challenges that do not cause any self-doubt or give me the FOMO (*fear of missing out) feeling. I can trust in my abilities and feel confident that I will figure out the best way going forward towards my personal Northstar.
I know – now – that I can be in a state of true happiness without having my favorite chocolate-cherry-therapy-cake or signing big deals for my business. It is not about working for some illusive monetary trophy or a super-achiever badge. I am now “in it” for the meaning and the impact my work has.
I know – now – that my role as a leader is for sure not about outperforming my personal past achievements as a lone expert. It’s primarily about adding value to all the other talents around me – guiding them to their own success stories.
I gave myself permission to “Be Me”. I consolidated all my findings along the way in a Rulebook of Structures, Mindsets and Healthy High Performance Habits that I’ve implemented in my life and that are being constantly fine-tuned. I now share these with talented individuals who can hear their own calling to “Be Me” and it’s one of the most rewarding things seeing others making this transformation themselves.
Rearranging my personal focus laser on me and my life first was most certainly not a sign of selfish and egocentric behavior. Instead it truly allows me to care better for others now.
Where are you? Have you given yourself permission to “Be Me”? The permission to be yourself is the actual gamechanger that will bring about inevitable positive results.
