center on cultural-values and visions of your preferred future
At the center of every organization is the collection of ideas, beliefs, and cultural traits (collective habits). Regardless of whether they were put there deliberately or whether anyone is conscious of their presence, habits do exist. These beliefs powerfully but subtly impact the performance of every employee. If a deliberate choice is not made about what belongs at the organization’s “center” it could fill with undesirable attitudes and behaviors such as: wait for someone else to make the decision, hide the truth rather than be the bearer of bad news, demand approval in writing before trying anything new, or feel that quality doesn’t matter.
by LSI managing partner Art McNeil
Energy-draining attitudes become entrenched whenever an organization makes the all too common mistake of focusing exclusively on its business plan. Policies, processes, and marketing strategies are essential but alone, they will not generate corporate energy. Sales and other performance targets have their place, but if you build exclusively around them, and don’t fill the center with disciplining values and inspiring visions of the future, you won’t keep the rubbish out.
In the shift-age, winning organizations remain centered on a declared set of Cultural-values and a well-focused vision of the preferred future. Their center will not change because last month’s sales figures are down or because of a change in the tax code. People won’t be negatively impacted by the turbulence around them. When centered on Cultural-values and vision, people feel that they have qa degree of influence regarding their own destiny.
As a leader, it’s your job to draw people towards the organization’s center. Doing so, empowers others to contribute ideas and generate, rather than dissipate, energy—but first, you will have to center yourself. People who know how to use vision and Cultural-values will the primary contributors when the going gets tough—overshadowing the purveyors of doom and gloom. Centered people see possibilities where others cannot.
In my thirty five years of consulting experience (coaching CEOs and senior teams all over the world) the least costly, yet most energizing, productive, and profitable initiative an organization can initiate is; the clarification of its cultural values, creation of a related ethics platform, and “on the job” training on how to:
- inspire each other by recognizing cultural values contributions
- hold direct reports accountable using a performance correction process.
- Implement an employee centered waste and rework elimination process
This post is sponsored by The Baton Management System
