Category: Professionalism

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Top 5 List: Creating Great Culture

Creating great culture in an organization is key in today’s world. When organizations are just being developed, leaders and followers can all sit and talk through every decision together. The challenges at this stage are simpler and messages are much clearer. There’s a lot less uncertainty about essential items and how to deal with things as they arise.

As teams and organizations begin to grow you may suddenly be faced with a situation in which you don’t know everyone on the team. The team of five is significantly different than an organizational 50 individuals. It becomes more difficult to communicate with the larger group and get a consistent resolution and process in place for everything. A solid culture can provide the guidelines to work within. Here is a list of the top 5:

Ownership – depending on the size of the team or organization there must be one person who will be directly responsible for culture. This person shall focus on culture and make sure that everyone is heading in the same direction.

Leadership – the culture will be shaped by its leader. The leadership team must embrace the brand that is desired. Ideally a teamwork culture is highly regarded and the leaders must work together as a team.

Ask questions – asking very simple questions of leaders and employees will help clarify the desired culture. For example, what do you like most about the current culture? What would you like to change about the current culture? How do you personally define culture? What do you think it’s important about culture?

Focus – it would be rare to find a group of six that works as a team and has the same kind of passion for the work that they are doing. The team should focus on what is best for the product or for the customers and then act accordingly.

Communication – this is the key to any team or organization’s culture. You must be clear about the values and culture both at internal and external levels. All employees must appreciate the culture. Reward those who promote the culture while being truthful with those who do not. Communication of culture should be an ongoing and regular activity.

-RG

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Work Time And Play Time

There is a popular quotation from Plato that is often used in work environments: “You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation”. Many teams will take a playful approach to team building, whether it’s helping in the community through a charity or collecting supplies for another organization.

Large corporations have set aside budgets for activities and team building smaller teams find it more difficult to find the same opportunity. Here are a few things that can be done to help motivate and bring teams together without breaking the bank.

Get out – with many busy schedules people don’t always have the time to leave the office all day. Remind each other that even if they choose to eat at work they can still get out of their workspace. Why not take a break on the patio. Sometimes just a simple change of scenery is all that’s required to recharge and refuel.

Add music – music plays an important role in everyone’s life. It’s amazing how just adding some music to a workspace can help perk up the office and bring everyone together. Many times just a conversation about favorite artist or favorite concerts can help make connections between individuals.

Unplug – technology can be amazing and helps us with almost every facet of our lives except one: interpersonal communications. The more time we spend on our devices will translate into less time interacting with each other. Our personal relationships will suffer as our reliance on technology continues to grow. We should encourage each other to unplug it for a few minutes every day and this will help foster better relationships within the workspace.

Play – play time is the time to decompress. It might be as easy as putting together a Rubik’s cube, or joining an after work bowling league. Coworkers who spend a couple of hours laughing and playing together will end up learning things they never knew of each other.

-RG

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Servant Leadership

Leaders are pressed for more and more over time. Whether it is increased competition, technological changes or culture changes leaders simply cannot avoid being asked to give more. With these increased demands and higher stress levels leaders on all levels must develop new ways of engaging and inspiring teams of employees. Being a servant leader can be challenging, but the rewards are worth it. 

Over the years I have been fortunate enough to have worked with a couple leaders that embraced the idea of Servant Leadership. These leaders helped me understand that there is no better way to win than by leading with your heart and developing a competitive advantage. Here are a few things that have stayed with me:

Customer-centered goals – to improve the customer’s quality of life simply fuels the heart.  Fueling the brain is done by talking about what needs to be done from a business standpoint. If we can shift the focus to winning by making a difference you can fuel both the brain and the heart.

Give the gift – one of the leaders that I worked with often spoke of giving the gift of self-confidence. Letting others know that you believe in them can be transformational. For example, telling someone: “ I have great confidence in you and what you can do!” Offered during especially tough times, these words can empower people to make bold decisions that have a positive impact on the organization.
Talk straight – simply stated, straight talk should be the universal language we use to conduct ourselves and business. One of the leaders I was fortunate to have met along the way employed the strategy in dealing with his teams. This approach led to more solution-based conversations and led to more positive outcomes. He had a way of communicating the unfiltered truth about the challenges we all faced. The result was increased loyalty and new ways of generating feasible solutions.

-RG