How Leaders Shape Culture, by Lisa Haneberg

 

This month my friend Lisa Haneberg talks about what chatting it up (conversations) and what being one with your culture can do for your organization.  Lisa has two popular podcasts called Management Craft and Chile Pepper High, a slew of books about leadership, and a successful consulting business.

 

How Are Organizational Cultures Formed and Changed?

 

Organizational culture is socially constructed—it is created and changed through conversations. Each conversation reinforces, builds upon, or challenges the current cultural norms and beliefs. The concept of social construction of organizational culture is vital for leaders to understand - it offers them a wonderful opportunity and poses two concerns.

 

The opportunity: Change the conversations; change the culture for the better.

The concerns: (1) If you don’t change the conversations, the culture will not change, and

(2) conversations not for the change will make progress doubly hard to achieve.

 

Edgar Schein believed that managers and leaders—through their daily conversations— create and change culture. In Organization Culture and Leadership Schein wrote: “Organizational cultures are created by leaders, and one of the most decisive functions of leadership may well be the creation, the management, and—if and when that may become necessary—the destruction of culture” (1985).

 

It is through conversations—talk, observed actions, listening, writing—that leaders manage, reinforce, and create culture. Leadership is a social act, and a leader’s greatest tool for shaping culture is the conversation.

 

Mahatma Gandhi once said, “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” The leadership team should reflect the desired culture. What does this mean?

 

Be the Culture

 

I believe that the effectiveness of the management team will mirror the health and success of the organization. But here’s the rub for leaders – it’s the management team that creates the culture, not the other way around. If you and your fellow managers are not modeling the desired culture, you will not achieve your goals.

 

Let’s get more concrete. What are the specific conversations that the leadership team ought to model? Most organizations seek some or all of the following organizational characteristics:

 

· High level of mutual respect, trust and care for each other.

· Productive collaboration coupled with an ability to divide and conquer.

· Comfort with candor and sharing contrarian points of view.

· Shared sense of mission, vision, and values and a commitment for excellence.

 

How does your leadership team stack up relative to these characteristics? A healthy management team will catalyze and inspire similar conversations and behaviors throughout the organization. Let’s break this into more specific management habits and conversations. Here is a list of indicators of a healthy management team. A healthy management team will support and create a healthy organization culture.

 

· Each team member is committed to the success of each other member.

· Each team member is comfortable having other team members represent her/him.

· Team members share a fundamental good will toward each other.

· Team members feel a good will toward the company.

· Team members don’t stand by and watch another member make major mistakes.

· Team members feel able to influence each other.

· Leadership changes with the subject.

· Each team member believes that winning as a team is more important than personal or functional wins.

· The organizational vision is known and shared.

· The “model” of high performance is known and shared.

· Team members seek appropriate peer level and upward coaching.

· Team members express individual opinions, concerns, and ideas. Together, team members expect and support lively dialogue.

· Team members understand and embrace their overarching roles as guardians of long-term corporate culture and interests.

 

I have set the bar pretty high, haven’t I? Do you think I am dreaming? Smoking something? Perhaps. But our organization’s culture is relying upon us to be the change we seek.

 

I prefer to dwell on the positive – what we should do – versus the negative. That said, it is helpful to offer specific examples of conversations and behaviors that would not be consistent with the indications of a healthy management team. Here are a few common examples of management conversations that wreck organizational culture:

 

· When managers bash and complain about each another. This is a particularly damaging habit when we speak ill of our peers and/or boss with other employees. It is also a sign of managerial immaturity.

· When managers avoid each another so as to prevent working with each another. Employees are not dumb and they pick up on the negative vibes that avoidance puts out.

· When managers compete (expressing positions) instead of collaborating (expressing interested).

 

Please do not participate in these harmful conversations. Rise above ill will or feelings that will prevent you from becoming a productive management team member. When I talk to managers about this topic of culture and management team health, I am often asked what managers ought to do if they do not respect their peers. Here is my answer:

 

Get over it.

 

Unless you are the CEO or a Board Member, and unless you are in a position to select and terminate these other leaders, you should give up your feelings of ill will and resolve to be a great partner and coworker. Judgments are conversations. Change the conversations, change the reality. Most every manager has been selected for a reason and most are talented. Many people drive us crazy or rub us the wrong way with the ways they express themselves. So what? Be a great partner anyway! Nearly every manager I have met has been a dedicated hard worker with good intent. Quirks? Sure. Annoying habits? Almost always.

 

We need to be the change we seek. We want our employees to rise above personal differences to work together as a cohesive team. We cannot and should not expect this if we do not model excellence in this area. I believe that who we are together, as a management team, is almost more important than what we do as individual managers and leaders.

 

Here is the good news about modeling the healthy management team behaviors.

 

It’s an awesome way to work! Being a part of a strong team is a fruitful and satisfying experience. Together, we will create the culture and we can create a great culture.

--------------------------------------------

Lisa Haneberg is a writer and consultant specializing in the areas of management, leadership, and organization development (www.lisahaneberg.com).

MPAEA Testimonies

 

Dr. Kroth gave a “passionate” talk and pro-active approaches to taking control of the

work environment and your life.

 

Overall, I felt the conference focus was on leadership and producing happy, productive adult employees (students) in a nurturing environment.

 

.Click here to view these in their complete contents and more testimonies.