Can something that defines you, in and of itself, be hard to define or change over time? Culture is like that – what does it mean to be an employee at Starbucks, a Green Beret, … a Russian? Who gets to define culture? Anyone really. Those internal and those external to an organization can contribute to defining a culture, leading to the hard-to-define part. Also known as an “office climate,” culture within organizations is dynamic and leadership has to be in the business of “climate change,” so-to-speak to effectively craft an attractive and resilient culture. People and personalities change over time, nonetheless, a leader must monitor the pulse of the organization all the while actively guiding its direction. Leaders must work to ensure the vision, known to the inside, is mirrored outside the organization. There is a science and an art to leadership and cultivating a culture requires a refined approach to both.
“A culture of success where everyone feels like a contributor is habitual, requires constant input, and focuses on people’s wellbeing.”
The science: set standards and plan their implementation. Standards are slipping, leading to degradation of performance, and contributing to feelings of entitlement across industry. Just look at Starbucks, it’s hard to get a coffee at that place when no one is working due to their “unionization.” How could setting and enforcing standards counter something like the “Great Resignation?” Well, people who truly feel like part of a team won’t leave their team, because it’s theirs, they have ownership. But how do you get there? Partly through standard actions like creating a vision, providing standing guidance, and reinforcing these with easy to find reference documents, as well as, of course, paying people commensurate with expectations. Then when team members live up to these standards, they feel accomplished and connected to others who are doing the same. As a leader, holding yourself to a higher standard moves in the direction of art in leadership. Effectively doing more and making it meaningful sets a tone. Tracking and observing days important to your team members through artful but not tacky twists could contribute to cultural development, for instance. Do you know your colleagues’ wedding anniversaries or their birthdays? Perhaps consider including a short questionnaire in an initial counseling, asking questions to understand a person’s interests. Not only would you learn about the person on the spot, but you would have something to research for more qualitative conversation later. Making these events standard days off on your calendar and jump-starting mutual understanding with a few targeted questions is just the start of what could be a passive yet impactful engagement strategy one could initiate to demonstrate organizational empathy to grow that desire to belong. With this in place, your job will undoubtedly involve less standards enforcement and busier with evaluating your return-on-investment.
So, creating a good culture doesn’t just happen, though on the other hand, allowing a bad culture to manifest can. A culture of success where everyone feels like a contributor is habitual, requires constant input, and focuses on people’s wellbeing. In the Army, physical fitness is habitual, leading to a culture of fitness. In Special Operations, fitness is of the highest importance, because that fitness is relied upon to endure severe and unique operational conditions. In 2009, United States Army Special Operations Command (USASOC), realizing those operations’ level of difficultly and the physical toll taken by the Green Berets during them, decided to contribute to that culture of fitness by developing Special Forces’ THOR3 Program (Tactical Human Optimization Rapid Rehabilitation and Reconditioning). Using the experience of professional sports-equivalent trainers, nutritionists, and physical therapists, USASOC leaders effectively bolstered their force’s resiliency through a program that not only keeps soldiers physically healthy to remain in the unit but adding to the desire to remain due to the clear investment in people.
“Leaders should strive to greet a departure with positivity and support, because you are not losing a team member so much as you are building your organization’s reputation and reinforcing its culture.”
Some art: Are you complimentary? Not the idea that you give things away for free, rather you genuinely compliment people on their performance. I’ve experienced brand new teams, never having worked together before, employing compliments to great effect to build their cohesion. I’ll note though, that when I saw and heard the compliments flying, personally, it initially felt strange. In my Special Forces career, I haven’t been accustomed to people just out of the blue saying things on the spot like “hey that thing you just did, it was awesome.” This simple task can be a powerful team building tool; by providing a compliment, you are doing several things. Beyond taking note of someone and showing your legitimate interest in their work, you highlight good performance for others to emulate - a classic example of where success begets success. The compliment encourages that person to continue performing at a high level while simultaneously influencing surrounding colleagues to emulate that performance. From there, you set the conditions for team members to participate in a friendly competition of sorts to strive for excellence. This can be an effective engagement strategy if you can guide the dialogue to avoid empty platitudes and forced rhetoric. Only positive, genuine, and tailored approaches can truly lead to colleagues feeling valued and included to build a culture with organizational trust.
So, no matter how well you craft your culture or engage with your colleagues, naturally, people will leave. But when they do it should be to seize an opportunity, not to escape. How people leave contributes to the character of an organization as their thoughts are passed on through word-of-mouth. No doubt it’s the same elsewhere, but the Special Forces community is pretty small, and when people leave one unit for another that person brings with them the aura of the unit from which they came. Simultaneously, colleagues at the new unit are reaching out to friends to see who the new person is and where they came from. Leaders should strive to greet a departure with positivity and support, because you are not losing a team member so much as you are building your organization’s reputation and reinforcing its culture – in turn you enable the organization’s replacement process.
Art contributes to a culture, the resulting pride is on display anytime you walk into an art museum. This should be no different anytime someone walks into your organization’s spaces; people decorate spaces they enjoy inhabiting. The definition of your culture should be spelled out on the faces of your colleagues and the walls of the organization. Team successes influenced by the organization’s culture, documented through art or pictures by management and individual spaces adorned by personal achievement documentation and decoration are clear indicators of leadership building a resilient organization. Ask yourself, how can I strive to artfully wield the science to create a positive culture where the walls, faces, and stories told by those faces outside the walls make your teammates feel welcome every day?
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