Padraig Hyland
I’m Padraig Hyland and welcome to the Ninja Leadership Academy.
This week we will be looking at how you can change your business, by changing your corporate culture.
Corporate culture is the personality of an organization, or to put it another way "how we do things around here." It guides how employees think, act, and feel and includes core values and beliefs, corporate ethics and rules of behavior. Your corporate culture will contribute to or detract from the success of your organization. And you directly affect that culture.
A culture exists in all organisations – it cannot not exist!
If you are not aware of your company’s culture, you are ignoring a key success factor. If you do not like the culture and do nothing about it, you are supporting that culture.
Key Questions leaders should ask themselves!
What do I think the corporate culture is? Is it actually, what I think it is? And if it is what I think it is, then is that the right culture to support our business objective?
Different organisations are suited to different cultures.
Your business maybe more entrepreneurial if you are in a fast growing dynamic business and you value empowerment, risk taking and innovation. Or your business might be more management orientated where the industry is highly regulated and values control, low risk and standardisation.
Types of Enabling Corporate Cultures are often described as:
Empowering
Trusting
Fast-Moving
Risk-Taking
Customer-Centered
Innovative
A Learning Culture
In their book, The Ownership Quotient, Heskett, Sasser and Wheeler looked at a number of companies who have created a competitive advantage through developing ownership cultures, where employees and even customers think and act like owners of the company. This is what they say, “We have learned repeatedly that there is a pattern in the actions and activities involved in developing strong and adaptive ownership cultures. When an organization consistently builds and reinforces such a culture, it creates a competitive edge that is hard to replicate.” Here are some of the activities and actions they mention which are applicable to any culture you wish to create and maintain.
1. Leaders must set the example...
by living the elements of culture: values, behaviors, measures, and actions.
2. When the behaviors are demonstrated within the organisation it is rewarded...
And those who resist aligning with the values are moved on.
3. Employees at all levels in an organization notice and validate the elements of culture...
As owners, they judge every management decision to hire, reward, promote, and fire colleagues.
4. High-performing organizations periodically revisit and reaffirm their core values and associated behaviors.
5. Foster effective succession in the leadership ranks....
The culture both prepares successors and eases the transition.
If you need to change your corporate culture, realise that it doesn’t change overnight. But if you want to change lets look at the...
Four Steps to Changing Corporate Culture by Tim Klabunde
Step 1 – Educate and Encourage
Without the knowledge of how to succeed in a new culture it will be impossible for employees to move towards that new culture. For example if you want to change the corporate culture toward a culture that embraces innovation, the first thing people need to know is how to create new ideas or put ideas into action. This will require training in areas such as creative processes and building business cases. During and after training it is important to encourage employees to try out their newly acquired skills. Through this process you will begin an ongoing process of training and raising up a company that embraces the new culture.
Step 2 – Define Expectations
This should not be done by identifying what is expected of all employees in the company. Note the emphasis on individuals in each step; changing corporate culture is dependent on changing one person at a time. This also means that what is expected of individuals may vary depending on their role.
Step 3 – Acknowledge & Celebrate Success
Acknowledging and celebrating success is the most important step in changing corporate culture. It should be done at all levels within the organisation with senior management showing the way.
Step 4 – Reward Success
Title changes, bonuses, parking spaces, raises, and office locations linked to culture change successes ensure the long-term success of your cultural change.
It is important to measure your success in changing your corporate culture one person at a time. Focus your attention on the success of individuals, by doing this you will see a wave of optimism unfold as these individuals begin to build your new corporate culture.
Will you accept this week’s Ninja Leadership Challenge? Is my corporate culture what I think it is?
Take a cross section of you employees ( If you are brave enough include some suppliers and customers) and ask the following questions
1. What is the mission of our company (if one exists)?
2. What are the key values of our company?
3. What does our company stand for?
4. Describe your experience of working here?
5. How does working here make you feel?
6. How do you think our customers perceive us?