When it comes to company culture, actions speak louder than words. Culture is a manifestation of the behaviors that are rewarded, rejected and reinforced by those in positions of power. Culture is not formed by company values statements posted in conference rooms. It’s behavioral rather than conceptual. “Culture to me is about people making the right decision without being told what to do. People seeing who succeeds and fails in the company defines culture. The people who succeed become role models for what’s valued in the organization, and that defines culture.” This succinct and apt depiction of company culture appeared in a New York Times Corner Office column quoting Tae Hea Nahm, of Storm Ventures.
Using Accountability to Shape Culture
An essential leadership tool to establish a high performing company culture is accountability. Leaders who demand, enforce, and reward high standards cultivate highly functioning teams. If this is done in a mindful and respectful manner, then a company culture can be both high performing and supportive to its workers. Employees will observe the benefits of meeting established targets and rightly conclude that high performance is their path to advancement. Consider these examples.
A small software company CEO, we’ll call her Helen, demands high performance from herself and her leadership team. She establishes goals, relentlessly pursues progress to key milestones, and is very specific with management direction to meet them. Helen is realistic about what it’s possible to accomplish and some goals are stretch goals that might be stretched a little too far. It’s a must in a fast-paced, competitive market. Her team’s failure to meet milestones or accomplish goals is met with Helen’s intolerance. Sometimes the conversation isn’t pretty when a deadline passes unfinished or a customer is lost. Faced with repeated failures, she will implement performance management plans. Helen’s clarity and drive motivates her leadership team in an occasionally tense environment. Already a bright, results oriented group, they thrive on winning. This company has a high performing culture and it shows in financial results and competitive market strength.
In an alternate scenario, another small company CEO we’ll call Chris, is conflict averse. He collaborates with his leadership team to establish strategic goals and reviews progress regularly with direct reports and a broader group of company managers. These targets are significant to the health of the company. Milestones in a variety of categories – sales, customer retention, product development – are repeatedly missed. Meanwhile, Chris and his leadership team set an upbeat tone by celebrating trivial successes unrelated to the strategic plan. Chris is patient though frustrated and no one on his leadership team or their direct reports are held accountable for nonperformance. Chris and his company suffer the poor results he is willing to tolerate. The result is corporate hand wringing with little progress: a culture of supportive mediocrity.
Tips to Evolve Company Culture
There are as many stories about culture as there are companies. Identifying and resolving culture challenges is never easy. Here are actions that will evolve and reinforce the culture you want.
- Focus on competencies and behaviors in addition to values. Values such as integrity, leadership, and respect are conceptual and can be interpreted differently by various people. Competencies like priority setting, teamwork and communication skills are more concrete by providing a set of defined behaviors as examples of what is expected.
- Involve your first and second level management teams when developing company values and competencies. Their insight will add relevance and their ownership will increase adoption downstream.
- No one is above the cultural norms – they apply to all not some. Values are egalitarian. Applying them unevenly establishes a shadow culture contrary to the values and culture statement on conference room walls and in employee manuals.
- Clearly and consistently describe the specifics of what “good” looks like for your teams so there’s no mistaking what needs to be achieved.
- Exhibit the courage to have difficult though crucial conversations to adjust course when needed in the interest of the success of your organization and its stakeholders.
- Communicate honestly about financial and performance objectives, progress to meeting them, and plans to adjust course if needed. It shows tolerance for the inevitable corrections and businesslike ways to address them.
- Publicly recognize those who model the stated culture with awards in physical or virtual group settings such as meetings, email, social platforms or newsletters. Enable those who embody the culture to promote and share it with others by telling their own stories and shine.
- Encourage workers and executives to hold one another accountable to performance and behaviors with open, constructive dialog so direction and correction come from everywhere, not just the C-suite.
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And remember, when it comes to culture, actions reap while talk is cheap.
