Leaders Create the Culture that Drives Their Brand

Leaders Create the Culture that Drives Their Brand

There seems to be a lot of discussion about generational gaps in the workplace with understanding how millennials fit into today’s organizations. A recent Deloitte survey found that many of the performance drivers once associated with previous age demographics do not motivate many of these young people in today’s workforce. From their research, Deloitte surveyed 10,455 millennials, defined as people born between January 1983 and December 1994, across 36 countries, who hold college or university degrees, are employed full-time, and currently work in large, private-sector organizations. The poll found that 43% said they plan to leave their jobs within two years, while only 28% are looking to stay beyond five years. “After narrowing last year, the gap between the two groups is widening again” (Brinded, May 15, 2018).

Richard Andrews in his article “6 Ways Your Company can Adapt to an Aging Workforce,” noted that some companies are conducting changes to workplace environments even in lighting and color schemes arguing that “Simple changes can be made without catering to just one group. Rethinking of colors, making sure acoustics and audio technology makes provision for those harder of hearing and introducing (and allowing) easy access to mother's rooms are some of the easy wins which won't impact the office overall, but will cater to an aging workforce.

What this data suggests along with the research that we constantly are conducting at The Frisina Group and The Center for Influential Leadership is that leaders must be purposeful and intentional about managing dynamic states of nature like culture, generational gap, and brand image. These dynamics are not problems to be solved but states of nature that require constant attention. How people experience the external effect of your organizational culture is a byproduct of the internal dynamic of your organizational culture. Tony Hsieh the CEO of Zappos said it best “that culture is your brand” and that culture is driven and created as a direct result of the level of engagement you have as leader in your organization.

Generational engagement is not a new concept. The baby boomers of the 1960’s became the “suits” of the 1990’s. Today’s millennial are becoming tomorrow’s leaders in our organizations. How we sustain performance and success in our organizations is how people will identify with and cultivate the core values, ethics and workplace culture that we, as leaders, choose to create. If you want a dynamic, healthy, performance driven culture, then as leaders you have to create it. As Henry Cloud and others have written about so eloquently, you as a leader are ridiculously in charge. Consequently you get in performance outcomes what you create or what you allow and culture is fundamentally something that is created or something that takes on a life of its own. As an organizational expert, I have witnessed too much “millennial blame” and their effect on workplace culture, and not enough emphasis on leaders driving the workplace culture they need to thrive in and not just show up to work in.

A CULTURE BUILT FOR PERFORMANCE

In today’s professional world, people are craving effective leadership. What may be misattributed as generational gaps is that everywhere, middle level managers and their team members are overburdened and uninspired by individuals holding titled positions of leadership providing neither effective leadership nor effective management. The issue is not change resistance. Peter Senge said it well, “People do not resist change. They resist being changed.” Knowledge based workers desire true leadership that capitalizes on collaboration, communication and connection to accomplish their work related goals and objectives.

One of the strongest ways an influential leader can connect with others is by practicing the principle of followership. Followership is a leader’s willingness to listen to those for whom they are responsible. “Listening to me” is the highest rated attribute for an effective leader by direct reports. Effective listening creates a connection between the leader and the legitimate needs, wants, and desires of team members. By paying attention to members of the team, through active listening, a leader gains insight and information to the factors that drive performance. Peter Drucker said, “Everybody writes books about leadership. Somebody ought to write a book about followership, because for every leader there are a thousand followers.” Although followership is an age-old concept and several books have been written about it, the concept is still a novelty to many in titled positions of authority.

People do not quit their jobs. They quit their leader – the boss. Ineffective leaders breed ineffective followers and performance and productivity suffer as a result. With a positive, emotional connection with your people you send a clear message that you are interested and invested in what your people experience on a daily basis. People in general do not follow just anyone or follow out of the goodness of their heart. They need good reasons—a motivation – to follow. You are responsible for giving them those reasons by understanding what they want and need to fulfill their work requirements and contribute to a mutual and beneficial meaningful purpose in their work. During the downturn in the so-called bubble, many leaders have acquired what the professional literature is calling learned helplessness. Everything is negative, we have a “new normal” and the positive and optimistic qualities of leadership seem to be caught in this self-fulfilling prophecy of scarcity and mediocrity. As leaders infect this mindset into their teams, productivity and other performance factors wane. The team members get caught in a brain-funk - simply do whatever the leader says to keep their jobs and stay out of trouble with the boss.

The reality is that inwardly, people still want to make a difference at work. They want leaders who will give them control and emancipate them to do their jobs and solve problems at their level. For some of you this may seem like a radical idea –giving control away - and a deviation from the historical “top-down” driven approach to leadership. However, if you want to connect, if you desire to become an influential leader, you have to begin to change from the outdated and ineffective practices of the past that limit your leadership capacity.  As leaders we should be asking ourselves daily, is the behavior I am engaging drawing people towards me or away from me? Understanding the elements of what endears our team members to us is essential to understanding the great impact that connection has in driving performance in the workplace.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Becoming an influential leader is going to require you to learn to understand yourself. The ancient Greek aphorism, “Know Thyself,” can be attributed to at least six Greek sages, the most notable being the philosopher Socrates. For the more modern generation of folks you are probably familiar with its Latin version that hung above the Oracle’s door in the Matrix film series. Suffice it to say, virtually every kind of performance problem links to relationship dysfunction that stems from a lack of self-awareness – how our quirky traits and habits that we do not see in ourselves affect the most important people around us.

Influential leaders are aware of their behavior tendencies and preferences. They know how to manage their emotions, and they are keenly aware of the need to be highly skilled in social management – creating and sustaining highly effective interpersonal relationships. They are empathic, in that they can sense the emotional states of other people, and they are also compassionate in their acknowledgement and response to the emotional messages of others. 

You will never lead other people successfully, influentially, if you do not lead your own self well. Benjamin Franklin wrote, “A man wrapped up in himself makes a very small bundle.” Would you follow you as a leader? Are you the kind of leader others desire to follow? The answers to these questions impact on your willingness to be purposeful and intentional about managing dynamic states of nature like culture, generational gap, and brand image. That is worth thinking about today.