As a leader, you have an incredible opportunity to inspire and change someone’s life every single day. An opportunity you should never take for granted. -Leadership First Culture is the backbone of your organization; it is the character and personality behind the way things are done. A positive culture supports your organizational vision and goals, while delivering a positive experience to each and every employee, every day. Employees today are looking for meaning and fulfillment from their work, factors that are key to motivation, positive attitudes, and job satisfaction. Delivering a positive employee experience is integral to a healthy and supportive culture of performance, and ultimately – organizational success.
Your most important job as a leader is driving a positive culture. In Jon Gordon’s book The Power of Positive Leadership, he shares, “Culture is not just one thing; it’s everything. Culture drives expectation and beliefs. Expectations and beliefs drive behaviors. Behaviors drive habits. And habits create the future.” Further, “Driving your culture is not something you can delegate. You are the leader and you must spend your time, energy, and effort creating culture.”
With the significant changes in where and how we work, driving culture becomes an even bigger challenge.
However, there are several ways people leaders can seize the moment.
– Be readily available and invest in relationships. Spend time with your employees both one-on-one and as a team – and today, that usually means virtually. By investing in conversations, your employees will feel heard and valued. Ensure that you are also helping foster employee-to-employee relationships – create the environment that supports collaboration.
– Connect your team to the big picture. Educate your team to ensure understanding of your organization’s mission, vision and values and how their job contributes to the team’s and the organization’s success.
– “What’s reinforced gets repeated”. Reinforce the right things – leaders need to ensure they are reinforcing the right behaviors to drive the desired culture. It is the leader’s job to not only set the example but to
also encourage and acknowledge these desired behaviors.
– Show appreciation. Say thank you. These words are often the most important words leadership can use.
As an organizational leader, your efforts need to focus on creating the right environment for your leaders to succeed. Consider putting technology in place that would consistently support the responsibility that falls on leaders. Provide them with the tools to communicate, educate, connect, and recognize. Provide them with the data to create line of site to success where improvement is needed. Your people strategy
needs to be intentional in showing support for not only your employees, but also your leaders, all while focusing on the vision for positive business outcomes.
Email – jschaefer@IncentiveServices.com (888)646-6670
