Your Culture is Counting On You!

Before a potential wound festers, let’s make sure we clean it up properly. I occasionally ruffle feathers when I compare the actions our team members take to those of our children. I don’t mean that to be one bit belittling. If I’m being honest, I’m at least as capable of doing something immature (and sometimes, just plain stupid) as anyone you’ll ever meet. And as I’ve grown into a bit of a grumpy old man (at least at times), I’ve noticed the limited filter I had developed over the years doesn’t always work quite like it used to… Please understand, though, I’m not alone in suggesting that adults are often motivated similarly to kids; but I do always attempt to tie it back to behavioral science rather than just being mean. Here’s a statement I found from a Forbes.com article called “Leadership Tips: Setting the Example”, making a similar comparison while emphasizing just how important it is for every leader to exemplify what they need from their teams:

“As a leader, you find yourself in a position previously held by kindergarten teachers and the cool kids of our high schools: the example-setter, the person that others look to for acceptable behavior. Rather than clothes or music, you’re demonstrating to those who follow how the attitude with which to approach their jobs and each other. It might be a responsibility that you feel is unwanted, or unnecessary; again, everyone working for you is an adult, and should be able to make their own determinations as to how they need to work to be successful. But, we all gather cues from those in our proximity that can affect our thoughts and behavior, and it’s the job of a leader to try and sway them in a positive direction.”

As leaders, it’s nothing short of mandatory that we demonstrate the core values of our organization - consistently. We’d do well to follow what John Maxwell defines in chapter nine of The 17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork as “The Law of Countability.” John explains that “teammates must be able to count on each other when it counts,” and goes into more detail by sharing, “if there is a breakdown in countability, then the account is lost, the customer goes away unhappy, and the job goes to some other candidate.” To build a culture around our values, we have no choice but to be countable if we’re leading anyone at all; our team members must be able to count on us when it comes to the values we want to count! John also tied countability to character, quoting Barry Gibbons, from his book This Indecision Is Final, as saying “Write and publish what you want, but the only mission, values, and ethics that count in your company are those that manifest themselves in the behavior of all the people, all the time.” 

That, my friend, is our culture. And our culture will be built on the consistent example we provide showing how our core business values can be modeled in each role; our culture will be built on the example our teams count on us to provide… I’ll say it once more, just in case you missed it: Keeping things simple isn’t easy. Throughout What’s KILLING Your Profitability? and Leading With A Clear Purpose, I was intentional to emphasize that there are many times where leadership at any level is just plain hard. In fact the author of that Forbes article closed with this:

“Setting the example isn’t easy; it requires you to be always on, always living up to the standard you want for others. And even then we can fall short with a bad day, an off day. But the key is getting your team to understand the ideal that you strive for, and the values and culture that you’re looking to instill, while accepting that everyone, even you, will fall short from time to time. What matters is that they keep striving towards that ideal.”

Even through some bumps in the road, our consistent, countable, example is a key part of building our values into the organizational culture, but we’ll still need to talk about them just as consistently AND we’ll need to connect all of it to what each team member does in their own role - so we’ll look at that next.