Culture is the glue that holds a complex organisation together. It’s your firm’s DNA.
In the Great Managers® Program, we say culture is everything we think, everything we say, everything we do in our workplaces. It is the expression of who we are together
It is the force that determines how people behave when no one is looking—it strengthens a workplace and can provide your firm immense competitive advantage. Think Google or PWC – world renowned for their culture. People line up for job opportunities with them.
The wrong culture, however, can be toxic and erode the confidence and effectiveness of people.
There are 2 ways that culture forms: Accidentally and Deliberately. You can be sure that Google’s culture did not form accidentally!
At Great Managers® we have developed a 6 Step System for Deliberately Creating Your Culture and one of these crucial steps is to Bring Your Firm’s Values to Life. Values are your standards of what is acceptable and unacceptable. People connect to values. They have intrinsic value… only IF you bring them to life.
They come to life through discussions, interpretations, and your team being able to make the values meaningful and connect them to your context.
As a leader, the challenge is to “unfreeze” established behaviours in your team that aren’t in alignment with your values and create the motivation to change so that employees can learn new productive behaviours. Then “refreeze” those behaviours over time through feedback and rewards.
And most importantly, never tolerate behaviour outside your values!
I am coaching our members on this 6 Step Culture Building System in detail via a Great Managers® MasterClass. If you would like VIP access to one of these sessions, which are held monthly via webinar, please contact the team at [email protected].
Sandra Wood
Founder & Managing Director
Great Managers®
🔶 Leadership Training 🔶 Practical Management Training 🔶 Employee Engagement🔶 360° Surveys🔶Executive Coaching
- Building a great place to work - 17 August 2016
