Tuesday at 2:00pm with Russ

It's Tuesday at 2:00pm! (PST Time: I live and work from Southern California)

Greetings to you!

Each week I send out a short leadership blog that's called "Tuesday at 2:00pm". The purpose of this is simply to provide a brief thought on leadership that you can read and think about in just a few minutes. I send it out every week at 2:00pm (PST) and encourage you to make an appointment with yourself to pause and think about the thing I'm writing about.

Russ...

LEADERSHIP QUOTE:

"The only thing of real importance that leaders do is to create and manage culture." Edgar Schein


What does this stir up? Either write me HERE or comment at the end of the blog post HERE.

A LITTLE BIT DEEPER:

We're talking about the importance of organizational culture this month and you can catch up on the past posts HERE.

Today I'm sharing this quote from Edgar Schein (Thanks Connie for the tip and feedback). I've read his theory before but didn't know it came from him. Schein was a business theorist and psychologist who was a professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management.

His quote above really sums up much of what we've been talking about. However, there's another line that is often added to the quote above. It says this:

"The only thing of real importance that leaders do is to create and manage culture. If you do not manage culture, it manages you, and you may not even be aware of the extent to which this is happening."

O.C. Tanner shares:

"Leaders are the first line of defense for your company culture. They are in charge of living and enforcing your company's values, ideals, and policies. If employees don't see your company's cultural goals embodied in their immediate leaders, your culture will suffer."

Think of some of the organizations you've worked in over the years. Can you articulate the CULTURE?

When you think about that culture, was there someone who was "creating and managing" that culture? Was there someone who was "protecting" that culture?

DEEPER STILL:

This past week I had the privilege to help a company do some strategic planning. The company has been experiencing explosive growth over the past 5 years and after a series of mergers and acquisitions, they needed a "reset" with some key leaders within the organization.

We gathered together for 2 days to do a StratOp and while we identified some clarity around growth, organizational structure changes and opportunities, the bulk of our work focused on CULTURE.

During the explosive growth, there was some confusion around culture, and every time there was a new acquisition, they hadn't done a great job teaching and modeling culture across the newly expanding organization.

During our days together, the importance of this emerged, and the leadership identified some clear ways to teach and encourage culture throughout the company.

This is what leaders do!

Some simple ways for each of you to do this:

  • Evaluate your organizational culture. What do you see? What do others see and experience?

  • Determine if your chosen values are being lived out throughout your organization? Why or why not? You might need to redefine these. (see link below from Blanchard)

  • Begin to communicate the importance of culture throughout the organization... top down and down-up!

  • Celebrate your culture every chance you get with your team.

  • Have your team evaluate your culture and help you find any blind spots or inconsistencies.

  • Do this over again.... and again.

Creating and Managing Culture TAKES TIME. If this is your job, make it a part of your regular work rhythm and focus on it. You can't delegate this to someone else. As the leader, it's YOURS.

 

Things I'm Reading, Listening To and Watching This Week:

Source: www.leadermundial.org