Change Your Work Culture

What is your culture of leadership? What does it look like to be on your team?

One of the traps I found myself in as a leader was that of managing over motivating. It is easier than we might imagine to create an unhealthy work environment based on our drive to fulfil what we believe is the right goal.

“People join organizations, but leave managers.”

Think about that statement for a moment. There is that moment where you are sold on the values and the direction of the place we are about to go. Maybe it’s the way they connected with customers or the general public that just gets you jazzed up. But then you realize how the place is managed and the reality of how the values translate into working relationships. It usually does not end well. Either you lose some of your hopefulness and just bear with the culture you are now in. Or you try to change it and realize you are not in a position to change the tide.

If there is no room for healthy motivation that elevates everyone else to move in a positive direction, then you have a bad culture of management. Not a culture of change through positive leadership.

So what do you do about it? Here are a few key questions to ask yourself, regardless of where you find yourself in the organization:

1. Has the overarching vision for your organization been interpreted to everyone with a sense of positive ownership? In other words, do you feel like you can honestly say that the vision is yours as well, and it is not used as a whip to make you work?
2. Do you feel motivated to carry out this vision for more than a paycheque? This is key, because if money is your only motivator here then you do not actually own the vision.
3. Are you in a position to honestly and openly dialogue about your place in the fulfilment of the vision?
4. Are you empowered to carry out your part of the vision?

If at the end of it all you have not made the above 4 items clear and open for everyone involved, then you are creating a culture that fits machinery. That needs to be changed. Simply go through those questions again with all your people in mind responding.

Better yet, why not ask them directly and begin the conversation for a healthier work culture.

Would you like to talk more about your leadership culture? I look forward to hearing from you!