I have always held a fundamental view that the role and responsibility of leaders is to set the tone, the style, the culture of the organisation. After all, they have power, influence and the drive to set standards and pace. Therefore it seems logical to see them as the roots of the overall company culture. Yet systems, processes, bonus structures, etc can have equally as much impact, if not more, than the behaviour of senior individuals.
Suppose we accept this, then perhaps company culture is created by the overall business approach and process. Established over time, in the DNA of the business, culture is both about the current approach and the threads of a long and plaited history. Often leadership is accepted, encouraged, suppressed, or moulded in a particular way. Unspoken and often very different from the espoused values, many people take their leadership capability home, or at least outside of the work environment onto committees, charities or councils. Though not intentional I am sure, unless we are deliberate about how our culture works – how things are achieved, what reaps rewards – then the real potential of leadership within an organisation is lost.
I hear people say – “it’s so frustrating trying to get others to listen and take action, perhaps it’s that way in all organisations”, “I’ve given up trying to do things differently, it’s all about the short term, what we know, what we do today”. It is not normally the intention of senior leaders to engender such reactions, but when it happens there are three likely outcomes. One: the culture remains static. Actually it is worse than that, because the culture begins to atrophy and the conversations of frustration and anger we often hear cement this. Two: potential leaders go underground, doing their best to bring about change surreptiously and quietly at the edges. Or three: aspiring leaders become impatient, ‘up sticks’ and leave.
I reminded of a story from one of my clients who, to mark an excellent year, brought his large team together to present the results and celebrate. Unable to find a suitable venue, he became creative and hired a marquee which was erected on the company campus. People loved this approach. However, his boss did not see it in the same way and made that clear when he arrived at the meeting. Where did that leave my client? Somewhat confused. Why wasn’t he being celebrated for his creativity and determination? They were stated company values after all! Breaking the whole situation down later, we could see that this was about a reality of his organisation and within that, a choice about his leadership. The culture wasn’t quite ready for his different approach. But how much should he ‘dampen down’ in response? Soundings have been encouraging – people respect and like his style, but perhaps the overall culture is not yet pliable enough for the change he can bring. Particularly as they are generally successful working in the current style.
So who sits in this ‘gap’ between the current and future cultures? Let’s not expect our senior leaders to do it. After all, they are invested in the success they have already created. And let’s not expect too much of our next generation of leaders when the existing culture does not give out those subtle but vital signals, that a new approach is not only okay but supported. Like all of us, those inspiring leaders have bills, mortgages and excellent reasons to ‘back off’ at critical times. I think this ‘gap’ needs to be filled by HR. In the story of the marquee, the senior HR director came to speak at the meeting and fully endorsed the approach. Often though, HR can inadvertently take the operational support role, appearing somewhat opaque on key cultural issues. Yet this is perhaps one of their key points of leadership – to help people to connect together, to understand, to demand more of the business in engendering the change it purports to need. And as importantly, orientating and building the key organisation & people processes to support a new direction or approach.
Culture is slippery. It is difficult to grasp, to accurately articulate the reality and to make that change. Leadership is more obvious, possibly easier to deal with – or at least to see. But perhaps if we focused more on company culture and business process, then style and more good leadership would follow – a virtuous cycle worth pursuing?
PS He ran the marquee event again recently and yet again the 600 attending loved it!