by Susan Radojevic, theleadershiphub.com
Since the year 2000, we have been in what experts are now calling “the Creativity Age”, where technology, information and ease of global connections are accelerating the creation of new ideas at a record pace. Change like this can only mean one thing – opportunity! To seize this opportunity and gain the most value will take leadership, vision and courage. And therein lies the challenge.
William Deresiewicz wrote in his 2010 speech Solitude and Leadership,
“We have a crisis in leadership because our overwhelming power and wealth, earned under another generation of leaders, made us complacent; for too long we have been training leaders who know how to keep the routine going”.
Although he was speaking to Americans, the same thought applies directly to Canadians. We have all grown up in a management culture that has been created in and for another time; a management culture that sustains “operational excellence” versus the messy, but now essential, generation of innovation.
What is culture?
Culture is a clear set of values and norms that actively guide the way a company operates with its employees, suppliers, clients and the community. It is “the way we do things around here” – how businesses or products are launched; what happens when someone makes a mistake; how does information flow; who gets promoted and why; what are the consequences for disagreeing with senior management; how are meetings conducted? Culture is amorphous, ubiquitous and often unspoken.
In creating and executing a new and viable future for a company, corporate culture can be either a great asset and a serious liability – or both! During a period of change at Ford, every manager had a sign in their office that warned “Don’t let culture eat your strategy” because if not understood, it will.
For this reason, leaders who want their company to be sustainable (or, dare to dream, leading the market!) in this dynamic age, need to be consciously competent about identifying two critical factors:
The elements of culture needed to reach your desired future
The elements of the current culture that will either facilitate or impede that success
For example, if your future lies in innovation, your compensation structure should NOT be bonus-centred. If the current culture excels in superior client relationships (a clear strength), expect innovation with immediate and direct client advantage versus “six sigma” efficiency ideas.
There are many ways a culture can be assessed ranging from hiring a consulting firm to just “asking around”. The point is that it needs to be consciously understood, managed and most likely tweaked to affect change. If leaders cannot do this, it is virtually a law of physics that culture will sustain itself and block a changed future.
Last night I attended a presentation where a Steam Whistle Brewery executive explained, in detail, the aspects of their culture that made them successful and what the leadership does to ensure the cultural underpinnings sustain competitive advantage. Every leader could and should be able to do just that!
The leader’s role in creating culture will be a topic for the next blog.
This blog post was written by Shirley Knight at The Peregrine Agency Blog. Please follow this link to see this post in its original context.
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