We know that working harder is not always the best way to be more successful. We have to work smarter. But when an organization’s culture is out of alignment, no amount of smart can make up for an unbalanced culture.

So often, an organization’s beliefs and behaviors that govern how people act in an organization — or their culture — is working against the organization’s hard fought efforts at success.  You could say that the shortcut to working smarter is to address culture.

The notion of culture, loosely defined as the beliefs, behaviors, and actions of an organization, is a major determinant of a company’s success or failure. According to a Deloitte Global 2016 Human Capital Trends report, 82% of the 7,000 CEOs and HR leaders from 130 countries believe culture to be a potential competitive advantage. And yet many leaders don’t understand their culture well enough to know whether it will propel them to success or present a stumbling block. 

In our experience helping clients reach audacious goals, we start by revisiting and more sharply defining organizational core values. We have discovered that once the leadership team has a clear understanding of which behaviors represent each value, they can model and reinforce the values. And even more powerful, they learn how to identify and easily redirect behaviors that act to undermine the values. 

The next level of powerful is when executives systematically provide reinforcement and redirection to teammates. Getting the system down is the trick and finding one that resonates with your team. One of our recommendations is for leaders to schedule time to manage by walking around (MBWA). MBWA not only makes leaders more accessible, it also helps employees feel known and seen. By purposefully scheduling time to interact with backroom and frontline staff, leaders are able to provide real-time constructive feedback. 

The benefit is twofold: senior management shows genuine interest in staff which improves employee morale (which in turn improves productivity) and redirecting behaviors avoids allowing larger issues to develop. And who among us doesn’t love to see leaders walk the walk?

So if your culture is out of alignment, and success seems out of reach, we are confident you can be more successful with first transforming the organizational culture by paying attention to beliefs, behaviors and actions. If you need help, that’s our specialty. We’re happy to lend our expertise. Call us at 512-826-0871 or email info@balancedcultureconsulting.com.