Keeping people and culture top of the leadership agenda in tough times
When faced with tough times, it’s easy to let culture slip down the priority list. It’s not uncommon to see businesses focusing simply on financial performance often with serious negative consequences for the health of the business.
Culture is the only competitive advantage you have complete control over. So, it’s clearly nuts to leave something you have so much direct influence over to the lap of the gods.
To keep people and culture top of the leadership agenda even in tough times, try changing up your regular Leadership Team meetings. Make it a shorter conversation about the financials and spend much more time discussing people, values, and your direction of travel.
Here are six questions you can use in your next Leadership Team meeting to ensure people, performance, and culture remain top of your agenda:
How are people feeling in the business right now?
To answer this question, you’ll need to have a finger on the pulse of the current health of your workplace. Do you have reliable data to back up what you think is going on? You may need to spend time getting deeper under the skin of issues. You can’t decide how to prioritise your limited resources until you know what’s most pressing.
Are your words and actions always aligned?
Take an honest look at how you’re performing – individually and collectively - as a Leadership Team. You should be role modelling the behaviour you want to see from others without exception – even when no one’s looking! Ask yourselves what it would look like for leaders to walk the talk on this stuff and give each other honest feedback – it may feel uncomfortable but it’s the fastest way to improve.
Are we using our cultural foundations to guide us in decision-making?
You should be using your cultural foundations (purpose and values) as a framework for business decisions. Continually assess business challenges and prioritise through the lens of your cultural foundations. Your decisions should be a source of pride – you should be able to confidently explain why you’ve opted for a particular route even when difficult trade-offs were necessary.
Are we providing enough business transparency?
We recommend sharing as much as you can as often as you can – even when it feels uncomfortable. This will ensure everyone feels connected and has the context they need to do the best job possible. It’s a good idea to agree what you can share at the end of every Leadership meeting. And make sure you’re regularly gathering feedback and ideas from the wider team – then show people that you’re acting on their ideas.
How good is our talent really?
It sometimes feels easier to keep hold of average – or poor - performers rather than go through the hassle of finding a replacement. But performance is contagious so worse than average performers will bring down the entire team. Ask yourselves whether you’re hanging on to any ‘superstar jerks’ and who you would truly fight to keep. Commit to action whatever needs to be done.
Are we creating an environment that will see everyone succeed?
In today’s thriving cultures, people leaders lead more with context than control. Workers are given the space and autonomy to decide how to deliver against goals themselves, whilst receiving regular one-to-one coaching support. People leaders embrace flexibility and create opportunities for learning, ensuring a level playing field for all their diverse team. Ask yourselves if everyone has access to brilliant performance no matter their background or previous experience?
It would be easy – or at least easier - if culture were a project with an associated due date. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. The only way to future-proof your business is to commit to ongoing people and culture discussions. It all starts with what you do at the top. You need to work hard to consciously create and sustain the culture that you want.
We’re working with businesses to help them do more than just get through the current pandemic. We help them see this time of disruption as an opportunity to introduce more human ways of working that put talent and people at the heart of business success.
Get in touch if you’d like to find out more about how we can help future-proof your business for success in 2021 and beyond.
