Driving Results Through Culture

For decades, talented people have tolerated old-school leaders that put results before respect. Now is the time for leaders to create a work culture where good comes first for every employee—in every interaction – and where the doing of good leads directly to improved productivity, better customer service, increased retention rates, passionate employees, and higher profits. Employees – your team leaders and team members – deserve a work environment that treats them, their efforts, their ideas, their contributions, and their accomplishments with respect. And yet employees experience far more disappointment than good in today’s workplaces. Pent up frustration with unjust systems and practices, demeaning treatment, self-serving decisions, unfair or unequal compensation, rare recognition, bullying, and worse have led employees to the boiling point. In the coming years, employees will seek out and join organizations and leaders that validate employees’ efforts, serve their communities, and make life better for the

What is your stress level? What are your employees’ stress levels? The pandemic has placed tremendous burdens on every human—and every company – on the planet. Closed businesses and lost jobs have taken a significant toll on the economy and human wellbeing. Stress is at an all-time high. A 2020 Harris Poll found that US adults’ average stress level was 5.4 (on a 10-point scale). This rating is significantly higher than the 2019 average stress level of 4.9. Parents with children under the age of 18 rated their stress level at 6.7. That’s unfortunate, but not surprising. Effective leaders know that one of the most important things they can do to support team members is to remove employee frustrations. During pre-pandemic times, lousy systems, poor communication, disrespect, and poor follow-through typically generated employee frustrations. During the pandemic, employee frustrations have grown. Working remotely doesn’t solve the above issues—it amplifies them. Leaders can do three things to help address employee

You measure results religiously. How often do you measure how well you and your company’s formal leaders treat others in your work culture? Just as you measure progress towards desired results regularly, you must measure progress towards desired respect regularly. You must gather objective feedback through regular assessments – at least twice annually – that enable employees to rate how well your company’s leaders model your values and behaviors. By measuring values and respect in a formal way, you can then refine every leader’s efforts and, ultimately, improve the quality of your company’s culture. The problem is that very few leaders have been asked to measure values or respect across their organization. Most don’t know how. Doing a values survey poorly is worse than not doing a values survey at all. Lousy questions result in lousy data that is not helpful or actionable. You need proven expertise to help you build a values assessment platform to gather insightful feedback and to act on the objective data yo

The 2020 election presents a constitutional opportunity for the USA. Voter turnout - about 65% as of today's counts - is the highest it's been here in over 100 years! And - that high mark here falls short of the voter participation in other developed countries like Belgium (87% in 2014), Sweden (82% in 2014), and Denmark (80% in 2015). Our states have the responsibility to ensure that every citizen of voting age casts their vote in every election. What is required of states to increase voter turnout? Three things. In today's 3-minute culture leadership charge, Chris shares those three things, all of which are well within states' power and authority. In today's three minute episode of my Culture Leadership Charge podcast series, I share those three things - all of which are within states' power and authority. Business leaders can boost voter participation by ensuring they and their companies model these three things in their organizations. This is episode ninety of my Culture Leadership Charge series. In these

Us Westerners have the unfortunate tendency to link our identity to what we do for a living. “I’m a plumber,” one says, or “I’m a teacher,” another says. When someone asks me what I do – often on an airplane – I might answer, “I’m a speaker,” or “I’m an author,” or “I’m an executive consultant.” I’m answering truthfully; those are things I do. Often. And, I might add, I do them really well. But I am not what I do. Neither are you. Who we are is different than what we do. Sometimes I’m presenting my culture leadership concepts in a speech on a stage. Sometimes I’m doing my working musician thing, playing guitar on a stage. Sometimes I’m doing the laundry. Sometimes I’m exercising or stretching. Sometimes I’m cooking. Sometimes I’m writing. I “do” a number of things every day. But I don’t think of myself as a “doer of things” as much as I think of myself as a person of faith trying to keep aligned to my personal constitution, every day. If I didn’t have a formal declaration of my personal constitution – my serv

The pandemic has caused immeasurable harm to the economy. Some businesses are operating at 50% capacity while others are closing – or are on the verge. Some employees are able to work from home while many have been laid off. And social injustice and racial inequity are at the forefront. These issues can no longer be ignored – in our society, in our workplaces . . . anywhere. Moving forward, employees expect companies to make morally just decisions. They expect respect. They expect to have a voice. They expect companies and their leaders to be a force for good in the world. That’s a high standard. It requires leaders to shift their organization to being a great place to work – by ensuring that Good Comes First: good people doing good work in a good organization. Creating a Good Comes First work culture requires leaders to evolve beyond an exclusive focus on results. It requires new beliefs, new behaviors, and new degrees of engagement from leaders. It requires new skills, including listening, validating, mento

In July 2020, results of an investigation reveal multiple current and former employees of The Ellen Degeneres Show reporting racism, bullying, sexual harassment, and intimidation by executive producers and other senior staff. Her show is deep in a crisis of culture. Ellen herself was not the cause of the toxic environment – but she was insulated from the day-to-day employee experiences. Ellen wrote a letter to staff members expressing her disappointment at the toxicity of the show’s culture. “On day one of our show, I told everyone in our first meeting that ‘The Ellen DeGeneres Show’ would be a place of happiness – no one would ever raise their voice, and everyone would be treated with respect,” she wrote. “Obviously, something changed, and I am disappointed to learn that this has not been the case. And for that, I am sorry.” At the core of this culture crisis is a senior leader who was disconnected from the employee experience, who did not keep her “fingers on the pulse” of whether or not employees were happ

How often do you receive praise or recognition at work? We’ve had bosses that expressed gratitude well and bosses that never did it. To understand the impact of expressed gratitude, let’s look at three common types: praise, recognition, and validation. By praise, I mean the communication of appreciation for a person’s ideas, efforts, or contributions. Expressing praise can be as simple as writing or emailing a thank you note or calling a person up to thank them verbally. Praise has the least beneficial, sustained impact of the three types. It is typically one-way communication - from you to the receiver. It is often a simple expression of thanks without delving into the actions you are praising or the benefits of their actions. Praise is better than no communication of gratitude, but there are better ways to inspire. In today's 4-minute culture leadership charge episode, Chris shares the benefits of recognition and validation, and directs leaders to leverage the positive impact of only one of these

This is an important point in time for our country’s republic. Society is bent, if not broken. George Floyd’s death has generated international protests - most of them peaceful, calling for an end to racial bias and discrimination from police. Society has a bigger problem, I believe - and the time has come to address the broader implications of discrimination. We must eliminate systematic racial bias and discrimination from our society. Now is the time for white people to work together to eliminate privilege and implement fairness, inclusion, justice, and opportunity for every human. In today's 3.5-minute episode of my Culture Leadership Charge video & podcast series, I outline how leaders can inspire change in their organizations - and their communities - to create justice, equality, and opportunity for every human. This is episode eighty-five of my Culture Leadership Charge series. In these concise episodes, I presents the best practices for creating and maintaining a purposeful, positive, productive cu

We’re living in unprecedented times. With non-essential businesses closed and many people working from home, the world of work looks very different than it did three months ago. The demands on folks working from home are extensive. Besides experiencing anxiety about the well-being of their family, friends, and community, team members are juggling multiple requirements that are new, different, and exhausting. To lead effectively under normal circumstances is not easy. To do so under these circumstances is much more demanding. A great practice for all leaders to embrace is to conduct a regular audit of their leadership efforts and impact. A leadership audit helps leaders to: Plan their weeks better to engage in higher value tasks and strategic planning that moves the business forward Monitor important reoccurring tasks – financial review, department review, culture review, strategic planning Identify things that you can delegate to qualified team leaders and team members Treat others with dignity and respect i

New data coming out of Wuhan is showing that Covid-19 may be far deadlier than originally thought. Moreover, none of us knows what our economy will look like after the virus has run its course (or, more optimistically, after a vaccine is implemented.) The big, glaring takeaway? As leaders, we can no longer arrange our thinking and actions around crisis planning. Crisis planning runs on adrenaline and an unspoken assumption that this is a short-term challenge. Coronavirus is not. In fundamental ways, it’s our new normal. Today I present five steps we can all take to help us shift perspective, turn the corner emotionally and intellectually, and build stronger systems that can endure. Here are the first two: Allow yourself to grieve what’s been lost. Acting like this will all blow over means that you aren’t letting yourself acknowledge what’s been lost. This is the critical first step to being able to move forward. Assess what’s truly needed. If you’re like the rest of us, you’re realizing just how many of your

Does your work culture amp up stress – or does it purge stress? Stress is an emotion that’s created by limbo. If team members don’t know answers to questions like, “What should I do?” or “What if x, y, or z happens?“, they experience greater stress. Greater stress means they can’t act. They can’t move forward. And they worry about every single bad thing that could happen when they do take action. Workplace cultures riddled with stressed-out people are environments built on uncertainty — not healthy uncertainty, which can fuel ownership, engagement, creative problem solving, and high performance. Stressed-out people create unhealthy uncertainty — the kind of fear that arises when people aren’t sure that they will continue to be valuable to an organization if decisions they make don’t pan out. Unhealthy uncertainty amplifies stress, erodes confidence, and creates anxiety. Stressed out people are not calm, cool, and creative. Stressed out people are much more likely to stop and observe rather than to proactively

What is your company’s servant purpose – its present day “reason for being”? Most companies do not go to the length required to formalize their servant purpose and then communicate frequently to team members how their work contributes to that higher purpose. Recent research from Gallup notes that only 4 in 10 US employees agree that they know what their company stands for and what makes it different from their competitors. Higher purpose has been shown to boost company performance. A 2016 Harvard study found that companies with high purpose and high clarity from management systematically outperform companies with low purpose and low clarity. A servant purpose statement has three elements. It states what your company does, for whom, and “to what end” – how what your company does improves customers’ quality of life. In today’s 3.5-minute episode of my Culture Leadership Charge video series, I look at two different company’s purpose statements – one effective, one rather awful – and outline how to craft an effec

To what degree does your organization demonstrate service to others? As part of my consulting work with senior leadership teams, I help them define their company’s servant purpose - a concise statement of what their company does, for whom, and “to what end.” The “to what end” piece is critical because it describes how what their company does improves customers’ quality of life. It formalizes the company’s desire to serve others. Demonstrating service to others definitely brings benefits. In her excellent 2018 article, “Why Being of Service Improves Happiness,” Dr. Barbara Edwards describes how serving others boosts human satisfaction. The same benefits she describes for individuals occur when organizations make service to others a foundation of their work cultures.   In this three-minute episode of my Culture Leadership Charge video series, I share three tangible benefits that employees enjoy when your company engages in proactive, face-to-face community service. This is episode seventy-nine of my Culture Lea

To what degree might rudeness impact team performance - and team member performance - in your workplace? Rudeness and incivility is rampant in our organizations. A 2013 study featured in the Harvard Business Review found that 98% of employees reported experiencing incivility at work by bosses and peers. Individual reactions to incivility include: 48% intentionally decreased their work effort. 38% intentionally decreased the quality of their work. 63% lost work time avoiding the offender. 80% lost work time worrying about the incident. What hasn’t been examined is how rudeness and incivility impact team performance. A 2015 did exactly that. It examined how rudeness impacts medical team performance. This research used simulation-based experiments with neonatal intensive care teams. No humans were placed at risk during this study. The hypothesis was that “interrelating processes essential for collaboration are adversely affected when medical professionals are victims of others’ rudeness.” In this three-minut

Here’s a hypothetical situation. One of your good friend’s oldest child is looking for a new job. This friend tells you that his daughter is considering applying to a number of organizations, including your company. The friend asks you a vital question: “Is your company a great place to work?” For many of us, we’d have a tough time giving our company – and our company’s culture – a “great place to work” rating. It might be an “OK” place to work – but not great. The problem is that far too many companies are lousy places to work. SHRM's 2019 culture report found that, over the past five years, the cost of turnover due to workplace culture exceeded US$223 Billion around the globe. In this episode of my Culture Leadership Charge video series, I share insights from this new study (the results are not pretty) and outline how you can make your team or department or company a great place to work. This is episode seventy-seven of my Culture Leadership Charge video & podcast series. In these concise episodes, I pr

Does your workplace treat men differently than women? Your initial reaction might be, “My company pays women less than men.” Pay inequity is an issue that is gaining attention, though too few organizations are taking aggressive steps to solve that gap. Our challenge is that women experience greater workplace gaps than just salary. TINYpulse’s new Gender Equity Report examines data from over 200,000 employees in 488 global organizations to understand the female experience in today’s workplace. The results are powerful – and disappointing. 53% of men rate their work environment as very good. Only 41% of women believe the same. That’s a huge gap – and it may explain the loyalty divide: 52% of men say they’ll be working at their current organization in one year while only 40% of women commit to that. When examining the degree to which women are valued for their work contributions, women report receiving 17% less recognition than men. It’s not surprising that women feel more insecure in their current roles than me

Are you a great partner, at work and in life, to those around you? Relationships with our work peers, friends, family, neighbors, or even strangers are not always healthy. Yet numerous research studies provide indisputable evidence that positive relationships lead to greater well-being and longer life. Most of us humans realize that we could serve others more effectively. Often, our selfish desires quash our ability to see opportunities to serve – and to act on those opportunities. What we need is a simple model to guide how we interact with others daily. Here is my best thinking on a GREAT partnering model. In 2013 I published a book on how to be a GREAT boss. Those recommendations are still important and relevant. Whether you’re a formal leader or not, though, you’re a colleague, neighbor, and partner with many people each day. What each of us need to do is BE a GREAT partner as well as surround ourselves with GREAT partners! GREAT partners demonstrate and inspire these five characteristics. “Demonstrate” m

I am often asked about my three-phase culture refinement process. Today I’ll share how the third phase – “refine” – ensures the effective evolution of your purposeful, positive, productive work culture. My approach is founded on this hard fact – senior leaders must drive and champion their organization’s culture. They are ultimately responsible for clarity of and demonstration of the organization’s servant purpose, values and behaviors, strategies, and goals. They can’t delegate this responsibility to any one or to any other function – they must model and coach their desired culture daily. The refine stage happens about every two years. This stage offers business leaders and senior leaders the opportunity to update portions of their organizational constitution. Which portions stay the same? Your servant purpose and values don’t typically require updates. Though values rarely change, you may find that you need to tweak the language in your values definitions. Your organization evolves once you set high standar

I am often asked about my three-phase culture refinement process. Today I’ll share how the second phase – “align” – creates commitment for your purposeful, positive, productive work culture. My approach is founded on this hard fact – senior leaders must drive and champion their organization’s culture. They are ultimately responsible for clarity of the organization’s servant purpose, values and behaviors, strategies, and goals. They can’t delegate this responsibility to any one or to any other function – they must model and coach their desired culture daily. In the align stage, I help senior leaders ensure that every player’s plans, decisions, and actions align with their defined organizational constitution. Every player means everyone in the organization – senior leaders, next level leaders, and on, including frontline team members. This is by far the most demanding stage for senior leaders. In the first stage – define – senior leaders formalize their desired culture by crafting and publishing their organizat