Within a leadership development coaching process it is important to know and understand what the stated and actual organizational values are, so both the coach and the colleague can better understand how people fit or align themselves within the organization. A leadership coach needs to be sensitive to how things are actually done within the organization in which they are going to be coaching leaders and other key individuals. This understanding will help the coach be more effective in asking the right questions or challenging individuals to follow the right assumptions. This will also provide the coach with insight as to what will be the important values that your colleague needs to be in alignment with or possibly what values need to be changed to allow greater individual and organizational success. With both the coach and the colleague being clear on the organizational values, the coach can better advise (coach) the colleague on how to most effectively use his or her strengths, talents and competencies to attain the greatest impact.
Every organization has a culture. Just as the personalities of individuals, organizational culture is formed early in the life of the organization. Culture is determined by the personalities, behaviors and actions of the founders, key leaders and members of the organization as they form practices, strategies and react to internal and external forces. Culture then tends to become deeply embedded in the very fabric of the organization as it develops and is reinforced over time. Culture normally becomes so strong that even as original leaders and key members leave, the culture lives on. The culture can change to some degree over time, however most often it takes some extraordinary event to have a profound effect on cultural change. To break status quo cultural behavior it takes strong leadership who model a different way of behaving and a reward system that causes organizational members to embrace a new approach to “how we do things around here.” A solid approach to ushering in cultural change is to identify and clearly state the desired values the organization will aspire to.
The Importance of Values:
Values are the bedrock of any organizational culture. In fact, there is abundant evidence that the displayed values (good or bad) of members of an organization culture make a substantial difference in organizational performance. Because of this fact, the statement can be made “values are important” and “culture counts.” Culture is the mortar that holds the organization together – it’s about people. Culture is often described as the “soft” side of the business and is therefore thought to be easy to define, mold and change. You should challenge that assumption. The “soft” side of the business or organizational environment is most often very difficult to orchestrate. Culture within an organization is deep, extensive and complex. Culture is a very powerful and often unconscious set of forces that both determines individual as well as collective behaviors, beliefs, values and ways of perceiving situations and doing things.
Once the mission, vision and strategies of an organization are determined, it is imperative to ask the question – Will the current cultural values and behaviors support them? Answering this question will normally lead to an organization taking the time to also answer the following questions.
• Do we know what are current culture really is?
• Is our current culture a benefit or barrier to future organizational success?
• What are our current cultural strengths?
• What are our current cultural weaknesses?
• Will our current culture hinder or support our organizational strategies?
• What values in our culture need to be changed or added to better support our mission, vision and strategy?
• How can we make our organizational culture a competitive advantage?
• Do we have the individual talent to support and live our culture going forward?
• Does our culture support the performance outcomes required for success?
When attempting to improve organizational culture, mixing the cultures of split or remote locations, and when assimilating an acquisition/merger, cultural changes can become one of the biggest challenges facing a growing organization. Also, when long-term business perspectives collide with short-term financial realities, cultural norms can be affected. Virtually any cultural change will either be unsettling, traumatic or welcomed and inspiring or a combination of both. The key to success is to effectively lead and orchestrate how the cultural change is implemented.
Cultural values, attitudes, assumptions and behaviors develop over time and become the core fabric in how the organization performs its basic mission and implements its strategy. The power and influence of the culture either prevents an organization from effectively functioning or allows the organization to achieve high standards and accomplish seemingly impossible stretch goals. One of the oldest observations of human behavior is that people have a strong tendency to mirror those around them. Whenever you find a strong positive culture, built on strong positive values, you will find endless examples of many people – especially key people – who live and mirror the best values of the organization. A strong positive culture provides members with a sense of belonging, direction, stability and the desire to serve a higher purpose – each other and the customer.
Culture is the set of values, norms, practices and behaviors that an organization uses to define and shape its day-to-day activities. Culture conveys the feeling of a pervasive pattern of organizational life and a set of acceptable norms. These patterns of organizational culture and values emerge and manifest themselves in three complex levels: (1.) The level of deep tacit assumptions, the shared, unconscious beliefs, thoughts and feelings that are the very essence of the organizational culture; (2.) The level of espoused beliefs such as the written company values statement, which most often reflects how the organization wants to present itself; and (3.) The actual day-to-day behavior or how the organization typically presents itself, which is a complex compromise between the deep tacit assumptions and the espoused beliefs, modified by the requirements and pressures of the immediate business situation. This overall complexity colored by all of the organizational and individual beliefs, feelings, emotions, wants, desires, dreams, talents and opinions – expressed and suppressed – contribute to the chaotic nature of what we call “organizational cultural behavior.”
An excellent approach to understanding the “real” organizational culture is to see it as the language of day-to-day feelings expressed through the individual and collective beliefs, gestures, words and actions of its members. This real organizational culture does not occur or evolve simply as the result of prominently displayed words. Culture evolves because of the actual behaviors and actions of all members of the organization – particularly those in leadership positions. A carefully thought-out set of cultural values, lived, taught and orchestrated by all individuals especially those in leadership positions, is key for enhancing the organizations ability to realize its true potential. However, an excellent culture is only sustained over time when the majority of stakeholders in the organization demonstrate the desired behavior by setting the example. To that end, it is the responsibility of leadership to grow and evolve the organizations’ culture along with the full participation of those they lead.
Culture is very much about the values and behaviors that show up in the conversations we have with our customers, our co-workers, and ourselves…“when no one is watching.” They form the essential definition of who we are collectively and individually. That is, there is no such thing as the private person and the public person –the person we are away from work and the person we are at work. The person we bring to work – our attitude, behavior and action – is the way we show up at work. It is that person, who must be aligned with the purpose of serving the customer (both internal and external) like no one else. Our individual cultural values are not simply a “suit of clothes” we put on, but rather who we really are. Our cultural values are the personal and powerful messages we send when living our values rather than merely stating them. This is the reason it is so important bring into an organization only those people who possess the values, behaviors and attitude, which supports the organizations desired culture.
A guiding purpose of an organization should be to deliver genuine value to the customers they serve. They should do this by providing innovative solutions and solid customer service in a manner that rewards the customers, employees, investors and other stakeholders. An organization should be grounded in the fundamental belief that they must consciously and consistently treat every customer and every person associated with the organization with utmost dignity and respect.
Above all, an organization must believe in the talent and leadership of its employees at all levels to create and deliver solutions that will set the standard for excellence and customer value, now and in the future. To that end, the organization must commit itself to fostering a culture that is at the same time both open and disciplined. The organization must be disciplined enough to develop a work environment that encourages a pioneering spirit, embraces the full meaning of diversity, recognizes and rewards dedication and inspires high performance. Such an environment serves the needs of customers, employees, their families and the communities in which they live.
What an organization focus on defines organizational reality. Therefore, if an organization is to be successful, the culture must reward individuals based on performance and execution of well-defined outcomes. Desired and well-defined outcomes are one of the best ways to drive decision-making within an organization. A culture of execution to outcomes or results is different than one of compliance to the accepted norm. A culture of execution to outcomes is a high-performance culture in which individual and collective excellent performance are the accepted way work gets accomplished. It is important to understand that in a high-performance organization, the leader’s actions set the cultural pace. Their behavior wins trust and loyalty. The leader’s actions communicate what level of performance is important.
As an organization continues to transform itself, it must transform the individuals within it. In doing so, the organization and its members will need to continually work on and enhance a culture that will develop leadership capabilities at all levels. For the organization to grow it will need to train and hire individuals whose attitudes and skills are in alignment with its culture and strategy and also bring the freshness of innovation and diversity into play. The values and beliefs an organization collectively holds about it-self, along with the actions and language used to describe its values and beliefs, must generate and reinforce the positive images both members and others have about organization. The bottom line… The organization must exercise the discipline of values, thought and the action, required to create the culture of the organization!
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Roger M. Ingbretsen, Author, Speaker, Leadership Coach, Organizational and Career Developer. For more information, visit www.ingbretsen.com or call 509 999 7008.
Leadership Coaching Based On Organizational Values - To learn more about this author, visit Roger Ingbretsen's Website.
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