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What culture do you develop?

Written by: Paul Bridle

Article Overview: As a leader have you considered the culture you want in your organization? A culture of an organization is determined by the behaviors and perceptions of your people. Consider, how your people treat your customers, how they treat each other, what their perception of your suppliers is, or more importantly, what do they think of the leaders and managers? You have heard the phrase 'walk-the-talk', people are watching you and based on your behavior they develop perceptions and will act accordingly. As an observer of an organization, it is very easy to identify the culture, one visit to a store, one interaction with the sales team, or customer service department will provide you with an indication of what is happening in that organization.

Free Download - An Accountant or a Leader - but rarely both By Paul Bridle

What culture do you develop?

I had a wonderful insight into a major retail company today when I called in for a tub of paint and a packet of light bulbs. I got to the checkout and there were five people in line waiting to pay with one checkout open.

At the other checkout, two members of staff were discussing the returns from the previous day. So here were six people in a queue waiting to be served by one lady while two other ladies did the paperwork!!!

When I finally got to be served (8 minutes later) the cashier said “Are you wanting to pay for these or are they returns?” !!!!!!

My reply was, “I have been wanting to pay for them for over five minutes”.

She replied with, “I am sorry but we are so busy.”

I said, “yes, but that is not my problem when I am in a hurry”.

What happened next amazed me. The cashier (a lady of between fifty and sixty years old), said, “May I suggest that you complain to head office”.

I said, “That isn’t going to do me any good is it?”

Her reply? “If people can’t be bothered to complain, then head office will never give us the staff we need to give the service”.

At this moment I was speechless and grateful that she was handing me the receipt for my purchase so I did not have to continue this conversation.

What is going on here? Many of you will have heard me speak of ‘prevailing attitudes’ in an organization. What are the prevailing attitudes in this major retail chain?

Well the first one we hear is that ‘management don’t listen’. In fact, if they want management to listen, the only way to achieve this is through the customers! This perception comes from continuing to ask management for…… and not getting a satisfactory reply or support or simply feeling like they are not heard. I have written and spoken many times on how ‘listening’ is one of the main abilities of being a successful leader.

If people don’t feel they are listened to, they will first do something very significant and powerful.

They will stop listening as well!

Think about it. If someone isn’t listening to us, then what do we generally do? We start thinking about how to be heard, how to gain attention, how to ………. and non of these things are listening. They are all actions that are aimed at being heard.

People will even stop hearing the information that can solve their problems.

Children behave the same. When parents don’t listen they start to ignore what is being said to them and then most resort to doing things that gain them attention.

There are some who withdraw into themselves and stop putting in the effort. This leads me on to the next thing that people do when they perceive that they are not listened to. The next thing they do is:

shift their focus away from the purpose of the business and instead they focus on their problem.

In this retail store, the focus of the staff was no longer on serving the customer. Remember what I said at the beginning, there were two members of staff busy completing returns from the previous day. Not in a back office but out there so we could all see how many returns the company gets in a day and feel frustrated while we stood in line!!!!

What is the purpose of this company? I would have thought ‘to serve the customer’ must be high on the list somewhere. Everyone in that store should have a single aim above all other tasks they have to complete (including returns) and that is to serve us so that they can get some money for the things they have bought and put on show for us. It is not complicated.

However, these people were not listening any more. Now they were focused on their problem and on their tasks. Filling in forms. Looking for information. Anything that gets the processes done!

Paul Bridle

Leadership Methodologist

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Article Tags: attitudes, cashier, checkout, five minutes, hurry, insight, light bulbs, nbsp, paint, paperwork, perception, queue, receipt, retail chain, retail company, rsquo, satisfactory reply, sixty years

About the Author: Paul Bridle
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Paul is a Leadership Methodologist. For almost two decades he has studied effective organizations and the people that lead them. As a result of his research around the world, he is called upon to assist both private as well as public organizations by acting as an advisor or consultant on a range of projects relating to management and leadership issues or development. Paul is a Faculty Member of the Institute of Management Studies, Fellow of the Institute of Business Consulting, Fellow of the Professional Speaker Association and a Certified Speaking Professional. Paul was also voted 12th in The Top 30 Most Influential Leadership Gurus in the World in 2007 & 2008 for his contribution to Leadership development. International Business Speaker, Author, Facilitator, Advisor and Consultant

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