H igh Impact Business Owners Drive Culture inside their companies to set the conditions for achieving the Vision. The Seven Priorities are your keys to leading your business to excellence.
Once you Define and Communicate Vision, and are reinforcing it through your words and actions, you must lean into the second Priority: Drive Culture for your organization.
This series leverages Carly Fiorinaโs perspective on the essence of leadership. She says the essence of leadership is: โSeeing possibilities, changing the order of things for the better, and unlocking potential in others.โ
Drive Culture is the purposeful act of shaping the character and personality of your organization to set the conditions for achieving the Vision.
When High Impact Business Owners Drive Culture, you are intentionally โchanging the order of things for the better.โ
Drive or Drift: Your Choice
When youโre the owner of a small company, your personality defines your Culture.
Once you hire your first employee, your culture begins to change to accommodate two different individuals. New employees introduce additional changes and your culture drifts.
If you fail to Drive Culture, others will do it in your place. As a result, your culture will drift to the lowest common denominators. Your Vision will be diluted to the point of failure.
You may think your culture has stayed consistent as youโve grown. If you believe that, youโre wrong.
We compare mediocre owners to High Impact Owners throughout the series, and the high-level comparison for Culture is:
Note: Click on the image to go to the Introduction of this series for the entire comparison
Business owners who fail to pay attention to their company culture thinking that their environment is conducive to top performance and that it remains constant, requiring only an occasional โpep talk,โ allow culture drift, which leads to vision dilution.
Companies experiencing culture drift are easy to recognize. Their leaders place a higher priority on momentary performance than on a healthy culture. A top-performing salesperson who can't get along with her team is a good example. A subversive team member's actions are excused because “that's the way he is.” Mediocre owners excuse lousy behavior at the expense of their people and the culture drifts into chaos.
Mediocre owners allow culture drift until a crisis or an employee acts in ways contrary to what they believed their culture to be. Then they react, attempting to fix whatever led to the crises. They end up placing band-aids all over the organization.
The company led by a mediocre owner is characterized by reaction, exception-based policies, constraints, and confusion. They act powerless to shape the environment for optimal team performance. When you have a mediocre leadership, all aspects of the company suffers, and Culture is the first casualty.
Driving Culture does not mean maintaining a status quo, say of a startupโs free-wheeling culture, or an environment that supports a small group of employees. Rather, it is influencing your Culture to support your Vision through every stage of growth.
High Impact Business Owners choose to fight drift and Drive Culture.
Doomed to Mediocrity or Primed for Success?
Nothing happens in your organization unless it first has permission from your Culture.
You may have heard it said, โCulture eats strategy for breakfast.โ Those few words are truth for High Impact Business Owners. In contrast, mediocre owners talk of strategies and tactics to move their companies forward. They attempt new initiatives, ignoring the real constraints of their own drifted cultures.
In a 2006 article on Ford, then President of the Americas, Mark Fields, pointed out: โYou can have the best plan in the world, and if the culture isnโt going to let it happen, itโs going to die on the vine.โ
When you permit culture drift, it constrains everything in your company and sets the limits for success. You doom your company to mediocrity.
Driving Culture is not new thinking, but it is rare thinking. Through intentionality, High Impact Business Owners Drive Culture and you prime your company for success.
โSoft?โ High Impact Business Owners Know Better
If youโre like me, youโve worked in organizations large and small that paid scant attention to culture and its impact on employees. Culture is viewed as a soft, non-quantifiable, and non-measurable aspect of the business, and thus deemed not valuable.
If youโve been fortunate, youโve also worked with organizations that place a high value on their culture. They understand its impact on every aspect of the company, including the balance sheet. High Impact Business Owners Drive Culture because they understand the linkage to results.
Verne Dosch, retired CEO of the National Information Solutions Cooperative and the author of Wired Differently, says this about culture: โI used to believe that culture was soft and had little bearing on our bottom line. What I believe today is that our culture has everything to do with our bottom line, now and into the future.โ
In my experience, companies whose leadership Drives Culture significantly outperform companies that allow culture drift. Employees are more innovative, better risk-takers, and capable of sustained top-line performance. That translates to growth, opportunity, and profitability.
How One Owner Set Culture By Accident
One client I get to work with started his company a decade ago. When we started working together, Ed had not taken a day off in seven years. SEVEN years!
He worked through the weekends, early in the mornings, late into the evenings, and during every family vacation.
Edโs work habits had been a topic of our conversations and as we wrapped up our first engagement, however he was hesitant to make a change. We talked about strategies for taking time off and the positive effects time away can generate.
Ed committed to taking a weekend off before summer was over.
Several weeks later, just before Memorial Day, Ed called and said he had taken the previous weekend off. Heโd left his laptop in his office and handed his phone to his wife when he got home. He told her not to give it back to him until Monday morning.
I asked him how he felt about that, and Ed said he โwas scared to death.โ He said that he was afraid of missing out on something that would need his input. He and his teams were used to communicating via text, email, and phone calls throughout every weekend. As was typical each week, several proposals were in process and due the following week.
Ed went on to say that when he returned to work on Monday, he felt more rested and refreshed than he had in years. That week, Ed enthusiastically said, โwas one of the best weeks I have had since starting the company.โ
When asked what he was going to do next, he explained, โI met with my leadership team this morning, and we are all taking this long weekend off. I told them that none of us would be texting, emailing, or talking on the phone from Friday afternoon through 8 a.m. on Tuesday.โ So I asked him, โWhat was your teamโs reaction?โ and laughing, Ed said, โThey are scared to death!โ
Ed and I talked a couple of weeks later. He related that the week following Memorial Day was the โbest week he and his team had ever had.โ He said that everybody came back rested and ready to go and were excited about new ideas.
I asked him, โWhat are you going to do as a result of your experiment?โ He replied that they were going to try and do this through the summer and maybe longer. We talked for a few minutes about his ideas for doing that well, and he was off and running.
Culture Drift Shows in Unexpected Ways
Fast forward several months. Ed and I are working on a new initiative together.
We take a short break and chat about the positive effects his Driving Culture is having. The news is good.
Then, Ed casually mentions that his teams are not logging all the hours that they work on projects.
Interestingโฆ
So, I asked him, โWhat does it mean to your business when hours are tracked inaccurately on projects?โ Ed responded that without accurate information, it is impossible to know if projects are profitable. He went on to say that โAccurately estimating work required for projects when responding to RFPโs is not possible.โ
I then asked, โWhatโs the impact on your business of that?โ Ed immediately replied, โWe are less profitable than the data shows, and we are underestimating the work required to deliver new projects to our clients.โ
โWhy does your team ignore this important activity, Ed?โ He thought for a moment and replied: โTheyโre just being sloppy. I need to remind them to do it and why itโs important.โ
I let that linger for a moment and then asked, โWhat is it about your Culture that enables this behavior?โ
Long silence.
Finally, he responds: โIโve set the example, just like I did for working non-stop. I contribute to projects and donโt log my time. They know this. Iโve rationalized it thinking I only helped for a few minutes or an hour. But you know, that adds up.โ
After waiting several moments, I ask, โWhatโs your next step, Ed?โ
This is what โDrive Cultureโ means.
For years, Ed set the standard for his company and teams with his words and actions. Working through the weekends and during vacations was the norm. His behavior created the drift of a culture defined by never-ending work. Like Ed, every employee rarely stopped working. And like Ed, they were experiencing diminished productivity and creativity that working harder could never cure.
Over time, he began to realize that working non-stop was not healthy for him or his team. It was affecting his bottom line. Therefore, Ed decided to make a substantial change in the culture of his company. Through his actions, Ed drove a new culture for himself and his teams.
Drive Culture is the purposeful act of shaping the character and personality of your organization. When High Impact Business Owners Drive Culture, you set the conditions for success, which is achieving the Vision.
Your ability to Drive Culture is dependent upon your ability to communicate through your words, and far more importantly, through your actions.
Ed embodies the ideal of Drive Culture, as he took a culture he once set by accident and decided to drive a new culture. He is “changing the order of things for the better.โ
The results began to show in the companyโs bottom line within a couple of quarters. His employees soon enjoyed additional benefits, and pay increases.
Can You Drive Culture Overnight?
Is the culture of Edโs company wholly changed? No, not yet. Itโs a work in progress. Ingrained habits are hard to kill.
Sometimes client and business development needs dictate the teams put in extra hours. Occasionally time invested on a project is overlooked. These are now the exceptions rather than the norm.
Ed knows that when he steps back from driving culture, the old 24/7 and sloppy culture will drift back and take over.
Edโs leadership enables the new culture to be an environment where his team can do their best work. He is โchanging the order of things for the betterโ by Driving Culture. His actions speak much louder than his words. Consequently, it wasn't until Ed began acting in line with his own words that change began to permeate his teams.
Ed is also paying close attention to resetting client expectations. In dozens of meetings, he has met with his counterparts, explained the internal changes he is driving, and extolled the benefits. As a result, customers are realizing higher quality outcomes, a greater focus on client delivery, and increased innovation. Remember those ideas his teams had? Clients are experiencing them first hand.
Heโs fired a couple of clients who could not accept his teamsโ lowered availability to support their 24/7 cultures. Scary? Yes, but Ed now says frequently that โhis teams come first.โ He backs that up with action. Those needy clients have been replaced. Teams are functioning at higher levels with greater innovation and increased capacity.
Change has not happened overnight or even quickly. It is characterized by several steps forward, and one or two backward.
Today's environment inside Ed's business is different than it was a year ago because Ed decided to lead change. The result is Edโs company is thriving like never before.
Driving Culture is an ongoing activity that High Impact Business Owners like Ed know is essential. Ed will continue to identify new ways to Drive Culture, and his teams and company will benefit. His customers will benefit the most.
Driving Culture Right To The Bottom Line
Edโs work style and time tracking is clear evidence of business owner actions leading to Culture and the resulting impact on the bottom line.
You might argue that driving the new environment of working less during evenings, weekends, and vacations is soft. Benefits are harder to see and difficult to quantify, even when the bottom line improved within two quarters.
Still, thereโs a โsoftnessโ to the changing work patterns that reports and cash flow statements cannot capture in line items.
You canโt argue, however, with the impact of hours logged to projects and the resulting inaccurate estimates in proposals. The effect is noticeable, and you can draw a bold arrow to the bottom line.
Not working through weekends and recording hours accurately have become points of pride for each team. It is a regular topic of encouraging conversation within the teams.
Instead of Ed being the sole force to Drive Culture, his teams are shaping the environment right alongside him. High Impact Business Owners Drive Culture and their leadership team does the same.
Three Questions for High Impact Owners
Consider your company's Culture. Is it supporting your employees, and does it help them do their best work?
How confident are you that your Culture makes achieving your Vision possible?
Your environment doesn't have to be perfect. Where it isn't great, you have opportunities to be the leader your employees and teams deserve. As a result, you can identify and prioritize where you will focus your energy as you Drive Culture.
Keep in mind Edโs example. Most facets of Edโs company environment are excellent. He is driving real changes to make it even better. As a result, working conditions and profitability are both improved. Ed leads by example. You can do the same.
Three questions about your environment will help you drive bottom-line results.
Grab a pen and some paper. Take your time with each question.
- What is your ideal culture? In other words, what Culture will your company have to embody for the Vision to become a reality?
- What is your real culture? What's great about it? Are there three areas where you can drive improvements? Which of these is your top priority?
- What are your next best steps to Drive Culture for your company and teams?
Bonus question: It helps to evaluate your culture from a variety of perspectives. For a different take on your culture, take a moment and ask: “Is your company an environment you would want your kids to be a part of at every level?” What would your employees say if asked that same question?
These are some of the questions I get to ask when working alongside my clients. We start with a framework designed to identify what your company and teams need in your leadership to accomplish your Vision. We create new opportunities and unlock potential together.
High Impact Business Owners Drive Culture throughout their organizations.
If this article resonates with you, then I encourage you to read the Introduction and Vision articles. Together, these three articles lay the groundwork for the next article and 3rd Priority of High Impact Business Owners: Build, Mentor, Model, Serve.
This article is third in a series on the Seven Priorities of High Impact Business Owners.
The Seven Priorities reflects work I get to do with High Impact Business Owner clients (identities in stories changed to protect confidentiality). The series is aligned with my main speaking and workshop topic on being the leader you company, team, and family deserve.
The first article introduces the series, and the second covers our first Priority: Define and Communicate Vision. The fourth article focuses on the imperative to Build your employees.
Notes:
- This article was also published on LinkedIn and Medium.
- Carly Fiorina Quote source: (From an interview on Catalyst Podcast #503 โHow to Unlock Potential in Yourself and Othersโ 12:35)
- Mark Fields Quote: Quote Investigator (search for Fields). I was not able to find the original AP article.
- Vern Dosch Quote: goodreads
- The link for the book Wired Differently is an Amazon affiliate link.
Photo Sources:
Tampa Sunset Drive: Julie Tupas via Unsplash ; Beached Boat: Stephen Leonardi via Unsplash; Blueberry Pancakes: Calum Lewis via Unsplash; Working At Sunrise: Simon Abrams on Unsplash ; Time Clock: James Case via Flickr; Neon Work Harder: Jordan Whitfield on Unsplash; You Are Fired: Sean MacEntee via Flickr:; Arrow: William Allen via Flickr; Blue Pen: Chandler Cruttenden via Unsplash.
