Categories
Leaders’ daily actions affect your culture—good or bad.
Co-workers and potential hires must have confidence in your organization's culture. Culture can be destroyed, “by a thousand cuts,” over time if you do not keep the culture strong and positive. Such failure results in the loss of great performers, and you are left with a group of mediocre employees. Once lost, great culture is hard to recapture—almost impossible.
Two of the most critical pillars to maintaining a great culture in your organization are the confidence your co-workers hold in your leadership team to “Do The Right Thing” and to “Keep Their Word.” We have written more about these two topics in previous blogs linked above. Still, I cannot emphasize enough how important these commitments are to maintaining the culture you have spent so much time and effort building, or to the process of building or even rebuilding an organization’s culture.
Doing the right thing will not always be easy or contribute positively to short-term profits, but doing the right thing must be mandatory, and everyone having the power to do the right thing must be unconditionally supported by all layers of management.
Keeping your word will not always be easy either, but it is the right thing to do. Often, we may have made an off-hand comment that, because you are a leader in your organization, is taken by others to be a commitment. When you are made aware of this situation, address it immediately.
As we approach milestones, achieve milestones, and move on to the “next hurdle” in our daily work, “Doing The Right Thing” and “Keeping Your Word” are part and parcel to building and keeping a company thriving and will almost always pay much longer-term dividends.
If you have any questions or comments, please email me, Pete Taylor, CEO and Chairman of the Board at Standard, at: ptaylor@standardexteriorsolutions.com.