A Special Guest Blog by Evan Wilson
Organizational leaders probably never stop thinking about what additions or changes need to be implemented to enhance their strategic plan. When leaders enter a season of strategic planning, one important pillar should include creating, building or sustaining a strong organizational culture. This often drives focus to core values, mission and purpose statements. This has been a common cadence of boards and leadership teams for decades.
Over the past 17 years while leading an organization of 350 employees, I came to believe organizational culture defines long-term success. While I certainly endorse organizations creating employee expectations through strong core values, perhaps the big question should be “how do our employees really experience our culture?” Your organizational culture is the shared beliefs, values, and behaviors that define how employees interact within an organization. Most employees define culture based on their day-to-day experience with a manager and their teammates, even if they can’t quote an organization’s core values.
So, what is culture? Culture is defined by what and how communication occurs within the organization. Employees watch to see the demonstration of what the leader and organization does consistently…not perfectly. All employees enjoy special moments and celebrations which recognize accomplishments of milestones or even meeting identified goals. What an employee does not forget is when a leader appreciates them for who they are and what they bring to the team–the “special element” the employee adds to the dynamic mix of personalities present in each team. Bottomline: your employees’ “real culture” is what is communicated, demonstrated and celebrated!
As an organizational leader of a large financial institution, we have used the meaningful tools found in The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace to assist leadership in growing their own departmental and team cultures. If you stop and consider, you and your employees define work culture by looking through a few key leadership attributes.
Key Components of Leadership Influence
The manager and the employee experience. Work is hard! 2000 hours a year you work with individuals you often didn’t select, making progress on hard tasks with continual unexpected challenges. The relationships with the individuals on your team define your work experience and create your culture. If leaders have authentic relationships with teammates, harder times go much better, and the celebrations are far sweeter!
Create relationships full of care and trust. Managers have the responsibility to create relationships full of care and trust. Then, and only then, does a leader have an opportunity to influence, encourage, motivate, and truly lead their teams. This can only be accomplished if leaders understand their role. A leader has one primary responsibility; to make each employee they lead better! When everyone on your team improves, those critical goals and big projects are far more achievable.
Cultural growth cannot be accomplished without knowing what is important to each employee. Employees really want to hear from their leader and the words they use are important. Not all words are created equal. Words of affirmation are vital to leadership growth. Dr. White emphasizes this difference in appreciating the employees for who they are instead of what they do. Far too often leaders recognize the job completed (often with the painfully overused and very impersonal “good job”) email! Personally applying this wisdom has helped me invest in the lives of others in a significantly more meaningful way through intentional actions.
Quality time continues to be a meaningful way leaders connect with and support employees. Understanding and applying quality time takes dedication and intentional planning. Most leaders have time dedicated to one-on-one coaching. If this is not true for you, this is a huge opportunity. However, too often leaders come into the meeting and jump directly into project updates, sales goal progress or a myriad of other topics. Commit to a 10-minute rule of checking in on how your employee is doing (both at work and at home). Your employee will notice you caring about them and then the relationship can truly grow.
Acts of service powerfully demonstrate to employees and teammates-even friends and family- you are on their team. You are willing to help, to serve and to “dive in” to make a difference. This is a “success model” of identifying what is important now (WIN). What would a great teammate do to help now? What would a great leader do now? What would a great friend do now?
A special note to C level leaders. You are constantly being watched. Own it. You have great privilege in your position, and you have equally great responsibility. Your culture will grow and improve exponentially faster if you adopt the appreciation of your staff as a key responsibility. A muscle to exercise each day you serve your teams.
The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace will not fix all your organizational problems. But the concepts will help you grow key relationships and bring your teams together more effectively and increase perseverance as culture builds. Communicating appreciation may even make work more fun and enjoyable. Wouldn’t that be great?
Evan Wilson is owner of Coach Leadership Consulting helping leaders and organizations own their opportunity to invest in others and create cultures defined by care and trust. Evan applies 36 years of leadership experience in the finance industry to guide business, non-profits, and ministry partners to grow relationships through personalized coaching.
Evan is passionate about improving organizational health through professional development and started COACH Leadership Consulting in 2016. He uses storytelling to inspire groups around North America and internationally focusing on application-based learning.
