Creating a culture of Leadership
- Ritu Chowdhary
- Dec 10, 2023
- 2 min read
One of the deepest psychological needs of a human being is the need of belonging. We want to work for an organization that values us, that promotes our personal growth and that makes us feel that we are contributing towards our ambitions. People want to go to work each day and feel they are part of the community. What drives this – is the underlined culture of an organization. We need people at each level, to develop a leadership culture – because all performance is driven by culture.
Your competitors can copy your product or services if they are good, however culture will always give a competitive advantage, it cannot be copied. Culture is something that makes an organization special. Culture tells your people of what’s acceptable and important. Culture lets your people know of the organization values (e.g., honesty, innovation, continuous improvement, collaboration, customer first and so on).
I’m compiling a list below that I’ve experienced in my career to build culture:
RITUALS – I remember unique routines with my previous teams like daily 9 am huddles or Friday playtime session with teams. Rituals shape the culture and keep it special.
CELEBRATION – There is an old saying – “You get what you celebrate”. When you see people around living the values your culture stands for, make them a public hero. Behaviour that gets rewarded is behaviour that gets repeated.
CONVERSATION – your people become what the leaders talk about. Talk about your culture, vision in employee meetings, townhalls at every employee gathering and at water cooler. Talk that stuff constantly that your people should be able to restate it in sleep.
TRAINING – Employee development is the key. Invest significantly in developing your people. When your people improve your organization will improve.
STORYTELLING – Great organizations have cultures where great stories are told. The story about how the organization found to how an employee went the extra mile to deliver excellence or how the organization worked with their values during disaster situations.
One of the most sustainable competitive advantages will be developing a culture of Leadership. Let me know what additional ways you’ve observed to build the culture.
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