When a company loses sight of its culture the organization’s soul wilts and begins to fade. This leads to a loss of passion, commitment and ultimately the ability to achieve the mission and vision of the organization. That “feeling” and buzz goes dark. People start to feel disorganized, unfocused and then comes loss in productivity. If the culture is not constantly curated the soul of the organization goes dormant.
On the rare occasions that I take lunch, I go home and watch Undercover Boss. What never fails to surprise me is how far away from the soul of the organization the CEO’s are. They are always surprised when they come across employees who are passionate about the company, the high degree to which they contribute and their dedication and loyalty. These are usually the employees on the front line. They are who is servicing the customers and are the face of the organization. These employees are successful in their role. They are championing the company, the culture and represent the organizations soul. They are out there, you have to find them, recognize them and enlist them to spread it.
An organization that doesn’t curate culture and leverage its values and mission can become a rigid environment. Employees start to feel they have to be the smartest in the room. Hierarchy becomes important, cutting access to the upper echelon from the lower ranks. Accountability, delivering on time and meeting metrics becomes the judge and jury of who is performing. Eventually this causes the passion and support for the organization to erode. This is when the organization stops innovating. The organization stops progressing. Good people begin to leave. If the employees don’t support the organization why would the customers?
How to Rediscover the Soul of Your Organization
Start at the start. What is the mission? What are the values? Are they still relevant? How are the values used to align behaviors and actions? How are people measured against the values? Undoubtedly there is a sign hanging on some wall that has the mission and values. Dust it off and shine a light on it, make it known that the values matter by bringing them to life and making it everyone’s responsibility to do so. Therefore, purpose becomes clear.
Put Mission and Values Top of Mind
Aligning expectations, behaviors and actions to the values is how to get employees thinking about them. Then they start to demonstrate the values in everything they do. The link between what is rewarded, recognized and is expected should connect back to performance and values. And, it is obvious to the employees. This reinvigorates the soul of the organization. It puts your money where your mouth is. As a result, passion starts to ignite. Otherwise, the culture that takes shape won’t be in alignment with the mission values.
Identify High Performers and Engage Them
High performers aren’t just doing it because. They are doing it because they are truly supporters of the organization’s culture and soul. High performers aren’t the ones who just meet their performance expectations. They also exude passion, curiosity, unity and have a strong sense of purpose. Reward and recognize this along with their job performance.
When job performance alone is the measure, culture and values start to slip. When rewarding behaviors that go against the values of the organization, the culture goes into disarray. Values fall to the wayside and the culture becomes toxic.
Listen, Listen Listen
Seek out the highly dedicated employees and listen to what they have to say. Why do they stay? What do they love about their job? Where does their passion come from? What drives their curiosity? How did they find their purpose within the organization? What was the source of their inspiration? How can they help you inspire others to get to that state? Take your learnings and spread it throughout the organization. Put them on a pedestal, recognize their commitment, dedication and loyalty.
Conversely, spend time talking to the employees who may be struggling with passion and dedication to understand why and how you can support them. If you can’t get them onboard, help them see why they’d be happier elsewhere.
Harness Individual Passions and Talents
This is putting the right people in the right areas. Look for the people who have an innate curiosity and desire to meet or exceed often unarticulated needs and demands. These are the people who are passionate about what they are doing, understand why they are doing it and how they are contributing. They actively seek to advance their professional development. As a result they discover their drive and purpose. Put them in roles of influence. Lend them your influence so they can act as a beacon of the right behaviors, the ones that link to the values of the organization.
Make It Possible for People to Speak Up
Encourage diversity and inclusion because there needs to be a wide range of thoughts, ideas, opinions and perspectives in thinking and decision making. The ideas of everyone must to be heard. This helps everyone learn about their own biases which leads to changing behaviors. Diversity and inclusion done right will allow the organization to tap into the collective power of everyone. This results in better ideas, better products and better served customers. Ignoring the inclusion factor is more than foolish because it will stall your organizations success. It isn’t easy to have a values system that doesn’t include inclusion.
One Company – One Culture
Silos won’t lead to innovation but it will lead to frustration for your employees and customers. Transcend those barriers by breaking down the silos. The ability to work together makes the vision believable. The organization begins to achieve the mission. Create opportunities for cross-functional or cross-global teams to come together a solve a problem or improve something. This is especially important for global organizations. Without the inclusion of global teams in problem solving or continuous improvement you miss out on so many perspectives and new ways of thinking.
People in general want to be a part of something much bigger than themselves. Providing them with an opportunity that will allow them to feel that desire ignites their purpose and thus their passion becomes a powerful fire. A one company mentality where employees are well-guided by the values have that opportunity to achieve this desire. Soon everyone is working toward the same vision. And they are working on that vision with passion, purpose and feelings of contribution. This is when the soul of the organization starts to become evident.
Purpose, unity and passion at the most intense level are the single most important determinant of success. Hence, success for the customer, the employee and the company are realized. Because purpose, unity and passion are built upon a solid value system and organizational culture it is important that you are constantly curating it.
The more focused everyone is on the values and culture of the organization, the livelier the soul becomes. The buzz returns and gets louder and this is you rediscovering the organizations soul.
Last updated on August 29th, 2020 at 07:04 am
