Creating a winning culture in your organisation

In this article, I am sharing five key insights followed by three tips. I have used my lived experience of more than two decades in leadership roles for large corporates. As an Executive and Team Development Coach for Developing Talent, we have experience of working with diverse cultures such as Amazon Studios, Citi, Microsoft and Cognizant.

Key insight 1. Senior Leader behaviours are the single biggest influence on culture.

Whilst it is the collective behaviours and beliefs of everyone that ultimately creates a culture, the most significant influence comes from those in the most senior leadership positions. Their behaviours are often modelled by others. This is why the real culture can feel very different to the communicated and promoted values of an organisation. All leaders need to be an integral part of creating a winning culture.

Key insight 2. Many leaders struggle with vulnerability and (inadvertently) create a culture that lacks trust, accountability, and commitment.

I have seen this time and time again when coaching leaders. The paradox is that often leaders are focused on getting results in a demanding environment. They are doing what they think is right but can inadvertently be limiting performance and growth. Often, they haven’t been given the opportunity to rethink leadership or be supported to develop themselves into a more productive leader.

I’ve simplified this into two types of leaders. Perhaps you see this in leaders around you, or as a leader, this resonates with you?

• ‘The invulnerable Leader’: this type of leader tends to believe that they need to have the answers, or the most knowledge and that successful leadership is about authority and control. They don’t easily let down their guard or admit to mistakes. This often results in a more directive style of leadership underpinned by a fear of failure. The risk is that the leader is often exhausted. There is often low levels of discretionary effort from their teams who feel less accountable and experience limited opportunities for development and growth.
• ‘The authentic leader’: this type of leader has learnt that their role is not to have all the answers themselves, but to develop leadership within their teams. They work with their team to overcome issues and challenges or identify opportunities. They tend to create a culture where people think for themselves, which builds healthy accountability. They recognise their success is dependent on the success of others.

Of course, in reality the most successful leaders adapt their style based on the situation. In my experience, these two styles above however, can be at the core of the leader’s beliefs about leadership and the role of a leader.

Key insight 3. Healthy, high-performance cultures have to be underpinned by Psychological Safety.

Psychological Safety is the number one factor differentiating high performing teams. It is not a ‘nice to have’. It is necessary for teams to develop a culture where they can support one another, share concerns, challenge productively, learn from mistakes and ultimately perform well as a team.

Harvard Professor Amy Edmondson has conducted almost 30 years of research into this, outlined in her book The Fearless Organisation. Her findings are supported and reinforced by an extensive two-year research program by Google (Project Aristotle) among 15,000 employees.

If we want to develop a positive culture of high performance, we know that this has to be done on a bedrock of trust and psychological safety.

Key insight 4. Successful organisations focus on the behaviours that build an effective culture.

One of the most watched Ted Talk of all time is from Simon Sinek and is called ‘Start with Why’. You may well have watched this at some point. In his talk, Simon explains why we, as humans, are biased towards the ‘what’. It’s easier and more tangible to focus on the ‘what’, and isn’t high performance all about the outcomes in any case?

I’ve often seen examples of leaders turning a blind eye to the negative behaviours of an individual because they are delivering results, or promoting people despite their behaviours and creating bigger issue with culture. Often, the ‘what’ in many cultures is more important than the ‘how’ and this needs to be addressed if we want to build a positive culture.
Simon Sinek contends that the most successful organisations start with their purpose (the ‘why’) then develop the ‘how’ and finally, the ‘what’:

• The ‘Why’: The purpose of the organisation, department, or team. It is a motivating purpose that engages hearts as well as minds and provides meaning to what people do.
• The ‘How’: This is the organisation’s approach to delivering their purpose. This includes the norms and behaviours of an organisation, the culture that people recognise and buy into.
• The ‘What’: For most organisations, this tends to be clear. It is the objectives and KPI’s that get measured and tend for form part of 1 to 1’s and appraisals.

Assuming there is a clear purpose, focusing on the ‘how’ as much as the ‘what’ will help organisations to strive for best outcomes, but also leverage the benefits of a positive culture.

Key insight 5. Improving culture doesn’t need to be as complex as you might think.

This needn’t sit in the ‘too difficult to do’ pile. Yes, changing culture is about changing behaviours, which is not easy. It takes time, effort, and the right approach, but it doesn’t have to be complex. In fact, if we over complicate it then it becomes far more difficult to develop clear behaviours and expectations across multiple groups of people. Focusing on a clear, straightforward approach and gaining buy in from leaders is going to help deliver sustainable improvements.