Leader: Are you purposely shaping your culture?

An organisation’s culture can be a source of competitive advantage or a huge obstacle to achieving it’s objectives. The importance of culture really struck me after reading Lou Gerstner’s book "Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance?" In his book Lou Gersner, the former CEO and Chairman of IBM, reflects on the turnaround he orchestrated during his time at IBM….

"I came to see, in my time at IBM, that culture isn’t just one aspect of the game – it is the game. In the end, an organization is nothing more than the collective capacity of its people to create value. Vision, strategy, marketing, financial management – any management system, in fact – can set you on the right path and can carry you for a while. But no enterprise – whether in business, government, education, health care, or any area of human endeavor – will succeed over the long haul if those elements aren’t part of its DNA."

As Gerstner proved, in the turnaround of IBM, that leaders can shape and indeed change an organisation’s culture. The fact that Lou Gerstner could change the culture, of one of the world’s largest organisations should give all leaders hope. Leaders are instrumental in shaping an organisations culture a post from Anecdote describes the leaders role….

"…Edgar Schein noted a decade ago: cultures are largely created and modified by the actions of the organisation’s leaders. And here we view leadership in its broadest sense as someone who people take notice of and follow their lead. There are a relatively small set of things leaders do that affect culture:

• What leaders pay attention to, measure, and control on a regular basis
• How leaders react to critical incidents and organisational crises
• How leaders allocate resources
• Deliberate role modelling, teaching, and coaching
• How leaders allocate rewards and status
• How leaders recruit, select, promote, and excommunicate

The short-hand for this list is, ‘How do you get ahead around here?’"

Leaders cannot afford to let an organisation’s culture just evolve. Just as Lou Gerstner shaped IBM’s culture based upon an end goal, leader who wants to share their organisations culture need an end goal. The key to effectively shaping your team’s or your organisation’s culture begins with purpose. Wikipedia defines purpose as "Purpose in its most general sense is the anticipated aim which guides action." Leaders wanting to shape an organisations culture need purposefully act, aligning all the above six leadership practices towards the organisation’s end goal and purpose.

• Are you purposely acting to shape your organisation’s culture?
• What are you paying attention to?
• How do you react to critical moments?
• What are you teaching?
• What do yo allocating resources to?
• What do you reward?
• Who are you recruiting and promoting?

Technorati Tags: Leadership, Business, Culture, IBM, Management, Purpose, Vision, Values

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Tagged as: Culture, Purpose, Values, Vision