Does leadership set the culture? If you are a leader with very high personal accountability acumen, the answer is yes. If you are a leader who is proactive in establishing systems for hiring for job fit, the answer is yes. If you are a leader who takes an intentional continuous improvement approach to communication skills, the answer is yes. If you ensure time and money is allocated for individual and team development, the answer is yes. What needs to be developed to build a great culture? Team norms, Leadership skills, Team values, Team communication skills. Together, they build a best-in-class work culture.
If a leader isn’t setting the culture, then who is?
Thought for the week – “communication skills matter” “behavior matters” “amount of trust matters” “engagement matters”.
Observations from the sideline:
• Awareness of a personality talk becomes useful when you realize you’ve been imposing your communication style on others.
• A leadership talk sticks when a manager notices how often interruptions, dismissiveness or toxic behavior shut people down.
• A culture talk matters when leaders recognize that their reactions quietly train people to stop sharing ideas.
New skills take time to be seen. Positive reinforcement of new skills is absent at first. People, being human, are conditioned to expect what they’ve experienced before from a leader. Broken trust takes time to repair.
For any leader, if you haven’t worked on self-awareness, you are driving blind-folded. The only person you’ve fooled is yourself.
Regardless of your behavioral style, personal motivators, or emotional intelligence, a great leader applies simple communication strategies to increase trust and engagement. But it starts with being aware of self and others. The strategies are effective for anyone. Anyone can learn and effectively apply leader communication strategies.
With gratitude,
Carl
cnielson@nielsongroup.com
Want to discuss further, schedule a convenient time on my calendar at https://my.timetrade.com/book/2L3GC