The hidden truth in high-performance culture
What's the difference between low-performing and high-performing cultures?
I speak with leaders in business all the time about high-performance culture. When I ask, how do you describe your culture?
The answer is fairly common:
Honesty, integrity, transparency, courage, trust, hard work, accountability, candidness, and vulnerability.
In other words, a list of company values.
I then ask questions such as:
What’s your company's definition of honesty?
What observable behaviour would I see if a colleague was showing integrity?
How do you shine a light on exemplary behaviour?
How are your people supported to have candid conversations (after all, most people are conflict avoidant).
The answers become less clear.
When leaders describe culture, they’re often describing visible words on the wall. This is a normal thing to do. It’s been a myth for many years that values on a wall alone will drive behaviour and performance.
(Don’t get me wrong, language matters. Language provides a shared focus and the symbolism of a meaning).
But it’s the shared meaning that matters. The definition, understanding and lived experience of the behaviours that sit behind the words.
Culture is in the air we breathe all around us.
-Josh Fox
Culture is the sum of behaviours that coexist in every transaction and interaction. The accumulation of the observable things you see, do and hear every day.
The language we use, how we greet people, power structures, recruitment processes, people’s perceptions, beliefs and impressions, and unspoken norms. Culture has an invisible truth if you don’t carefully observe it.
European Championship Winning Head Coach Sarina Wiegman said in response to the question: ‘what makes the team so special?’.
“…they weren’t just words, we lived them”. That’s the distinction between low-performing and high-performing teams.
The statement below really spoke to me too. Is there a better definition of culture?
The culture of any organisation is shaped by the worst behaviour the leader is willing to tolerate.
If you tolerate poor attitudes, these attitudes become the norm. If you tolerate micro-management, people stop growing. If you tolerate shaming, colleagues won’t speak up and shine. Culture is a reflection of the things you ignore.
And often, tolerance of poor behaviour is linked directly with leaders who avoid conflict and do not provide clarity of direction and expectations. Without direction, chaos and silos ensue.
People want autonomy to do their work. But they crave clarity. Both these things combine to increase a sense of trust and reduce uncertainty.
If you’re realigning or cultivating a new culture of excellence, culture isn’t just about clarity of expectations, it’s what you positively reinforce. This can happen in several ways.
Telling stories about employee behaviour that reflect the behaviour you want to see.
Line managers reinforce positive behaviour in 1-2-1 conversations by acknowledging behaviour.
Leaders role modelling positive behaviours.
All three matter. Ignore point three, then your culture is up for grabs.
I help leaders and organisations cultivate healthy performance cultures and high-performing teams through talks, advisory and projects.
You can visit my website to get in touch if you’d like to explore ways to collaborate.