People get in a real fix sometimes and often ask what drives the culture of an organisation, and how do I change direction? Now, there is a long answer to that but like most things, to cut to the chase, there is a damn good short answer too. If a Leader can focus on a few things they change a lot. And it is all to do with the Leader and the leadership team.
- The biggest influencer is what the Leader focuses on, areas that they want to measure movement and trends or have knowledge of
- The second is the reaction of the Leader and the leadership team to crisis or critical moment or difficult decision
- Finally, the actions of the leadership teams in terms of mentoring, coaching and developing the staff
There are many other influencers like mission statements, company policies such as recruitment and structure, but these 3 have the most critical role in developing culture. The leadership team through their focus, behaviour and direct actions give the organisations its emotional shape and character.
So yes, it is possible to change the direction of an organisation’s culture quite quickly, if the leader and their team want to. What I would add to this is “consistency”, but that’s another topic for another day.
