When it Comes to Company Culture “Nice” is Not Enough!
After recently reading an article in The Australian Financial Review about Ernst & Young’s internal culture, which was labelled as “nice”, it got me thinking!
Doing what I do, I am fortunate enough to get to see the inner workings of many high-performance, growth-oriented businesses and I can confidently say, these businesses are not pursuing a “nice” culture, they want “great”!
These companies are seeking the creation of a culture that displays accountability, inspiration, challenges and collaboration. When you step inside businesses like these (as I do), you see plenty of evidence of strong leadership and what builds a great company culture, versus a nice one. Here are some examples…
You know you have a great company culture when your Leadership Team meetings enable rigorous and robust debate on a key strategic business issue and when debating a said issue individuals trust they can put their opinions forward without feeling personally attacked. Feedback is taken as constructive, and the decided outcome is such because it is the right decision to help drive the business to a new level.
A great company culture fosters an attitude that encourages their team members’ absolute intent is in determining how they (as a part of the team) can build a better company.
A great company culture encourages staff to hold high levels of commitment to specific actions from a meeting, with clear accountability as to who needs to do what by when and adhering to that commitment. Team members can hold each other accountable for delivering great outcomes and not rely on their team leader or CEO to do this.
In a company with great culture, team members have the confidence to respectfully seek clarification from and even challenging the CEO or team leader who may be undermining a previously agreed approach.
There is a deliberate focus when addressing issues within the company with their people often asking, “how do we support you to solve this problem?”. Problems are not laid on the team for them to solve alone.
Instead, a team member is open and vulnerable enough to provide a “no surprises” update on something they are struggling with. It’s an FYI type of communication, where they may say, “This is my challenge, and this is how I am going about overcoming it”. This also offers a colleague a chance to suggest an alternative approach and/or step in and provide definitive support.
In a company that embodies a great culture there is no “Artificial Harmony”, people may disagree with a decision, but they commit and actively support it, not “white-ant” it!
As per Patrick Lencioni’s “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team – A Leadership Fable”, which offers explicit instructions for overcoming the human behavioural tendencies that he says corrupt teams (absence of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability and inattention to results) building a great, not nice culture is predicated on a foundation of trust.
Here are my 5 practical steps you can take right now to usher your company culture from nice to great! We have created a Team Trust Aptitude Assessment, once you have completed the assessment, sit down with your team and take them through the following steps.
Have your team do their own self-assessment on their view of their team
With a focus on learning and exploring the team’s levels of trust, share the results and honestly and openly discuss the differences and similarities
Depending on the outcomes of Step 2, decide on what the top 3-5 activities the Team needs to put in place to address the findings. (Don’t forget to allocate accountability to it, and a time for completion)
Keep track of these activities and their progress in your weekly Leadership Team meetings
To build trust across your whole organisation, 90 days after you’ve done this with your Leadership Team, have your Leadership Team do the same exercise with their teams.
We specialise in helping companies grow with minimal pain. Part of this involves active executive management and mentoring combined with the development long term business growth and excellence strategies. Get in touch if you are looking to take your company culture from nice to great!