Today’s leaders must navigate their organizations through multiple large-scale challenges simultaneously. This includes building resilience in the face of financial unpredictability, competing for top talent, and creating an inclusive environment for everyone to thrive. Let’s be honest, the business world is constantly evolving, and there’s no magic formula for success.
Or is there?
Imagine having a foolproof tool at your disposal, which promises good luck for your organization almost each and every time. An asset that can trigger your good fortune strategy. Believe it or not, genies exist and they don’t live in lamps with only 3 wishes. This specific genius lives within the framework of his own organization, providing an unlimited source of desires – his calling is culture!
Culture is necessarily the large-scale “personality” or habit of the organization. It is like a living balance sheet, where each action has a positive or negative impact. As in accounting, more positive moves lead to long-term success. According to a Korn Ferry survey of executives at the world’s most admired companies (including Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and others), two-thirds contribute 30% or more of their company’s market value to culture. Additionally, 38% consider it one of the five most sensible determinants of business success. Additionally, a PWC survey shows that culture is a key factor for a successful upgrade: 72% of respondents say culture facilitates successful upgrade initiatives. In an age where replacement is ubiquitous and organizational functionality is crucial, investing in culture is an undeniable choice.
However, there is a problem: culture only adds value when it aligns with the organization’s strategy. Otherwise, it can become a significant barrier to success. In fact, a survey conducted through the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) of 500 senior executives of billionaire corporations found that 90% of them failed to achieve their strategic goals because they struggled to put them into practice. Cultural alignment has been known as the biggest barrier to success. According to the American Management Association, Misalignment between culture and strategy leads to other negative consequences, such as project loss among employees, a tarnished public image, and increased turnover.
On the other hand, organizations that align their culture with their strategy and empower their workers to achieve higher returns on investment, assets, and equity than corporations that do not have this alignment. For what? Because when there is alignment between culture and strategy, workers are not only obliged to execute strategic objectives, but they also sincerely prefer to do so.
Leaders will need to recognize that the culture they identify has a significant effect on the price generated by their company. Culture acts as an anchor, aligning organizations with their goals and objectives, influencing how workers collaborate, innovate, and ultimately contribute to business success.
There is an old saying that a CEO once attended a lecture on corporate culture and then demanded the head of HR to “give me that.” Unfortunately, many leaders mistakenly believe that simply establishing a set of rules is sufficient to create a productive organizational culture. This raises the question: why is culture often overlooked as a crucial determinant of a company’s future success? What causes leaders to be hesitant in acknowledging the impact of culture or their own ability to shape it?
Even the most experienced leaders struggle to truly understand what culture is and its profound influence on organizational success. Culture is not just about workplace aesthetics or corporate social activities. It is a complex network of shared values, ideals and behaviors that govern how an organization operates and communicates, both internally and externally.
Leaders have the power to either create or erode value through their impact on culture. In fact, the most effective leaders recognize that shaping culture is an integral part of leadership, regardless of whether it’s explicitly stated in their job description. Some argue that it’s the most crucial aspect. Satya Nadella once famously stated, “As CEO of Microsoft, the culture of our organization is my top priority.” It may be worth taking a cue from a CEO who skyrocketed his company’s market cap from $300 billion in 2014 to over $2.7 trillion today.
Culture is led by the leader, but it is not just the CEO’s duty. Successfully converting culture requires collective action. Today, it is no longer enough for a single leader to carry the burden of maintaining an organization’s culture. All leaders will have to assume this duty. In other words, the task of each and every leader is to ensure that culture does not establish a barrier between strategy and execution. As a leader, you bring together the what (strategy), the why (purpose), and the how (culture) to provide daily guidance and achieve intentional success.
Culture is a habit at scale, and the good news is that habits can be replaced. For your organization to remain applicable and competitive over the long term, you want to know when to replace and be able to initiate cultural replacement quickly. It’s not an option. As Jack Welch once said, “Creating a healthy, high-integrity organizational culture is not all about puppies and rainbows. ” Instead, what enables culture replacement are two adjustments that work together: the habitual and the structural. company.
Let’s say you are looking to foster a culture of innovation: how would you ensure that all of your behavioral and structural elements are in sync in support of that culture? This could include having a motivating mission and values that nurture creative behavior, professional development practices to give people the opportunity to be innovative, reward systems which recognize successful outcomes and an operating model conducive for creativity. Ultimately, as a leader, you are the conductor of your symphony. It’s your responsibility to ensure every musician and instrument is performing harmoniously, with precision and enthusiasm as they play the composition. You set the pace of the tempo while also understanding when it’s essential to build up or decrease intensity – all to bring out everyone’s best efforts!
Culture isn’t just a backdrop for your business strategy; it is a hard force that feeds it. Every leader, from the CEO to frontline management, has the strength to shape the culture and aligns with the organization’s strategic goals. As a leader, you’re not just a strategist and a target. -configuration; You’re a crop shaper. So, take a moment to reflect: what is your contribution to culture, and how does it increase the value of your organization?
A community. Many voices. Create a free account to share your thoughts.
Our community is about connecting people through open and thoughtful conversations. We want our readers to share their views and exchange ideas and facts in a safe space.
In order to do so, please follow the posting rules in our site’s Terms of Service. We’ve summarized some of those key rules below. Simply put, keep it civil.
Your message will be rejected if we notice that it appears to contain:
User accounts will be locked if we become aware that users are engaging in:
So how can you be a user?
Thank you for reading our Community Standards. Read the full list of posting regulations discovered in our site’s Terms of Use.