Culture in Two Words
Culture begins with beliefs and finds expression in behaviors.
Two questions matter when building a culture. Use excellence as an example.
- What do you believe about excellence?
- What behaviors reflect your beliefs about excellence?
Culture in Two Words: Beliefs and Behaviors
Belief: Curiosity is better than complacency.
Behavior: Ask, “How can we be better?”
Belief: Good enough isn’t good enough.
Behavior: Identify and discuss mediocre performance.
Belief: Leaders persistently work to develop themselves.
Behavior: All leaders must have development plans that their teams know about.
Belief: Isolation is the enemy of excellence.
Behavior: Teammates know each other’s strengths and regularly seek each other’s help.
Belief: Feedback fuels improvement.
Behavior: Leaders invite feedback concerning their performance. When they receive feedback they say, “Thank you.”
Belief: Forgiveness turns failure into growth.
Behavior: Responsible failure is met with, “What did you learn? What will you do differently next time? How can we help?”
Belief: Celebration is energy.
Behavior: Leaders ask, “What’s working?” and celebrate progress.
Culture in two words: Clarify what you believe. Identify behaviors that prove it.
If you can’t see the behavior, it’s not culture.
Can leaders actually build culture in two words?
What ideas do you have about culture building?
Culture Building in the Real World – Leadership Freak
Read: The Culture Code by Daniel Coyle
Excellent!! Nets it down and makes “culture” real. Blessings
Thank you. Cheers.
great post – I could ponder this for days
Thank you, Scott.
I have always thought that beliefs and values drive behavior.
A strong culture exists when most people share core beliefs and values, and those beliefs and values are reflected in their everyday behavior.
A weak culture exists when people hold substantially different beliefs and values, resulting in inconsistent behavior, conflicting priorities, and uncertainty about how people are expected to act.
Thanks, Paul. Your observations about weak culture are sobering and true. You can feel the paralysis setting in.
And if unsure of beliefs, look at behaviors.
Behaviors are the tell; they give away what are the real beliefs. Leaders might SAY excellence is important, but if not rewarded, then it actually isn’t.
Nailed it Pete. Thanks