My Point of View, in 23 Truths
Inspired by David C. Baker’s approach to “Drop and Give Me 20”, my point of view shapes my expertise and how I support the leaders I strive to empower.
So, twenty-three truths shape my POV…
On Cultivating Great Organizational Culture
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Organizational culture is the ultimate differentiator.
The set of working norms that are expected, praised, tolerated, or rejected by the team members of an organization will ultimately decide whether an organization is successful or not.
Cultivate the right organizational culture and the rest will work itself out.
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“Great” is a relative term.
A great culture for some might be terrible and completely undesirable for others. Undesirable for some may be great to others.
Great organizational cultures come in all different shapes and forms.
Be weary of “experts” who tell you how to build their version of great organizational culture. What’s great for them and the organizations they’ve been a part of or consulted may not be the right culture for the organization you lead.
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Great organizational culture is achieved when three key cornerstones converge:
The cultural expectations of the most-senior leader of the organization
The cultural expectations of the collective team members
The cultural requirements for delivering core business outcomes
Great organizational culture isn't possible until those three cornerstones align.
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“You can’t shape culture,” my Aunt laughed when I told her I help executive leaders define and shape their organization’s culture.
I smiled politely and shifted the conversation elsewhere.
Great organizational culture does not blossom organically. Earning great organizational culture takes real, ongoing, intentional work.
And yes, I use the word ‘earned’ there very intentionally.
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Organizational culture molds and shapes every single day. Sometimes for better and sometimes for worse.
Can we feel it change everyday? Not really.
But small incremental shifts constantly occur.
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There is a common gap that exists between a leader’s stated importance of organizational culture and where that leader’s time, focus, priorities, and budget really lie.
Want to know what is really most important to a leader?
See where their time, focus, priorities, and budget is spent.
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The pursuit of convergence between cultural expectations and what the organization needs to succeed is a never-ending pursuit. It requires a great deal of work to achieve cultural convergence and a never-ending effort to uphold it.
Once the right organizational culture is in place it’s easier to maintain, but the work to build, cultivate, and uphold a great organizational culture does not end.
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Great organizational culture is earned faster when leaders clearly communicate their cultural vision and expectations.
Implicit expectations are dangerous and often lead to disappointment.
On Maximizing People and Talent
A few words that are important to me before getting to my truths in this section:
Throughout this section, I talk about getting the right people on the team, building an organization that isn't for everyone, and getting really clear about who fits and who doesn’t in an organization.
I want to be direct about what that means and what it doesn't.
This has nothing to do with race, gender, age, sexual orientation, disability, religion, national origin, or any other protected or personal characteristic.
None of it.
Those factors should say absolutely nothing about whether someone will thrive in an organization. Any leader using undefined "culture fit" as cover for explicit or implicit discrimination isn't practicing effective talent strategy; they're practicing bias with better branding.
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With the right kind of people, work challenges and barriers tend to fall by the wayside.
When the right kind of people come together to strategize, innovate, and problem solve, the results tend to speak for themself.
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Just like great organizational culture is relative, so are the right kind of people.
The right kind of people for a given organization may thrive in one working culture and may struggle incredibly in another.
It’s crucial for leaders to understand and define the right kind of people for their team. Doing so makes it easier to see when you have the right ones, and when you don’t.
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Most organizations operate on the premise of delivering a right-fit good, service, or experience to a targeted market.
Well, organizations do the same every single day for the team members they employ without realizing it.
Organizations provide its offering to team members in many forms:
Guaranteed pay
Incentive pay
Medical insurance
Flexible schedules
Career growth
Passion for the mission
A sense of belonging
The list of what organizations can provide their people in exchange for work can go on and on.
Every single organization that employs people has an employee value proposition and very few organizations clearly define, publish, and champion their employee value proposition.
That’s a mistake.
A clear and compelling employee value proposition will help repel the wrong kind of people and attract the right kind of people.
That’s a good thing.
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See above. Then, accept that when a unique and compelling employee value proposition is championed, not everyone is going to be excited by it.
That’s a good thing! An offering for everyone is an offering for no one.
Be so clear about what your organization offers, it repels most people and attracts people who are the right fit.
Consider what your organization provides today for its target market.
Is it meant for anyone to consume? Probably not. You have a target market. You have a group of people who would be wildly appreciative of your offer. And most people would be completely uninterested in what you have to offer.
We all accept that premise on the good/products/services we offer.
Organizations should operate in that same spirit when building teams.
It’s not for everyone. It’s really great for some.
To reiterate: NONE of this has anything to do with discriminating against people based on their race, gender, skin color, or any other protected personal characteristic.
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Hiring well is about:
Being really clear with candidates about what you’re looking for
Ensuring candidates are aligned and interested in what you’re able to offer
Ensuring they are capable of delivering what you need from them
Setting and sharing expectations around those three things should begin before any time is invested in an interview. Expectation setting here can be done through what goes into open role postings and additional pieces of evergreen content that can be created before any phone screening or interview takes place.
When new team members don’t work out, it’s usually because what they are looking for is misaligned with what you have to offer, they are not interested in doing what you expect, or they are incapable of doing what you expect.
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Senior leaders need to stop expecting that team members are going to give their full effort and focus everyday for the good of the organization, regardless of whatever is going on in their work and personal worlds. Those days are over.
True engagement and buy-in from team members must be earned from organizations and their leaders.
That puts the onus on leadership to set the right expectations, identify the right kind of people, and deliver on a compelling and aligned value proposition in exchange for true engagement.
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Misaligned, low-performing team members drag organizations down more than highly capable and aligned people raise organizations up.
Should leaders toss out misaligned and underperforming team members at the very first sign of a misstep? No.
Should leaders be diligent in working to move misaligned or poor performers up or out of their organization? Yes.
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Most high performers aren’t willing to be bogged down by poor performers for long. Eventually, high performers will depart when low performers are not leveled up or managed out.
Don’t wait for a high performers exit interview to learn that they are tired of carrying others across the finish line and that is a core reason for their departure from the organization. It happens too often.
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When team members are aligned with the value proposition they are offered for their work and that value proposition is delivered consistently, team members will take care of the organization’s most important initiatives.
They’ll also lean in faster, commit harder, stay longer, and ultimately, drive the organization forward in a more meaningful way. That’s a really good thing for organizational leadership.
It’s when misalignment or underdelivery from the organization occurs when team members begin to disengage and fall short in their commitments.
On Leading Courageously
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Leaders set the example, for better or worse. And it’s incredibly important that leaders go first in exemplifying the behavior/competency/change they want others to follow.
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Thinking about what needs to be done is easy.
Acting on what’s best for an organization often requires hard and unpopular decisions to be made.
Acting on hard decisions is difficult.
Acting on what’s difficult requires courage.
Acting with courage is what drives impactful positive change.
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Leaders who need to be liked will eventually optimize for short term group acceptance over delivering the right long term outcomes. That often leads to inaction around important factors that may hold the organization back from success.
Effective leaders accept that some decisions will cost them likability in the short term.
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Implicit expectations are expectations that are held but go unsaid, unstated, and unspoken about.
Leaders often hold too many implicit expectations of their people which often leads to disappointment and resentment.
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When expectations are missed, a clear, honest, and direct conversation is the most effective and efficient way for someone to have a chance at meeting those expectations in the future.
Bonus points for leaders who can deliver those conversations in a kind, caring, empathetic way.
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Leaders avoid tough conversations too often.
They kick the can down the road to a later date waiting for better timing. Better timing usually doesn't come.
They avoid the conversation completely hoping the problem will go away. It usually doesn’t.
If they have a conversation, they soften the message and the real problem + the urgency around it is missed.
Meaningful change only happens when a full message is delivered.
These are the 23 truths my expertise continues to come back to.
They may shift over time, but the longer I’ve come alongside senior leaders to help solve their people and culture problems, the more I believe in them. Many of these truths shape my why.
I hope they stretch your thinking, challenge your assumptions, question your current approach, and shape how you lead your team.