Leading Organisations - Culture

In the previous two editions of Breakthrough Leadership, I shared powerful concepts and tools:

🚀 Leading Self: I provided 4 highly effective tools to help you understand how you present yourself as a leader and how this impacts your performance and that of your teams. Read more

🚀 Leading Teams: I delved into 5 powerful concepts that can significantly enhance how you lead your teams and build a high-performance culture. Read more

Today’s edition builds on these and introduces the topic of Leading Organisations focusing on Culture.

Understanding the levers for developing a high-performance culture is crucial. Are you up to speed with best practices and taking positive action to increase engagement across your organisation?

🌍 Leading Organisations - Culture

1. Values, Beliefs, and Behaviours:

These form the foundation of your organisation and influence how your people behave and what they are likely to do. Leaders must be role models, and employees need to believe in them. The words need to translate into action.

🎯 Values: It's vital for organisations to stand for something that resonates with employees and customers. Attracting young talent can be challenging. How do you attract Gen Z talent? What motivates and inspires them? For instance, topics like the environment resonate with the younger generation, with over 50% feeling highly distressed about this issue, and many feeling that government and organisational leaders have failed to protect our planet.

🎯 Beliefs: The beliefs of leaders and teams significantly influence their thoughts. Often, these beliefs can hinder progress. Challenge your assumptions. Your interpretation of facts may differ from others, holding you back. Seek opinions from your support network for a broader perspective. Overcoming inner doubts and fears is essential for leaders' growth.

🎯 Behaviours: Effective cultures are built around role models who set examples. These leaders 'walk the talk,' demonstrating best practices and getting involved when necessary. We all recall a leader who stepped in when times got tough, supporting the team, or leading from the front, providing a focal point for the team to rally behind and build. Impressive leaders can translate theories and models into real situations, with real people, making a positive impact.

Empowerment and Trust: Your leadership style influences the empowerment and trust levels in your organisation. Are you "telling" your teams what to do? Or are you "asking" them how they think something should be done? The "ask" approach creates a higher level of empowerment and trust. Employees feel valued, knowing you appreciate their views and ideas. The "tell" approach indicates that you might not be interested in their views, eroding trust.

2. Employee Engagement

Engagement is a popular term used in organisations to understand how connected and motivated employees are to the organisation. It’s a crucial to understand how engaged your organisation as this directly impacts both the culture and performance of your teams. Typically engaged organisations communicate more clearly, develop a ‘spirit’ of cooperation and willingness to drive significant progress. The most engaged organisations often see their teams regularly go well beyond the call of duty – because they believe in the purpose and direction of the organisation and are fully aligned.

💢 X Model for Employee Engagement: This model describes "full engagement" as the intersection between "maximum satisfaction" and "maximum contribution" for your employees. It helps you understand whether your team is:

· "Engaged or almost engaged" – contributing fully and highly satisfied.

· "Honeymooners or Hamsters" – satisfied but not really contributing.

· "Crash & Burners" – significantly contributing but not satisfied.

· "Disengaged" – not contributing or satisfied.

From this, you can decide on appropriate actions to re-engage and motivate your teams.

X-model of Engagement - Blessing White

♻ Effort-Enjoyment Model of Engagement: This straightforward 4-quadrant framework defines engagement as satisfaction with the job and commitment to the organisation. Decoupling effort from enjoyment results in a content worker who doesn't see the point in going the extra mile. Decoupling enjoyment from effort leaves a hard worker who is dissatisfied. Only when effort and enjoyment are combined do you have the essential elements for engagement.

3. High Performance

Many organisations obsess over getting their teams to perform at their best while ensuring their well-being and motivation.

📈 The Pressure-Performance curve, a simple graph, shows where individuals and teams perform optimally. There's a point where the pressure an individual experiences aligns with their optimal performance.

Be aware of 5 critical zones when leading your teams:

· Boredom Zone: Low pressure, performance doesn't need to be high.

· Comfort Zone: Average pressure, performance well within abilities.

· Stretch Zone: Significant effort, close to limits.

· Strain Zone: Fatigue sets in, poor judgment from pressure buildup.

· Crisis Zone: Highest pressure, burnout risks. Serious health problems and exhaustion cause dramatic performance dips.

Pressure Performance Curve

Recognising these zones helps you adapt and optimise performance. Spend time in your comfort zone for recovery, your stretch zone for peak performance, and your strain zone for understanding your capabilities and learning.

Ultimately you are aiming to find your "flow state" and optimise the time you can spend here, whilst maintaining your balance and wellbeing.

🚀🚀🚀 In the following three editions of Breakthrough Leadership, I'll continue exploring "Leading Organisations," focusing on three more areas:

🎯 Leading Change: Exploring change models, innovation, and disruptive leadership.

Leading Change

🎯 Inclusive Leadership: Examining equity, diversity, inclusion, and compassion.

Inclusive Leadership

🎯 Strategic Thinking: Demonstrating the 3 Horizons model and exploring short and long-term thinking.

Strategic Thinking

👉👉👉 If you found this newsletter insightful, please comment and share it with your colleagues.

👉👉👉 If you'd like to learn more about these concepts and developing your teams and culture, please contact me directly.