According to research, 35% of an organization’s performance is determined by the company’s culture. This is significant: one single factor drives over one third of an organization’s performance! As such, it makes a lot of sense for organizations to find out how to influence that single factor.
Culture is predominantly driven by leadership: the behavior of top management determines 50 to 70% of the organization’s culture. An organizational culture is based on values and behavior. The leadership in an organization will need to define and live those values.
When working in an alliance with other organizations, or possibly even in collaboration with other departments, at least two organizational cultures will need to co-exist. The best way to bridge this is to create a third culture, specifically for the collaboration. This third culture will need to be based on common values.
As a leader you will need to lead the creation of the culture. Align with your teams the common meaning of a value within the context of your desired culture. It is obvious that you will need to lead by example and live the values. Also, it is helpful to re-emphasize those values frequently to your team to ensure that the culture sticks.
If culture drives one third of your organization’s performance, and leadership defines culture, then what do you do on continuous leadership development to influence culture and thus performance?
PS: Based on a global study, Marshall Goldsmith identified the 15 most important competencies for leaders. Assessing yourself on these competencies can help you to identify your areas of focus for leadership development. Contact me to explore