Managing Cultural Change in Brisbane-based Professional Services businesses

Managing Organisational Culture

The three words of this article’s title seem simple enough to understand and many organisations invest heavily in trying to achieve just this.  But I think in order for us to intelligently discuss this topic, we need to ask a couple of questions and bring further clarity to the topic.  The first question is, “What is organisational culture?”  The second question is, “Can organisational culture be managed?”  So allow me in a few words to answer these questions by examining different definitions and then to investigate any potential steps that could be taken to produce positive change.

Most people who deal with this topic will articulate organisational culture through summarising the individual elements that make up culture such as, collective – behaviours, values, myths, symbols, norms, rituals, beliefs and assumptions that “this is the way we do things around here.”  It would be difficult to find leaders who would disagree with these fundamental components as being the essence of what makes up organisational culture.  However, it is the expanded definition of culture that I am going to discuss shortly that starts to expose different opinions.  Furthermore, the preferred perspective chosen profoundly affects the strategic approach taken to deal with it.

Generally speaking there are two main paradigms of organisational culture that people choose between.  Some see it as a singular dominating influence that each individual operates within.  Others see it being made up of various sub-cultures within the one organisation with continual superficial adjustments being made by those in each sub-group to accomplish organisational outcomes.  Naturally, if the first paradigm is your perspective then you will take a more basic approach to managing culture through a top-down effort of aligning all staff with the articulated mission, vision, values and strategic plan.  If the second paradigm of culture is your perspective then a more intricate approach is needed considering a more individualistic implementation plan that addresses various sub-cultures with the necessary duration and intensity required for each group.

So, “What is the correct expanded definition of organizational culture?”  In the light of what has been discussed, “Think about your experiences within the organisation/s you have worked?”  I would like to suggest from research and my experience that both paradigms reflect different facets of reality.  It has become increasingly evident that the more multi-cultural our society becomes, the more diverse the values of personnel who are employed.  Additionally, the greater accumulation of various fundamentally different personal values within the workplace naturally creates sub-cultures in order to assist people to both retain what they believe and respond to the organisational challenges that arise.  Thus, the increase in globalisation is being reflected in the workplace making the management of organisational change more difficult over time.  Simultaneously, I have also noted and experienced a sense that each organisation has its own archetype culture, which can either, detract from, or contribute to the organisation’s effectiveness.  There is little doubt that organisational culture is a complex dynamic, and that it profoundly impacts upon organisational outcomes, which is why leaders are often desperate to attempt managing it.

This brings us to the second question that was posited in the first paragraph – “Can organisational culture be managed?”  Experience has shown that organisational culture is difficult to assess and resistant to change.  You might remember the words of Drucker here, “That which cannot be measured cannot be managed.”  This is why I have taken some time to this point in defining what it is, because if we cannot define what it is we cannot ever hope to manage positive cultural change.  I have personally been involved in managing successful cultural change in large organisations through organisational-wide interventions over a two year timeframe with ongoing support.  It involved an approach that strategically addressed both paradigms discussed above.  So to answer the question, “Can organisational culture be managed?”  Yes, but it needs a multidimensional approach.

Allow me now to share with you the elements necessary to practically manage organisational culture change by addressing different key elements:

1. Top-down support:  Start with the archetype culture.  The culture shift attempt must have full passionate support from the top down, including leadership modelling of the required behaviours congruent with the regular articulated values, vision, mission, strategy, reward systems, structure, policies, procedures and allocation of resources.  Any conflict between these elements and it will be picked up quickly and, whether consciously or subconsciously, resisted.
2. Organisation-wide participation:  Systematically address the sub-culture paradigm.  From the top-down, implement a coach training process by training the top leaders in how to utilise coaching techniques with their direct reports, mentoring them in the process over time.  The important aspect of this training is to make the shift into believing their direct reports are worthy of investment, are resourceful and capable of significantly contributing to the organisation.  The process also needs to cascade down through the organisation to front-line employees.  So all are coached and all in positions of leadership are trained in how to coach. The message is clear, they are valued participants.  The coaching techniques must incorporate more listening than talking.  Finally, over time, all who are in the company will receive this training, cascading the coaching culture throughout the organisation.  Moreover, the coach training must also eventually be left in the hands of the company, developing specific internal coaches, so they can keep delivering the training to new employees and monitor the needs of the organisation.  I have seen this work bringing a greater sense of belonging, interpersonal connectedness, empowerment, appreciation, trust, transformation and organisation-wide participation.
3. Recruitment and induction:  There isn’t a better time to manage culture than at the point of entry with hiring people who are congruent with the organisational values.  This does mean that quality behaviour-based interviewing needs to be implemented, so the candidate’s values are accurately assessed and they are not misaligned with the company.  The more congruent the candidate is, the more they will enjoy their work and lower employee turnover will occur.  Once employed there is a need to undertake an induction process acculturating them through information and personal coaching by their manager who by now has been transformed through the organisation-wide coach training.

In conclusion, you will note that organisational culture change comes from a multifaceted approach, incorporating a significant amount of elements.  At the same time the approach I have shared above encompasses both of the extended cultural definitions that were presented in the article.  Yes, organisational culture can be managed but it is not to be done in a haphazard manner.  There needs to be an organisation-wide approach starting with buy-in from the top level leaders who are first willing to make the changes necessary in themselves, modelling the required behaviours.  There needs to be both organisation-wide supportive systems and harmonious empowered coaching relationships that create supportive environments for each employee.  If the coaching is implemented well, it will enable employees to safely discuss any cultural conflicts they are experiencing and develop action plans for organisational alignment, greater productivity and increased satisfaction.  Finally, there needs to be a positive reward system in place to promote effective coaching, and effectiveness needs to be measured by both the feedback of those receiving the coaching and improved organisational results.

David Allan – Certified Executive Coach (MBus) www.executivesuccesscoaching.com

P.S. why not complete an online assessment on your change management effectiveness and receive a PDF revealing your results and giving you customized strategies for improvement?

Change Management: a key leadership success factor!

The greatest myth for a leader is to think, “I have arrived”. Organizational landscapes are always changing, bringing along with them new problems and new possibilities.  Therefore leaders can’t afford to stop growing in their ability to manage change.  Change management is one of the key competencies for leadership success for it navigates people through the maze of changes that arise in any organization’s journey.  Sometimes these changes occur intentionally through strategic initiatives and other times they occur as a by-product from the constant shifts that occur in our world.

When it comes to intentional change through strategic initiatives, one fatal mistake regularly made by leaders is to elevate content over context.  Every change initiative involves new strategic information (content) and this is usually the key focus.  However, if the attitudes, values, beliefs and behaviours of employees are not considered adequately enough throughout the implementation of a strategy, it is destined to either fail or be wrought with unnecessary conflict and obstruction.  Hence leaders need to constantly grow in their capacity to develop systems and processes for change, along with tactically aligning people to a vision, informing, involving and communicating clearly with others throughout the process.

In regard to change brought about simply as a by-product of existing in the global environment, leaders need to have their change radar switched on at all times.  Leaders must cultivate a conscious awareness of events and circumstances around them that will impact upon themselves and the people within their organization.  There needs to be time taken to contemplate potential shifts from stimuli to their organization.  Effective leaders need to regularly analyze their organizations for circumstances that could negatively impact upon their staff and prepare them to navigate positively through to success.

I have found that oft-times leaders do not distinguish between ‘change’ and ‘transition’.  Change refers to the alteration of circumstances around us from our external environment, whereas transition is the internal experience that people undergo as a result of external change.  The key here is to realize that change can be implemented quite rapidly, but people can vary significantly in their capacity to catch up with the changes.  This is where leaders need to be aware of factors such as: spectrum of early to late adopters, values alignment, role impact, change credibility, work demand, previous change disappointments, personal/social impact, career path, loss of perceived benefits and constant open communication.

In conclusion, to be a successful change-agent one needs to keep cultivating a number of competencies.  Leaders need to keep alert to the constant shifts occurring around them and preparing others to navigate the terrain.  They must increase their capacity to plan change initiatives, along with contingencies more effectively.  Leaders need to appropriately involve others according to their levels of influence, in discussions, decisions and the necessary information required for successful implementation.  Effective leaders cast a clear motivating and engaging vision worthy of investment for others to engage their energies.  Quality change-agents acknowledge the positive contribution of past approaches and reveal how they are no longer appropriate in achieving optimum outcomes.  And finally, Effective leaders create a positive environment, listening, coaching, supporting, modelling and discussing with individuals their journey through the change/s.

David Allan – Certified Executive Coach (MBus) www.executivesuccesscoaching.com

P.S. why not complete an online assessment on your change management effectiveness and receive a PDF giving you strategies for improvement?

Importance of Casting Vision

The need for leaders to cast a clear vision is generally accepted as one of the success factors behind effective leadership.  However the development of this skill still remains a mystery to many leaders.  How does one develop the capacity to cast a clear effective vision?  It is obvious that some knowledge is required, some of which I am about to share with you, but there is more than knowledge required to pull this off with precision.  Leaders must learn both the science (processes) and the art (dealing with people) of casting vision.

A vision needs to be value-based, where people are willing to invest their energies because they believe in the outcome – it gives greater meaning to those involved.  This is true whether it be a personal or organizational vision.  So whatever the endeavor, the visionary must have (for self) and create (for others) buy-in to a worthy outcome.  Organizationally, this cannot be achieved without trusting relationships built through significant discussion and communication.  When those implementing the vision are invited to participate in the creation of options and action-planning, ownership to the vision is increased and commitment levels produce more effective results.  Gone are the days when a leader can just use top down command and control mechanisms to thrust a vision upon others because they are paid to be there.

It is crucial to understand that if you are casting a vision then you are also unmistakably a change-agent.  You therefore need to call on all the expertise required to manage change.  Thus the leader must cast the vision for the organization often and in varying ways.  This enables others to continually capture the vision. This is one of the reasons why organisations use mottos, wall plaques, stationery, one-to-one discussions, memos, meeting agendas, and various other mediums to constantly get the singular message out to all staff.  As a change agent, the leader also needs to consider how to best manage the early adopters, the never adopters and all else in between.  Hence you have to be careful to honour the past, reveal the current status quo’s lack of effectiveness and paint a successful picture of the future.

In order for a vision to be actualized it also must be viable.  For example, organisationally, if the vision is competing with other existing companies, then strategic planning is a key component.  Hence, to enter an existing market the strategic planning process would look strongly at whether it could gain market share and survive/thrive.  Or if the vision involves diversifying from existing products and services into a complementary area, then the capabilities of the company could be examined to see if it has capacity to expand and implement the vision.  Using a tool like Porter’s five forces can be good for this.  It can also aid in investigating an innovative start-up business vision, where you can examine things like how easy it is for others to duplicate the new product or service, etc…  An investigation like this may lead to the realization that the vision is too risky and likely to fail.

Finally, it is underestimated how important it is for the leader/s to have absorbed the vision into their own psyche.  Unless the leader is passionate about the vision it will not be believed and pursued to its potential.  Thus, with a passionate leader, a viable vision that is value-based, and has a strong buy-in, the final step is to create an action plan.  You can chunk the vision down into specific goals creating projects with distinct start and completion times.  Using project management processes, the right people are delegated to the roles and responsibilities to oversee and empower teams to achieve the vision.  This involves ongoing communication, rewards and review.  It involves managing people, processes, timelines and results.  In conclusion, it is so critical for optimum results that leaders constantly aid their team/staff to relate all the goals, projects and action steps back to the bigger vision so that no one gets lost or left behind.

www.ExecutiveSuccessCoaching.com

Leadership empowerment: what is it and how do you achieve it?

There is quite a bit of talk today about the need to have empowered employees within the workplace.  Unfortunately that is often all it is – talk!  But what are the benefits and how do you accomplish such a task?  Let’s start by discussing the benefits of having more empowered team members.  Business environments change so rapidly today.  There is a need to develop more empowered employees in order to keep up with today‘s fast-paced fluctuating global environment.

In order for organizations to remain adaptable to customer needs, front-line employees must be given more authority and flexibility to make on-the-spot decisions.   Research in the area of empowerment has revealed that increased empowerment produces greater organisational success factors.  These factors include employee contribution, innovation, organizational commitment, expands latent talents, increases capacity to accept change, and increases employee retention.  These benefits are all necessary traits for improving organisational success.

Having discussed some benefits and hence the desirability for greater empowerment let’s investigate what we mean by the term ‘empowerment’.  There seems to be a plethora of definitions but for me the best way to discuss empowerment is to break it up into two dimensions.  Hence, empowerment can be summed up by looking at both its internal and external aspects.  The technical definitions that describes these two aspects are psychological empowerment (internal) and leader-empowering behaviours (external).

Psychological empowerment is made up of four facets, a sense of real meaning in one’s work, a sense of making an impact through the contribution you make at work, feeling competent about your capacity to do your work, and a sense you have freedom to make choices that effect your work.   Research indicates that not only do psychologically empowered employees perceive themselves as more effective, increasing their confidence, but also that employees with whom they work assess them as more effective.

Leader-empowering behaviours exhibited by leaders to empower those whom they lead have been defined by six specific activities.  They are:  delegation, accountability, self-determined decision-making, information sharing, training for greater competency, and coaching for innovation.  Furthermore a connection has been shown between these six behaviours being exercised by leaders and their subordinates increasing in the four facets of psychological empowerment.  Leaders who exhibited these six traits, as determined by their subordinates, created a dynamic which allowed for their subordinates to feel more empowered (psychological empowerment).

Having defined empowerment and its various aspects and elements, how does one go about creating increased empowerment?  One research project has revealed that executive coaching which specifically worked on enabling leaders to use coaching skills in their leadership, saw an increase in their leader-empowering behaviours and an increase in psychological empowerment within both the leaders and their subordinates.  The executive coaching that was exercised set out only to equip leaders in the use of executive coaching skills.  A model was used which enabled leaders to coach their staff using a contracted relationship, conduct a gap analysis, develop and action plan to fill the gap, resource them for success and gain ongoing feedback.  So how does one implement an empowering process?  Simple, a quality coaching process is an effective method for empowering leaders to not only feel empowered (psychological empowerment) but to be able to empower others in their work. A good coaching process clarifies the way forward, holds people accountable, enables them to take responsibility for their own direction, opens up the way for greater communication, increases competency, and expands innovative opportunities.

David Allan – Certified Executive Coach (MBus) www.executivesuccesscoaching.com

Emotional Intelligence – How to improve it!

Emotional Intelligence (EI) – that is, the capacity to work effectively with your and others’ emotions while engaging in human interactions.  EI is demonstrating itself to be a critical factor in leadership effectiveness.  Increased numbers of empirical research studies are being produced that reveal outcomes that can no longer be ignored by serious leaders. Some of the key measures associated with emotional intelligence that are being examined are job satisfaction levels, job effectiveness, the contagiousness of moods and physiological responses to others (heart rate, health).  Studies show that the emotional intelligence of the boss directly affects employee job satisfaction levels, and this in turn impacts upon employee turnover.  Furthermore when a boss brings a negative mood to the workplace through displays of irritability, and anxiety it takes away from a climate of enthusiasm, which diminishes work effectiveness.

In contrast, when a boss is able to exude an optimistic and enthusiastic mood it impacts positively upon innovation, productivity, team work and increased resilience to difficult circumstances. With a greater number of research studies demonstrating the positive impact that increased emotional intelligence has upon business results, it is becoming more difficult to ignore this element of leadership development.  The good news is that leaders can improve and grow in this area. I have worked one-to-one with leaders to achieve this very thing.  So where do you start to work at improving this area?  There are a number of options available to you.  You might want to look at taking an assessment to assist you in this.  I offer them on my site at www.ExecutiveSuccessCoaching.com.  You may want to read up more on the four elements of emotional intelligence and select one that you know needs more work and set some goals for yourself, or perhaps ask those you are leading for their perspective, either directly or through a 360 assessment.  The most logical place to start improving emotional intelligence is to increase your own self-awareness, for it is the building blocks to EI.

Key variables that align well with evolved EI are awareness of your own  personal values, taking opportunities to reflect and knowing your strengths.  When you are clear on your values – your inner guiding life principles – then your decision-making is automatically simplified.  You are able to confidently say ‘no’ to opportunities that don’t match who you are, or have become.  And you are able to quickly distinguish between opportunities worthy of your investment.  One exploratory question I have found helpful in working with leaders to increase their awareness of their values is, “What is so important to you, that if you didn’t do it, you would consider your life a waste?”

Leaders who know their strengths are able to construct their life and business in order to cater for their strengths and potential growth areas.  They openly acknowledge their weaknesses allowing those areas to be addressed in any organizational strategic planning.  They know how to build teams around them that will complement their strengths and growth areas, which will create greater effectiveness.  There are some great assessment tools available today to assist leaders in this process of discovering their behavioral strengths, which will also enable them to learn how to flex their style with people who are different.  I recommend increasing your self-awareness in this area.

The final area that is vital for increasing self-awareness is learning to take the time to reflect over your responses to others.  Optimally it is best to reflect before making decisions so you don’t simply react but you make a measured response.  Sometimes we emotionally react and after the fact we know that we haven’t demonstrated emotional intelligence.  Instead of beating ourselves up, these are the times to intentionally practice reflection.  Use a journal if you want to get serious and write down your thoughts.  Ask yourself, “What just happened?  “What was going on for me in that emotional encounter?”  “What hot buttons were pressed, and how could I have responded?”  “If a similar encounter were to occur in the future, how would I pick up on it – what would be the indicators, and how could I recognize them as red flags in order to respond appropriately next time?

As you can see this type of growth doesn’t happen over night, which is why one-to-one coaching is effective to improving this competency.  As you become more aware of your own inner responses and what triggers negative reactions, it is only then that you can make alternate decisions to a better you.  I have given you a number of possible paths to improving one area of your EI, so which one are you going to take?  When are you going to get started?  This area is critical to effective leadership, so don’t ignore it any longer – start today?

David Allan MBus Professionally Accredited Coach LinkedIn

Emotional Intelligence and Self-awareness

As a leader I always look for more ways to improve in my leadership capacity.  Specifically, I have found when I increase my emotional intelligence (EI) it always has a by-product of improving my leadership of others.  When it comes to developing EI in leaders the foundational building block for increasing this essential competency is self-awareness.  If you are not aware of your own emotional responses how will you be aware of others?  If you are not aware of your own emotional triggers how can you step back from a situation and objectively respond to the stimuli being thrown your way and not react to it?  There is a lot of talk today about emotional intelligence and its positive influence upon leadership effectiveness, but how much of this is hype?  Surprisingly, more empirical research is emerging with significant results showing how EI in leaders positively effects employees’ job satisfaction levels, decreases their intention to leave, improves innovation and increases bottom-line results.  Emotional Intelligence however cannot be built over night.  But it can be built if leaders would follow a personal development plan.  The key is to start with increasing self-awareness.

In the end I find one of the best and fastest methods for leadership development in EI is through listening to honest feedback given to me in real-time, and then to immediately start implementing a new approach – to experiment – to see what happens.  To speed this process up even more, I have also found it invaluable to have a coach to walk with me so I have even more objectivity and ongoing accountability.  These methods have enabled me to increase in my awareness of my emotional reactions and lead others more effectively, increasing emotional intelligence (EI).  I am by no means perfect, but as one of my mentors taught me, “Although I am not what I ought to be, I certainly am not what I used to be.”  For the reality is that any significant leadership development in this area doesn’t happen over night.  But if you keep focused on developing the correct areas you will see growth over time.

So you may be asking, “How do I know what the correct areas to focus on are?”  I mean, if there are gaps in your emotional intelligence where you are ‘unaware’ how do you become aware?  That is why honest feedback in real-time is essential.  You need to humbly be open to such feedback and then experiment by changing your approach in a very short time span after receiving the news.  If you wait before you experiment, the invaluable insights you just received may rapidly merge back into your blind spots once more.  Now this is where I find a coach is invaluable, because there are two main reasons why people don’t accept feedback.  The first is that you don’t trust the people giving it, either because of ulterior motives, or through incompetency.  The second main reason is because the feedback process is seen as unreliable, whether a formal untrusted 360 degree assessment is used or data collection and interpretation is seen as flawed.  But having a coach, an outside objective expert whose main objective is your growth, brings greater confidence and direction in how to constructively respond to the feedback.  A coach can help you to develop a plan and ascertain whether or not you are overreacting, being too suspicious, arrogant, or using a host of other unhelpful filters to assess your situation.

I have personally found that there is something deeply satisfying about this type of leadership development, because it also influences the way you interact with your family and other important people in your life.  Furthermore, it is a boost to your leadership confidence when you notice that you are catching yourself from reacting to emotionally charged environments and instead you are now responding constructively.  You find yourself directing your team not only through an articulated strategy but also through behavior that models the very values you are trying to espouse within your team and organization.  You are no longer overwhelmed with anxiety when you begin to think about dealing with a team conflict, but you look forward to assisting team members to constructively work through to resolution knowing you have the capacity to be objective and assist them to be the same.  Conflict is seen as an opportunity to anchor the values of how team members are meant to deal with each other in adverse circumstances.

Let me conclude by addressing the concept of using a personal development plan, mentioned earlier.  The four key areas of emotional intelligence as depicted by Goleman are self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and relationship management.   The first step for you to take is to ascertain which one of these four you need to focus on.  If you would like assistance in finding helpful tools to increase these leadership capacities, then go to www.ExecutiveSuccessCoaching.com/resources where you can scroll down and view various online assessments which not only immediately reveal areas for your developmental focus, but also, once completed, give strategic approaches in what to do about improving them.  Now if you are new to all this, the foundational element is self-awareness, and there are a number of assessments that are very helpful to increasing this capacity.  I can remember some 18 years ago now taking my first Myers-Briggs Personality Type indicator.  I discovered as a leader that a number of the approaches that I took were not born out of my values but simply were a part of my personality makeup.  That was a shock to me, but one of the best outcomes from taking such an assessment was a greater appreciation to accept differences in others.  I learned to stop interpreting other people’s actions through my own narrow framework.  I learned to work with those differences in others appreciating what they had to offer to the team.  Over time, I found myself less resistant to different perspectives and more embracing of variety.  Over the past 18 years, I have found myself taking other assessments like DiSC and many others.  All of which have been a part of increasing my self-awareness, along with committing to implementation and being coached.  In my next post I am going to discuss how to address the other three EI elements of self-management, social awareness and relationship management.

David Allan MBus

http://www.ExecutiveSuccessCoaching.com

 

Does Emotional Intelligence Really Work?

I’ve been working full time with leaders to assist them in their leadership development for 10 years now, and I have found that the leaders that make the biggest positive impact with others are those who can engage empathetically utilizing the emotional dynamics that take place in any human encounter.  This of course is the very essence of  the four key elements of ’emotional intelligence’ – that is – self-awareness, self management, social awareness and relationship management.  This has lead me on a search to see whether there was any hard data to verify my experiences.

What I have discovered in my search is that greater numbers of empirical research studies are being produced that reveal outcomes that can no longer be ignored by serious leaders.  Some of the key measures associated with emotional intelligence that are being examined are job satisfaction levels, job effectiveness the contagiousness of moods and physiological responses to others (heart rate, health).  Studies show that the emotional intelligence of the boss directly affects employee job satisfaction levels, and this in turn impacts upon employee turnover.  Furthermore when a boss brings a negative mood to the workplace through displays of irritability, and anxiety it takes away from a climate of enthusiasm, which diminishes work effectiveness.

In contrast, when a boss is able to exude an optimistic and enthusiastic mood it impacts positively upon innovation, productivity, team work and increased resilience to difficult circumstances. With a greater number of research studies demonstrating the positive impact that increased emotional intelligence has upon business results, it is becoming more difficult to ignore this element of leadership development.  The good news is that leaders can improve and grow in this area.  I have worked one-to-one with leaders to achieve this very thing.  So where do you start to work at improving this area?  There are a number of options available to you.  You might want to look at taking an assessment to assist you in this.  I offer them on my site at www.ExecutiveSuccessCoaching.com.  You may want to read up more on the four elements of emotional intelligence and select one that you know needs more work and set some goals for yourself, or perhaps ask those you are leading for their perspective, either directly or through a 360 assessment.  The most logical place to start improving emotional intelligence is to increase your own emotional awareness.  So I am going to be speaking about this in my next post.

Start Growing in your Emotional Intelligence today

David Allan MBus

www.ExecutiveSuccessCoaching.com