Be cohesive (build and maintain a cohesive leadership team) – “Myers Brigs Test” tells you how you make decisions and organize things. Use it to understand each other. Use it to avoid making judgments of each other. Gives us a vocabulary for pointing out each other’s flaws. Know each other well enough so you don’t hold anything back. This is the most critical of the 4. The essence of trust.
Be clear (create organizational clarity and strategy (if you don’t get clear on your goals and roles your strategy will not be aligned)) – Eliminate confusion from within the company especially at the executive level. Example: Company identity (hiring values, underlying motivation, core purpose, core values), strategy, objectives, roles, and responsibility. If you have a difficult time making a decision refer back to your vision, mission, strategy, values, and objectives, major goals. When interviewing and new candidates (cultural fit) evaluate them in terms of the company’s values. Ask behavioral questions to see if the candidate fits our values. It’s about agreeing on the fundamental concepts that drive us. Clarity creates a common vocabulary and allows us to delegate and empower our employees with a clear sense of direction. Clarity provides power like nothing else can. It establishes a foundation for hiring, training, communication, promotion, and decision-making, and serves as a basis for accountability in an organization.
- Why do we do exist?
- What difference does it make in the world?
- What behavioral values are irreplaceable and fundamental?
- What business are we in and against whom do we compete?
- How does our approach differ from our competition?
- What are our goals for this month, quarter, year, next year, 5 years from now?
- Who has to do what so we can achieve our goals next month, next quarter, next year, 5 years from now?
Over-communicate organizational clarity (over-communicate the identity and direction “purpose, values, mission”). First at the orientation for new hires. Every email, speech, needs to refer to them. Executives need to do this as well with their teams. Don’t use anything slick to convey the identity of the company. The minute you make any of this feel like a marketing campaign it loses it’s groundedness, it starts to feel like a slogan more than a reality. What does this look like? Employees at all levels understand what we are about and how they contribute to our success. Creates a common purpose and direction. How do we over-communicate?
- Repetition – We often fear saying the same message over and over again. We make assumptions that people are bored and don’t need to hear the message more than once
- Simple messages – Don’t over complicate a message, Give clear uncomplicated messages
- Multiple mediums – Email, Intranet, Direct Reports, Live speeches, Videos. We need to set standards on the methods that we communicate with. Cascading Communication – Take five minutes at the end of the meeting. What do we need to communicate to our people? It gives employees a sense of important people are working together and making important decisions and issues. How many times would an executive have to communicate a message for employees to hear the same message 3 times?
Reinforce organizational clarity through human systems (Hiring Profiles, Performance Management “communication and Alignment with our goals, values and mission”, Reward and Recognition “Reinforce behavior consistently”, Dismissal “use values to decide if we are going to move an employee out of the company”) Most important in terms of preserving the other three. This one is about building a structure and system to preserve TCC’s culture. Culture lives in the way things get done. Things like interviewing, hiring people, managing performance, rewarding them, and letting them go. Performance management – quarterly management report. One page with 4 questions on it.
360 Review Questions
- What did you accomplish?
- What will you accomplish next?
- How can you improve?
- Are you embracing the company values?