Is your business’s culture thriving and performing like the symphony orchestra, or is it toxic and performing more like the elementary band concert? In other words, do you have a high-performing team or individuals? Is your company stalled, going in circles, and repeatedly addressing the same issues? Do you have regular employee and customer complaints? Then, your people need more cultural alignment.
As the owner/CEO, you either control and drive intentional purpose and behavior, or each employee will create their own. You can’t possibly read off the same sheet music when everyone is doing their own thing. Thus, your business operates and sounds like an elementary band concert and not a symphony orchestra. To get your people to read off the same sheet of music and have harmony, you must provide them with the songbook.
Safety and Trust
The songbook starts with developing safety and trust. Safety is moving people from “I” to “We” by establishing safety with each other. For an employee to contribute and participate, they must feel safe as an individual within the company and department, creating a connection. People want to know they are accepted, their opinions matter, their ideas will be heard, and they are valued. People forge a deeper understanding and appreciation of each other by hearing and seeing each other’s common thoughts and differences. Thus, creating a culture of candor is vital to people having a solid connection. We have often heard the term “work family.” Some take offense to this, saying that work is not your family. However, that kind of deep connection creates high-performance teams because we feel safe with each other. When someone feels safe, their “I” moves to “We,” which leads to trust.
Trust is shared risk and vulnerability. Conversations move from voluntary ideas and thoughts to asking for opinions and help, overall sharing weaknesses. Everyone, including leaders, relies on each other for the greater good, which sends signals of understanding why I am here and why we are here. Everyone is empowered and encouraged to contribute; people listen with intention and respect and are grateful for the help. If your people recognize that everyone, including themselves, has weaknesses, they can move past the posturing and get to work. However, if any group member doesn’t trust another member, this will limit their participation. Their feelings of not being included led to disengagement, inefficiency, and overall disappointing results for the whole group. In other words, the performance is that of the elementary band concert.
Priorities
Building safety and trust is not easy. People process information based on their own experiences, knowledge, and beliefs. They express these views with well-meaning intentions. The expression is not meant to be personal, but the receiver may feel they are. One misunderstood intent can impact safety and trust, resulting in a dysfunctional group. Setting priorities, values, or guiding principles for how people are expected to treat one another and behave helps significantly build and sustain safety and trust with your people.
Establishing your priorities creates shared values and an identity for what your company is about, stands for, and believes in. A list of values, approximately five to seven, is meant to guide the conduct, attitudes, and activities of your people, all your people, CEO, and down. They are marching orders on executing the mission with little to no room for interpretation because they are critical for the company’s success.
Purpose
The next component to moving your people from “I” to “We” is for them to understand why they are there. This is the company’s mission and vision. Why do we come to work every day, and why do we do what we do? Where are we going?
A mission is why your company exists. It’s not what you do; it’s why you do it. The company’s purpose, passion, or cause should elicit a powerful and motivating emotional response. It is a straightforward statement that is understood and lived by daily. It’s why your people come to work and provides a clear decision-making guide. The action either aligns with the mission or doesn’t. Consider it your company’s “Life, Liberty and Pursuit of Happiness.”
The vision is where the company is going and how it intends to fulfill its mission. It is a unifying direction or focal point for all that creates excitement, passion, and energy for the work being done. The vision becomes long-range goals with specific steps to get there. Each department and person has ownership in the plan, with quarterly expectations of results to move the company forward. People understand why they work for your company and what is expected of them.
Your priorities and purpose must be visible to everyone every day. It is discussed in weekly coaching conversations, demonstrated by actions, and repeated over and over until people bleed it. Your people can never stop hearing it and seeing it in action. Unaligned behavior needs to be course-corrected immediately through coaching and candor to ensure all know the priorities matter. You reinforce that this is what your company is about, stands for, and believes in without wavering. You are giving feedback because this person matters, and you believe in their potential. When your people get it right, publicly showcase, praise, and reward actions and behaviors to reinforce your expectations.
All of this may seem like you are trying to build a utopia. You’re not. It is a highly accountable, continuously practiced and enforced, strategically designed culture on purpose. You are teaching the notes (what your company stands for) by which you expect your people to play. You are taking individuals, elementary band members, and molding them into a symphony orchestra delivering your music (products and services) to delighted customers. Each person understands why they are part of your orchestra, which instrument they play, and what part of the song they contribute to in creating the harmony of your music.
