February 27, 2020
ISSN# 1545-2646
Are you looking at your company culture through rose colored glasses?
You may have heard the expression of looking at the world through rose colored glasses and wondered what it might mean. It challenges the viewer of how they are looking at what is going on around them and making conscious choices as to the acceptance or decline of the realities of that situation. The perception of the view tends to jade the vision as always being overly positive and finding some rational to justify what might be off or out of alignment as still being good and acceptable.
With that in mind, how are you looking at the culture within your organization? Are you seeing it for what it really is or crafting a vision of what you want to see? Maybe you don’t stop and look at your culture and simply accept it for what it is. The challenge I bring forth today is that we can’t view culture as being good or bad. It is what it is. What we need to ask ourselves is – does the culture in the company contribute or detract from making our business better each and every day going forward? Or is the culture such that it is draining the energy out of the people and slowing progress to higher levels of results?
This week take a look at those elements of the environment in your business that when not viewed through rose colored glasses give you a true picture of an engaging workplace or a distractive workplace. As a leader one of your primary responsibilities or should I say obligations is to set the tone for the culture for your organization and then live by those standards each and every day. Your team looks to leadership to determine what is or is not acceptable in the company culture. If you show up late for meetings then it must be acceptable. You can’t have two standards – one for you and one for them. If you do they will eventually get frustrated and leave for a different culture to thrive in.
It is not just about being on time, leaving early etc. It is about all of the various aspects which positively or negatively influence the day to day culture of your organization. The “Golden Rule” of treating others like you want to be treated is more about having consistent standards. Yes, it would be desirable that people are treated with respect and positive interactions. The reality is that I sometimes witness two different standards for your leaders interact with staff. Some are given a pass on things not completed on time and others are reprimanded right in front of other staff members. I’m not thinking that is a good double standard to have in place to nurture and develop staff.
Take a good look at yourself and your actions and determine if they are contributing to your business culture whether in a positive way or negative way. Then decide if you are even going to do something about them to change them or just settle for more of the same.
Not feeling objective enough about evaluating your culture? Call JKL Associates at (313) 527-7945 in Michigan or (407) 984-7246 in Florida to get an unbias input about your culture.