Guardrails Against Anarchy for the Busy Leader

In today’s organizations, culture is king.  Culture has been identified by many studies as the single most important factor in employee retention.  Yet, I find with many clients and even in my own personal experience leading an organization that establishing and maintaining healthy culture seems elusive.  In this article, I’ll share some of what I’ve learned. Making culture develop a priority is key but don’t over-complicate things!

First of all, here’s my definition of organization culture: The everyday reality of being a part of XYZ Organization. Organizational culture results from the defined mission, vision and values that are lived out by the leadership. If the leadership does not intentionally define and live it, the culture will create itself, and my experience has shown that kind of culture to be undesirable.  When the organization is under stress, culture defines the response and even the best strategies get left by the wayside. So, focusing on creating healthy culture is as important as developing the best strategies, if not more so.

So, what does the leadership team need to do?  I’ve listed five key activities that will set up guardrails for the culture in your organization.  These are essential to the development and maintenance of healthy positive culture.

1. Define it in writing: It would be impossible to take a blank piece of paper and define the entirety of “organizational culture.” However, starting with the basics will lead to the core values and strategies that drive organizational culture. 

The basics –

  • Define mission, vision and core values (probably done by a few key leaders)

  • Test them on stakeholders (customers, donors, clients, volunteers, board members, other staff) and consider adjustments based on those conversations

  • Ensure the board reviews and adopts

Next level – flesh out the core values even further to create a document that will help the team live out organization culture. 

Flesh out the basics in the initial phase of the organization’s life.   Developing the next level may take a bit more time but should be done at least in the second year of operation. Honest review of these is done YEARLY by executive team and board.

2. Talk about it and teach it: Vision, mission and core principles in at least the basic format should be shared and discussed in as many forums as possible. Examples:

  • Every board agenda – include printed mission, vision and core values

  • Meetings where key decisions are being made

  • Staff interview and hiring process – include questions about alignment with core values

  • Donor/client meetings and communications (“one of our most important values is X, and recently one of our staff/volunteers/clients showed this in action when she said/did Y”)

  • Front and center in daily life – staff should be given a card or print-out with mission, vision and values to post at their desks. 

Talking about it and teaching it should happen AS OFTEN AS POSSIBLE. 

3. Live it: Avoid values hypocrisy. Make sure the founder, leaders and staff are operating with these as fundamental inherent truths. Implement policies that set expectations for living it out.  Examples:

  • Board policy affirmation of mission, vision and core values - YEARLY

  • Staff conduct policy referring to mission, vision and core values – signed upon being hired and then YEARLY acknowledgment

  • Grievance policy -- signed upon being hired and then YEARLY acknowledgment   

Living it should happen DAILY.

4. Measure it: This is where many leaders fail. They have a different view of reality from key stakeholders, are too busy or too insecure to seek out contrary data, and end up finding out too late what others knew long before.

  • Create space and format for subjective feedback from all stakeholders but especially from staff.  ON A REGULAR BASIS

  • Create and follow process for key leaders to provide feedback to founder – may need to have buffer between founder and others so honest feedback can happen without fear of recourse or simply uncomfortable interactions (board members can help) – OPEN-ENDED BUT YEARLY AT THE LEAST

  • Survey employees – YEARLY

  • Exit interviews of clients and staff. Ask key question: Would you recommend our organization to someone else? – AS PEOPLE LEAVE

  • Other surveys or interviews of staff as needed especially when feedback indicates discrepancy between core values and reality.

5. Celebrate it: Typically, driven leaders leave out the celebration because they are on to the next thing and see celebration as a waste of time. Make sure to have someone on your team empowered to remind you and insist that celebration happens. Include staff and volunteers in appreciation that highlights positive organizational culture and their part in carrying that out. Examples:

  • Give out an “Awesome Award” and have staff pass to other staff

  • Implement “caught doing great” comment cards and post for others to read

  • All staff emails, newsletter, blog or web articles highlighting staff or volunteers living out core values.

  • Provide extra perks like additional PTO or an unexpected bonus for something above and beyond.

Celebrating should happen AS OFTEN AS POSSIBLE. Be sure to make it a routine occurrence, not an afterthought.   

If you want more information about how I can help you be more intentional in creating, repairing, or enhancing your organizational culture, contact me at christy@leadershipsanity.com or 615-479-0912

Alicia Northern