She asked us to talk to more than 20 of her employees. They were in various roles spread out across the United States. This senior executive of a global pharmaceutical company had hired us to assess her climate.
One word came up in every single interview. That has rarely happened in our decades of doing this work.
The word was transparency. Every single person said it.
When our team got back on the phone with the executive who hired us we brought up the word. We told her everyone had described her leadership team as “transparent.” The observation was not significant to her.
We had to dig deeper. “Chris, we usually don’t hear every single person on a team, especially this dispersed, use the exact same word to describe a leadership team. You didn’t seem surprised. Can you tell us more about that?” we asked.
“It’s because we’ve told them that’s what we are,” she replied.
A huge light bulb went on in our minds. Her statement was instantly colored by a highlighter in our brains. “We told them that’s what we are.” Brilliant! We’ve told that story around the world to dozens of leadership teams because it perfectly captures what we’re trying to convince them to do: Manage their culture!
We recently spent a couple days at a manufacturing plant of a global company we’ve worked with for years. The plant is about to double in employee count. The CEO wanted us to assess the climate before they hire a bunch of new people.
In conversation after conversation with employees and managers at that plant it was clear to us that a few vocal people were creating the narrative. Each person talked about the challenging morale that exists there. And yet when we asked what needed to change to improve morale every single person had to think for a moment before they came up with something. Some people said they didn’t know.
Here’s the punchline: either you manage your climate or it will manage you.
Begin by defining 2-3 beliefs you need your team to hold in order to deliver the results you’ve got to hit.
Next, start talking about those beliefs. Tell stories about them. Mention them multiple times every day.
At that plant, one of the missing elements is a strong sense of purpose or mission. In two full days not one person mentioned to us why the work they’re doing there is important. It’s not on their minds as they do their job. No wonder morale is low! Can you imagine what the climate at Chick-fil-A would be like if employees felt like they were just making waffle fries and chicken sandwiches? Instead everyone in every restaurant is delivering exceptional customer service. They’re on a mission. The folks at McDonalds don’t feel that way. And, it shows.
Manage your culture.
Define the beliefs you need people to hold and start controlling the narrative.
Now, the experiences you create have to back up the story you’re telling. You can’t say “we’re making a different in people’s lives” and then create experiences that cause your team to believe you could care less about the customer. State the belief and create the experiences that reinforce it.
Far too many leaders we meet are subject to their climate. They feel prisoners of it. They know it needs to change. They want it to change. They just don’t know how to shift it.
What I’ve just described to you is – at a high level – exactly what we teach them.
