"Running a Fortune 50 company is like steering a tanker ship at sea. All a CEO can do is guide his company culture. The culture does the actual sailing." - Bill, retired CEO of a Fortune 10 company.
In valuing real estate, the old saw goes, only three things matter: location, location, location.
In business there are only three things as well: culture, culture, culture.
Every organization has a culture, a way that things are done. This is passed along to new members primarily through the retelling of exemplary stories, as I wrote here: Stories Build Culture.
Some cultures are weak, with a lot of differentiation in how things are done. One branch or division may be driven and competitive, another a miserable slave-ship, a third an upbeat but unfocused place to work. At one location, innovation may be the life-blood uniting the entire group, while at another within the same company (possibly even on a different floor of the same building!), the workforce is just keeping its collective head down and putting in its time till the bell rings at five o'clock.
Don't confuse weak culture with diversity, because it's anything but - they're completely unrelated. Weak culture means that the company is unfocused and poorly-led. Weak cultures founder and get acquired at bargain-basement prices. They churn not just workers but leaders. Weak cultures are slow-motion train wrecks.
Strong cultures, on the other hand, are typically incredibly profitable. They're also much more likely to be iconic. Disney has a strong culture. Nordstrom. 3M. GE. Apple and Cisco both have very strong, though quite different, cultures. Microsoft and Google have powerful cultures - yes, I chose these two bitter rivals on purpose, to illustrate a key point: that not all winning cultures are alike. Indeed, far from it!
CEOs, your job is to craft and guide culture. That's it! "Vision" is great, too - you've got to know where you're going, and you've got to share that with your staff so they can help you get there. Duh! But then what? Seriously. You see the future. You plot a course. And...?
...And for the next 3 or 5 or 20 years, you have to get to that Utopian vision you've dreamed of, that goal you've set for your company. Getting from the thoughts in your head today to the cover of Fast Company next year and Business Week in five: that's what a strong, healthy culture will do for you!
If you want to attract top talent on a consistent basis across your entire organization, you're smart. How are you going to win the Superbowl with a team you recruited from St. Mary's School for the Lame? A winning culture will attract the talent you need.
How do you build a winning culture? Focus on the culture. A CEO who focuses her attention on cost-reduction or building plans or next year's investors' presentation is not doing CEO-work.
But don't take it from me. Ask one of the hottest (and unlikeliest?) leaders going, the (un)Celebrity Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos. During the Great Recession he sold his 10-year-old online retail company to Amazon for a billion dollars, maintaining full control all the while. How'd he do it? He didn't. He let his company's culture do it for him. All Tony did was build and maintain and refine that culture.
Don't believe me? Read his book, "Delivering Happiness." He'll tell you himself.
What specifically contributes to that winning culture? A lot of people think compensation, good benefits, "perks" which are all great...But winners aren't here for the paycheck (at the end of the day yes) but winners thrive on winning...on being a part of the "big picture" and contributing. Ted, you said it best when you said to me "a lot of companies are too secretive, knowledge was power in the 20th Century." Winners want to be in the game, not sitting on the bench watching "management" call all the shots. All though compensation, benefits, etc. are nice...I definitely feel that things like inclusion, feedback, movement make me feel more a part of a winning culture...
ReplyDeleteWhen a vision is clearly defined, I think the next challenge is how the message is delivered and instilled in employees heads. Employees need to believe and live the vision. The vision must be delivered constantly and consistently.
ReplyDeleteGreat point James...I want to reiterate a key part of what you are saying, "The vision must be delivered." Too often, the vision is not even delivered, let alone constantly and consistently...!
ReplyDeleteHi Ted, I liked your comment about not being able to recruit a winning Superbowl team from St. Mary's School for the Lame. Keep up your excellent & passionate insight.
ReplyDeleteSB
That is right, selling the dream, the vision to what it will be, what it could be, the possibilities are endless. That is the primary leadership task to win our hearts and minds before and then everything else will fall in its place (customer service, growth, etc).
ReplyDeleteHi Ted,
ReplyDeleteNow I understand... and I agree... really great blog. Selling the dream, the culture, the space over and over again... that's what I am going to do in my film-making...
thanks again
Geoff
Just ran across this video today, What Motivates People and it seems to go hand-in-hand with this great article about our business culture. @spittk07 asks above how to have that winning culture, and this video does a great job at answering that. Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose are driving factors in most any culture. More and more businesses today are realizing, that as antithetical as it may seem, they need to focus more on purpose (and people) than profit. When that happens, surprisingly, their profits seem to grow.
ReplyDeleteHi Ted,
ReplyDeleteA wonderful (and timely) post!
We find that CEOs in thriving organizations are able to guide their vision and are highly effective stewards in cascading it down to the leadership ranks while enabling and holding leaders able to demonstrating the vision through their collective wisdom & actions.
Thanks again,
Judy White, SPHR, GPHR, HCS
www.theinfusiongroupllc.com