- November 8, 2011
- Culture of Collaboration, Leadership, Team Building
I have spent a number of years working with individual leaders and leadership teams to help them create a company culture that aligns individual productivity with team values and goals. In order to create this type of culture, productivity must be integrated into the management structure of an organization; individual leadership behaviors that relate to self management and leading others are a key factor in the success of business teams. Simple, every day behavioral changes create small, but significant shifts in the productivity of the entire organization.
There are four aspects of culture and culture change that can be affected by daily behavior changes:
- Proactive vs. Reactive
- Focus vs. Interruptions and Distractions
- Alignment and Collaboration vs. Competition
- Implementing Strategic Goals
Today I am focusing on Proactive vs. Reactive cultures.
Many executives define their culture as reactive vs. proactive and express a desire for more proactive thinking. In order to have this occur, a simple set of changes across the leadership stream can often make a big difference.
At present, many have developed cultures of interruption which consist of constant e-mail checking, drop-ins or drive-bys and a sense that every issue must be dealt with immediately. This creates a lack of focus on projects and a sense of overwhelm. These patterns start at the top executive level and can be changed within the entire organization when the mandate comes from the top both in words and actions. As we all know, behavior change is a challenge so creating processes for this change from the top down is vital.
When the job description of the CEO is given it always includes proactive thinking and networking with other executives to create cutting edge business practices. With a reactive culture, the top executive is often caught up in internal affairs so that priorities are often delayed and time for visioning is lost.
Just the daily pattern of coming to the office, opening the computer and immediately being drawn into the inbox creates the reactive pattern. Often planned work, meetings or projects can be overruled by the contents of an e-mail. Just the simple act of bringing up the calendar first can begin the change to proactive thinking.
Stay tuned for more information on Focus vs. Interruptions and Distractions cultures. If you have questions or would like to contribute to the discussion, I would enjoy hearing from you. Please be sure to post a comment. For more information on creating cultural change within your organization visit bridgingassociates.com
