My October blog mentioned that I had recently given a leadership workshop to a group of about 250 leaders that evaluated specific leadership behaviors which have been proven to build a culture of trust and improve team performance. At the end of the workshop I was asked a question that I did not answer well.
This bothered me. That evening, as well as on my plane ride home to San Diego the next day, I wrestled with the question.
While paraphrased, the essence of the question was the following:
“I understand the importance of a leader’s behavior on creating culture…and intuitively understand that culture drives performance, i.e. a culture of trust leads to peak performance while a culture of fear leads to poor performance. Your personal stories and study data further my appreciation and understanding of this tight correlation between the behaviors of the leader, team culture and team performance. My question is this: Why don’t more leaders practice behaviors that create a culture of trust?
While I was excited that this participant clearly took something of value from my workshop, I was stumped by the query.
“Why don’t more leaders practice behaviors that create a culture of trust?”
I’ve had some time to grapple with the question. My October blog talked about how there was room for improvement in how we choose our leaders.
This month I’d like to talk about another piece of the answer – how organizations are educating and training their leaders and, more importantly, the crucial piece that is missing from this training. Given that a recent Center for Creative Leadership study found 38% of new chief executives fail in their first 18 months on the job, there is clearly room for improvement.
Research referenced in the Harvard Business Review showed that one very common barrier that companies consistently struggle with when trying to change culture is that senior executives don’t commit to necessary changes in their own behavior.
I’ve certainly witnessed this in my career. A leader gets angry when given bad news at a meeting, and later apologizes for the outburst upon realizing its negative impact…only to repeat the behavior at another meeting. They don’t commit to the necessary changes in their behavior.
“…senior executives don’t commit to necessary changes in their own behavior.”
Why is this the case? I believe a big piece of the answer is that leaders are not fully aware of the power of their behaviors. More specifically, due to lack of training, leaders do not appreciate the dramatic impact that their behaviors have on culture, and ultimately performance. Leaders are neither trained nor educated to understand that all interactions with staff impact culture, and that their behaviors directly drive that culture toward either one of either trust or one of fear.
A leader has hundreds of interactions with members of the team each day…on a minute by minute basis…each of which incrementally changes the team culture. The team members observe, and sometimes quietly discuss among themselves, the leader’s behaviors during these interactions, and subconsciously analyze them. One of two conclusions is drawn – either trust has been gained or trust has been lost. Undeniably some interactions will impact trust more than others…but all will change the level of trust…and all are golden opportunities!
“…due to lack of training, leaders do not appreciate the dramatic impact that their behaviors have on culture, and ultimately performance.”
A few years ago, I worked as a sales manager where I led a handful of employees at a mid-size company. The entire team had about 30 employees and Max (fictitious name) was our boss. Max was highly educated and had many years of leadership experience. About 20 employees worked remotely throughout the United States and about 10 worked on site, including myself and Max.
Each week the team would meet. The 20 remote employees would teleconference into the meeting. During my first week on the job I came to understand that the entire team was behind on our sales targets, and this topic was appropriately the primary discussion point at our weekly meetings.
I very well remember my first such meeting. There were many unhappy faces around the table. Pessimism and fear permeated the room.
“Not a lot of joy among these folks!” I remember thinking.
The meeting started with a remote employee who proudly and enthusiastically mentioned that he had secured a new client.
My immediate thought was, “Wow…some good news! The boss can recognize this and get folks fired up!”
Instead of celebrating, the boss dryly and glumly stated something to the effect, “We’ll need a lot more success than that to reach our sales goals.”
I looked around the table at the other members of the team. Any remaining energy in the room…and there wasn’t much to begin with…was gone. All heads went down, some shaking back and forth. I couldn’t imagine what our remote employees, who were listening in via phone, must have been thinking.
“Get away from the ledge…it’ll be OK!” is what I instinctively wanted to yell to them.
Max had a golden opportunity to give someone a well-deserved accolade, generate some much-needed pride and energy for the entire team, and move the culture away from one of pessimism and fear. Unfortunately, Max missed the opportunity. His behavior at that moment only reinforced the gloomy status quo.
“The great leaders understand, respect and fully embrace the staggering power of their behaviors.”
Opportunities to build trust occur hundreds of times each day – they are in abundance! The great leaders fully appreciate the strong correlation between their behavior during interactions, the well-being of employees, team culture and team performance. The great leaders understand, respect and fully embrace the staggering power of their behaviors.
Why don’t more leaders practice behaviors that create a culture of trust?
Leaders do not appreciate the dramatic impact their behaviors have on team culture and team performance because they haven’t been trained to appreciate it. Organizations that include this vital piece – the incredible power of a leader’s daily behaviors… into their leadership development curriculum will have a major competitive advantage over their competition.
The question that needs to be answered is:
What specific behaviors should a leader employ to create a culture of trust?
My blogs in 2018 will answer this important question.
Until then…enjoy the journey!