Skip navigation

News & Services

Stories

Ross Clennett on Culture Killers

27th May 2007

The 5 Biggest Culture Killers in Organisations by Ross Clennett

The culture of a company is created, enhanced and also destroyed primarily by the quality of communication (both verbal and non-verbal) that occurs every day in the workplace. High quality communication is direct, face-to-face, customer oriented, and present or future focused. Low quality communication is remote, circular, past-based and dominated by gossip. Unfortunately most companies seem to think that a positive culture is produced by fancy sounding slogans hung on walls and a few free beers and chips on a Friday night.

Read any poll of employers and you can be sure that the attribute that tops any list of 'most desired employee skill' is excellent communication skills, it's about as predictable as a Phillipousis 1st Round exit. Yet how often do employers 'walk the talk' on this issue? In my 14 years experience it has often been the case of 'do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do'.

Without thinking about it leaders in organisations unintentionally kill off the company culture every day. Cast your eye over the following Top 5 Culture Killers, below, and see if you can recognise your company, I hope not.

1.        Email used as a substitute for a conversation - ever received a bollocking from a manager by email? Motivating, isn't it? It doesn't work. Email should only be used to distribute information to a wide number of people or to make simple requests of people (eg are you available at 5pm to talk…?). There's a reason God gave us a mouth and the ability to talk long before Man invented email!

2.        You only get feedback when things aren't going well - you work 11 hour days, land some juicy new work, refer a colleague into another part of a client's business and what do you hear from your manager or CEO? The sound of one hand clapping. Then you ask for a day off at short notice or some work flexibility to manage a sick child and from your manager's response it's clear that you're about as popular as a Greenie at Gunn's AGM.

3.        Initiatives get announced with great fanfare and then you never hear about them again - you know the scene; the company puts on some drinks or coffee and muffins, everybody from the whole company (or office) gets together in the boardroom to hear the gospel straight from the top. There's a new vision, a new mission statement, 360 degree feedback being introduced or the dreaded 'we're setting up focus groups to hear from you how we can make this company great'.Yeah, right. You know that as soon as the CEO has finished that course he's on or been ear-bashed by a new management consultant the just announced 'new initiative' will be about as relevant as last year's Big Brother evictees (got a real future that Hot Dog, hasn't he?).

4.        Nobody takes meeting times seriously- you set the alarm, catch the early bus, get to the office, turn your computer on to quickly flick through your emails, grab your paper and pen to be in the boardroom in time for the 8am meeting and what happens? The next person wanders in a few minutes after 8 looking like something the cat dragged in, the next person thought the meeting started at 8.15 and was expecting to be early and at 8.10 the phone rings - the boss forgot he had a client meeting out of the city at 9am so has decided to cancel the meeting. You can be sure the one time you are late to a meeting (by 2 minutes) the boss is, miraculously, early and when you walk in the door he chips you (half seriously) about working 'half days'.

5.        No communication from company leaders about how things are going - are we just turning up for the sake of the almighty dollar? I think not. We like to know what the organisation we work for is striving to achieve and how we are going against that vision. One of my previous mentor's greatest contributions to the success of the company we both worked for was the consistency with which he stood up in front of individual offices, and the company as a whole, to let everybody know how things were going against what the company was committed to achieving.

I could go on…but I won't.

So, if I am describing your company culture what can you do about it? The critical first step is to make a commitment to yourself that you will hold yourself to a higher standard than what surrounds you, that is refuse to be a victim.

Not gossiping, being at meetings on time, talking to people rather than emailing them, saying 'thanks' to people, are just a few steps you can take to start turning your company culture around. 'Who am I to do this?' you might ask, 'Shouldn't it come from the top?' Well yes, it should, but if you aren't the person at the top then there's no reason to not act like you are!

"No matter how frustrated you may feel, there is always a way out. In every situation that arises, we choose to be powerful or powerless. It may not always feel like it, but it is a choice. And there are consequences for these choices in terms of the results we get, and the subsequent increase or decrease in our power and influence" - Blaine Lee

Go on, step out, experience yourself making a difference, I cannot guarantee you will turn the company culture around but I canguarantee you will experience the satisfaction of 'raising the bar' in the field of your own performance and contribution.

Ross Clennett is a Leadership Coach and Director of Ingenius Coaching.  He is a Certified Master Practitioner of NLP (Neuro Linguistics Programming) and Member of the ICF (International Coach Federation). Previously he spent 14 years as a recruiter and leader of recruiters in London, Sydney, Adelaide and Melbourne respectively. In the mid 1980's Ross paid his way through a B.Ec. at the University of Tasmania in Hobart by working as an under employed actor and over confident timber & hardware salesman at Mitre 10. He can be contacted at ross@ingenius.com.au

 

 

Other articles