Culture is a daunting thing to think about as a leader even more so when you ponder how you personally can affect it for the better. Culture is absolutely necessary to get right if you want to have a truly successful team. So the question remains, how can one person affect his working environments culture for the better?
What is culture
and why is it so important?
I believe it was in Simon Sinek’s book “Start With Why” he
describes culture as a group of individuals that come together and have common
values and beliefs. I think this is a great description of culture.
Culture is so important because it shapes the individuals in that society to
act a certain way in one form or another.
For instance I grew up in a very small town in
Indiana before I joined the military I never had any other job other than a
farm hand and on many different types of farms. I truly believe that culture I
was placed in while growing up instilled good hardworking traits and
habits into me and I greatly benefited from the cultures I was apart of.
Here is another
way to think about culture, imagine it as the root system of a tree. Each root
is your companies, squadrons, or families core values, ethics, and valued traits.
The stronger the culture/roots the more your society will withstand and hold
strong. If you company does not stand for anything it will be blown over by any
adversity that comes its way.
How to maintain
Culture
A strong culture can be a lifeline to a company facing
difficulty; it is not uncommon for a leader to make rash hasty decision under
the gun. This is when a strong culture helps, one that a leader can fall back and it can be very comforting. Creating a strong culture will aid the group to build those
strong roots, the stronger the roots grow the more support you will get from
the rest of your members. Another Reference from “Simon Sinek’s Book Start with
Why” (I apologize for not doing the story justice I am currently righting this
blog offline and do not have the book handy).
Basically
the story explains a time when the entire world had not been completely explored,
and a captain sent an ad out to recruit men for a very dangerous mission to
explore Antarctica, the mission was very risky and chances of survival were
minimal. They began their voyage and soon enough they were caught in ice they
ended up drifting for months with limited supplies and under horrible
conditions, many assumed few would come back as the ingredients to that environment
often meant mutiny. Finally the ship was rescued and not a one person lost
their life. This was to the astonishment of speculators who had estimated most would
have died, how did they do this?
The captain
of the boat before they left was very cunning, when he created his ad for the
newspaper he created an add that ensured everyone responding would have the
same values, traits, and ethics and that would make his culture extremely strong on the boat.
He explained in the ad the trip would be extremely dangerous, and odds were
they would not make it back. But in the chance they did survive every man on
the boat would be famous and do something that no one else could.
Take Away
Build a strong enough culture and no matter the trials or
difficulties your society will stick together through pain and be there to celebrate triumphs.
Question:
Do you think culture can be taught? Or do you believe it is
a Nature vs Nurture phenomenon?
“See You At The Top”
Tom McConnell
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