Have you ever been unable to find a manager to assist you when shopping? Or have you ever experienced poor customer service while purchasing food at a fast food chain?

Whether in business, management, or leadership, problems often arise as they are part of life. While it’s easier to focus or blame everything on problems, this is also not a sustainable solution, especially if you’re leading a team. Part of a proactive management style is finding solutions.

Read the full article at: www.lifehack.org

Values are your company’s foundation, and they enable your teammates to not only adapt better to company culture but also guide their every action at work. When values are properly laid out and enacted, your team can work better and smarter. But how do you find people who fit your values?

As a leader, you should constantly be asking yourself three questions: How can I help my team members understand that we are more than just a company? How can I create an environment where people feel safe, yet, at the same time, challenged and motivated? And how do I find people who fit my company and what it stands for?

When you start answering these questions, your company and your employees will work towards a more productive and clear goal. This increases efficiency and, by extension, your sales and success.

Read the full article at: www.entrepreneur.com

Many leaders intrinsically understand the importance of creating a great team or company culture. In a previous post I talked about ways of driving business results by building an awesome culture, but in working with many leaders to help them build that killer culture I’ve found there are a few key concepts that change the way they approach the task.

1. Culture transcends talent

If you look at the top sport franchise dynasties of the past 20 years, it’s interesting to see how certain teams keep managing to win championships despite significant turnover in their rosters. LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman points out that the New England Patriots, San Antonio Spurs, and the Boston Red Sox have collectively won 11 league championships between 1999 and 2014, even though only a single player from each team’s initial championship played for the team consistently over that period. As a Canadian hockey fan, I’ve seen my Olympic hockey teams (both men and women—Go Canada!) consistently win gold medals despite the same trend.

Certainly, these teams do a great job of attracting top talent, but they also have cultures and team-based styles of play that transcend the individual contributors. As the article points out, “teams win when their individual members trust each other enough to prioritize team success over individual glory. It is no coincidence that these teams are known for “The Patriot Way” or “The Spurs Way,” and that television broadcasters often praise them for “unselfish” play.”

The corollary is that if you’re successful in creating an awesome culture, it will act as a lightning rod for like-minded talent. Think about the culture of innovation, technological advancement, and user-focus at companies like Apple or Google. People who are attracted to working at those companies are often drawn to that culture first, making the importance of instilling and reinforcing that culture paramount to becoming a market leader.

2. 80% of your culture comes from your leadership

Good culture and leadership are so important, partly because it provides guidance for how people can behave in a consistent, positive, and productive fashion, particularly when no one’s watching. We do this with our kids all the time. They get home from school hungry for a snack, run into the kitchen and raid the cupboard. Do they pick the granola bar or the chocolate bar? Ideally, they pick the thing that we as parents would like them to pick. At work, the system is amazingly similar.

As an entrepreneur, executive, or team leader, you’re the keeper of the vision and execution strategy for your organization. It’s not surprising then that people tend to behave and make choices in a manner consistent with not only that strategy but your individual personality. An article from FirstRound capital states that 80% of your company’s culture will be defined by its core leaders. It shares a story from the early days of Facebook and an exercise (known as the “one of us” exercise) wherein Mark Zuckerberg wrote down a list of characteristics that he felt described what it meant to work there. Included in this list were things like very high IQ, strong sense of purpose, relentless focus on success, and likes changing and disrupting things. The striking thing about the items on that list was how much they hearkened back to Zuckerberg’s own personality.

At Salesforce, Marc Benioff’s strong sense of philanthropy resulted in the creation of the Salesforce Foundation at the very start of the business and the philosophy of giving back continues to attract like-minded talent. Iconic leaders like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Alan Mulally, Tony Hsieh, and Larry Ellison have all had similar impacts on the culture of their organizations, taken from the pages of their own personalities.

3. It’s not “rainbows and unicorns” BS!

It always surprises me when I hear people describe culture a soft, fluffy, and abstract concept, disconnected from hardcore business results like revenue, growth, and customer satisfaction. Those sentiments can’t be further from the truth. Building an awesome company culture has tremendous ROI in terms of increased profits, decreased turnover, higher goal attainment, and becoming a lightning rod for top talent…not to mention the amazing customer experience that results!

The corporate universe (especially the start-up scene) is rife with stories of organizations with great products and customers, but who simply lacked the operational mojo to succeed. Bill Aulet, the managing director of the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship and a senior lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management, shares a poignant story about the value of culture:

“I used to think corporate culture didn’t matter. Discussion of vision, mission, and values was for people who couldn’t build product or sell it! We had work to do and this MBA BS was getting in the way! And then my first company failed. Cambridge Decision Dynamics did not fail because we didn’t have a great technology or a great product or customers. It failed as a sustainable, scalable organization because we had no meaningful purpose to create team unity to fight through the tough times.”

Much like the way a positive upbringing helps our kids make choices that positively impact their position in life, the right culture helps our organizations achieve amazing business results quickly, confidently, and sustainably.

So the next time you consider the value of building the right culture for your organization or team, remember it’s not all about holiday bonuses and pizza Fridays. The right culture starts with you but should transcend your talent if you’re looking to catapult your operation to amazing success!

When business continuity plans kick in, as they have in the current COVID-19 crisis environment, what happens to diversity and inclusion efforts at investment organizations? Do they fall away as nice-to-haves or are they seen as contributing to a cultural edge of resiliency?

Evidence from a call last week with the firms in the CFA Institute Experimental Partners Program suggests not only that many initiatives are continuing but also that organizations that build an inclusive culture are better placed to adapt.

The Experimental Partners Program began in response to the 2018 publication of “Driving Change: Diversity & Inclusion in Investment Management.” Each participating firm selected up to three of the ideas from the list of recommended actions and developed 18- to 24-month implementation plans, through December 2020.

Not surprisingly, no firm was working under normal operating conditions. They all were actively addressing COVID-19 Response Risks, and their situations were changing rapidly. At that stage, most either had a split workforce structure — half remote, half in the office, then rotating — or were fully working from home (WFH) with management implications.

Firms seemed to be adapting well to the technology and infrastructure needs of working remotely, with some firms allocating an additional stipend for employees to cover any equipment needed.

However, there were learning curve challenges that led to changes in practice. One firm reported continuing with recruitment by conducting virtual interviews. An unexpected benefit: They can see how the candidate deals with technology and remote communication — important skills in the tech-savvy, globally connected investment industry. Technology was also used to engage with high school students for possible internships. Another firm is conducting outreach through a video on their website about “a day in the life of an investment manager” that they made available for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) career sites, to reach the beginning of the talent pipeline, before course decisions are made.

Since many organizations, excepting those with offices in Asia, have only recently moved to a 100% WFH model, they are still trying to figure out what best practices should be on virtual inclusive leadership, such as the challenges related to software to use for team meetings, frequency of communications, keeping employee resource groups (ERGs) going, and virtual team socialization.

Partners agreed keeping ERGs engaged was key — these networks can give firms an early understanding of the COVID-19 impacts and can provide input on how to update policies, such as how to better support employees balancing childcare/elder care responsibilities while at home. ERGs are also organizing such activities as working moms’ virtual lunches, veterans’ group sessions on working out at home, and young professionals’ groups offering tech tips to colleagues: all indicative of an inclusive culture at work.

Partners indicated that the early reactions to the practices put in place were positive, but they were concerned about the effects of a longer-term disruption to typical working cultures, particularly potential mental health issues such as isolation, loneliness, and morale. If remote working is already embedded, firms are far more comfortable with all employees WFH, while others continue to determine best ways of moving forward.

In 2020, there will be exactly 52 Mondays that workers will need to face - week in and week out and every Monday seems to be the same struggle for a lot of people. Have you ever found yourself questioning whether you need or want your job? How important is it that you pay your bills and grow your career or perhaps you even imagine living and working on a tropical island serving Mimosas instead?

A company’s culture defines the values of the organisation and the way in which staff behave or are expected to behave. Work culture is important because this is where most of our time is spent; perhaps you could even go as far as saying that work is your second home as the average worker spends eight hours on the job. That’s 40 hours a week. More hours than we get to spend with family and friends.

Naturally each company has their own unique culture consisting of multiple attributes that make up the DNA of a company and their employees. What are employees looking for from their organisation and what are employers looking for from their employees?

In a recent article from Forbes, the publication conducted research with more than 20,000 employees from around the world.

“One of the biggest things we learned was this: Without deliberate and intentional efforts to improve workplace culture and leadership, companies face a significant risk of increases in burnout, disengaged employees and declining business results.”1

Through online research and personal opinion, I have consolidated a five main points below which I believe assist in creating a culture that works.

• Transparency: Embracing and practicing transparency is not only positive and beneficial for the employees of an organisation, a transparent culture impacts the whole organisation as it fosters better relations, innovations, alignment, solutions and engagement.2
  
  
• Communication and Trust: Trusting in your employees to share a business problem may assist in finding a solution a lot quicker. Regardless of the impact on employees or not, employees would rather know than not know.
  
  
• Action: Acting on positive or negative feedback creates room for growth and allows employers and employees to recognise that they are being heard.
  
  
• Own your culture: Not enough organisations promote their culture as a driving force for future employment. Millennials are becoming the generation of the workplace and seek an appealing culture for future employment. Use the company culture as a method of telling the company narrative. Include a vision of what the company wants to look in six months, a year, or ten years’ time. Sell the vision to new and existing employees.
  
  
• Push for the same agenda: Alignment is the key to a company’s success. visibility, accountability and transparency are key factors in ensuring an organisation is working with their employees towards the same goal.

For many of us, the coronavirus has been the most significant, and perhaps the most traumatic, experience of our lives. It will have a huge impact on us as individuals, as a society and as a workforce. Although it’s hard to imagine right now, the coronavirus crisis will end, and things will get back to normal. Well, some things will go back to the way they were. For others, there will be a new normal.

When a major event happens that poses an existential threat, many of the norms of life change, some in the short term and some for the long term. Almost two decades ago, 9/11 made an impact on how we live and behave. In that period of fear and panic in 2001, companies stopped allowing their people to travel, for example. Those policies faded, just as we no longer feel a surge of fear on the jet bridge, glancing at each other while trying determine if our fellow passengers are a threat. But the airport process that gets us into that smaller seat with less legroom has changed forever. Just try bringing a bottle of water through security, and you’ll be reminded of just one of the enduring changes.

Just as with 9/11, many of the major coronavirus changes that we’re experiencing now will evaporate, and things will go back to the way they were without much notice. We’ll adopt the mindsets and postures we had before the crisis. But the coronavirus will permanently alter many elements of how we work. Let’s first talk about how the coronavirus is unique. It’s:

• Global. By definition, a pandemic affects almost everybody, regardless of role, industry or location on the planet. Though infection rates are higher among frontline workers, COVID-19 has affected business owners, rank-and-file staff and the many managers in between. On September 11, if you didn’t live in New York and didn’t fly a lot, your life wasn’t radically altered. With Hurricane Katrina, the nation was saddened by the devastation as they watched the tragic aftermath play out, but most Americans weren’t directly affected.
• Enduring. Unlike a hurricane or earthquake, the pandemic has been more than a fleeting event. It has unfolded over many months, with no firm end date in sight.
• Pervasively disruptive. The coronavirus dramatically changed the way we live and work. It affected virtually every element of life. The grocery suppliers were disrupted, schools became virtual and people who could WFH were required to do so. Things we took for granted, like a trip to the dentist or the hair salon, have become verboten.
• Impossible to ignore. During the 2008 financial crisis or the California wildfires, there were many other news stories being shared on TV and in social media. With COVID-19, it’s been a 24/7 nearly all-consuming news cycle that’s almost exclusively focused on the pandemic.

There has been much speculation about who Carly Simon was referring to in her song “You’re So Vain,” with Warren Beatty vainly telling everyone the song was about him when, in all actuality, he was only partly right.

In 2015, Simon was reported as saying, “I have confirmed that the second verse is Warren,” adding, “Warren thinks the whole thing is about him,” but he’s really only the subject of that one verse. The true identity of Simon’s song has yet to be revealed, and if you think you have an idea, share it in our comments section.

If you’ve made it this far in the article, you may be questioning what all this has to do with recruiting and HR. The short answer: social media. According to researchers at Penn State, job recruiters are less likely to select candidates who appear too self-involved or opinionated in their social media posts.

About the Research

Michael Tews, associate professor of hospitality management at Penn State, and a team of colleagues investigated the effects of three “potentially negative topics” on hiring managers’ decisions. These topics include self-absorption, opinionatedness, and alcohol and drug use.

The team recruited 436 hiring managers from a variety of organizations to uncover how social media impacts their decision-making process. Hiring managers were randomly assigned to view 1 of 16 different Facebook profiles “showing either a male or female exhibiting self‐absorption or not, opinionatedness or not, and alcohol and drug use or not.”

The hiring managers then had to evaluate the candidates’ employability by providing an assessment on them and how they would fit in with the company culture.

The Results Are in

Based on the research, social media posts that show a candidate is self‐absorbed negatively impacted his or her employment eligibility. It was revealed that self-absorption was more important than opinionatedness or drug and alcohol use in driving these negative perceptions.

“Social networking sites are often lamented as incubators of self‐absorption, motivating people to tell others about their every deed and thought,” says Tews. “It could be that hiring managers view individuals who are more self‐absorbed and focused on their own interests to be less likely to sacrifice for the benefit of other employees and the organization.”

If self-absorption negatively impacts recruiters’ perceptions, it should come as no surprise that opinionatedness also negatively impacted candidates’ employment eligibility.

Quiet quitting is taking TikTok by storm - but what does the trend, and larger discussion, tell us about the importance of work-life balance?

However, the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way we view many aspects of our lives. Work is no exception. With many people now working from home, the conversation about work-life balance has assumed a new meaning.

Read the full article at: www.goalcast.com

If we had a dime for every time we heard “new normal,” “unprecedented” or “uncertain times” in the past six months—well, we’d be some pretty rich quarantiners.

But the truth is that when Covid-19 arrived, no one really knew that the new normal (sorry) would slowly become the norm. We still don’t have a crystal ball, but it’s pretty clear that a lot of teams and offices will be remote through the end of 2020 and beyond.

Whether your sales team’s transition to remote work was seamless or tough, or somewhere in between: you’ve likely gotten into a groove. Hopefully you’ve created new processes and workflows and identified the right tools to motivate and engage your remote team so you can look toward the coming months with (a least a little) more confidence than many of us were feeling back in March 2020.

Read the full article at: openviewpartners.com

Here’s the simple truth: the “new normal” is not new anymore. It’s just normal. According to a recent report from the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, the U.S. economy is now truly a work-from-home economy, with more than 60 percent of U.S. economic activity now coming from people clocking in from a home residence.  

And although the best managers and corporate leaders have been able to keep the wheels on the bus and maintain productivity levels during the craziness of current times, sustaining a company’s workplace culture health has not always been as successful. Honestly, it can be easier in some cases to harm your company’s culture inadvertently than to promote it when you’re dealing with a workforce where so many are juggling kids, pets and myriad other household distractions with their jobs. 

If you are a remote manager, what are the fastest ways to kill workforce morale and damage your company’s culture?  In the spirit of learning from others’ mistakes, here are a few of the most common pitfalls to avoid. 

1. Letting everyone turn the webcam off during meetings

When it comes to team meetings, ever notice that over time, more and more of your colleagues start to turn the video off? Set a good example by leaving yours on — always if possible. And encourage the rest of your team to follow suit with few exceptions. 

Sure, it can be extremely tempting to shut off the video when heading into the first (or last) Zoom meeting of the day. After all, you reason, no one really needs to see your ratty ponytail or messy living room, do they? And plus, why not get a little bit of email done while coworkers are droning on? Resist the urge. Face time — albeit through video — is more critical than ever these days. 

2. Being too hands-off in terms of check-ins with individuals and your teams  

Remember the days of stopping by a colleague’s office to say hello and casually check the progress on a project? Or the friendly banter in the hallway or lunch room when you learned that an employee was dealing with a stressful family situation at home or even a client matter that might be impacting their work? Yeah, those days are over, and the 30 seconds of chit-chat at the start of a Zoom meeting will not suffice. 

That’s why it’s even more critical for remote managers to establish a regular routine that includes daily check-ins with team members. An early morning email and end-of-day wrap-up might seem like overkill, but it will go a long way toward reducing isolation and promoting open communication. 

The communication should be two-way of course. Be sure to remind team members to share updates on their work and prompt them to ask for help on any roadblocks they might be experiencing; set up one-on-one phone calls to go deeper with specific individuals. Not everyone communicates best on email or wants the formality of a video chat. It’s your responsibility to find the best channel and make it happen. 

3. Losing your patience over “at-home conditions” and challenges and not embracing flexibility for the long term 

Back in March when schools and offices first closed, most managers and company leaders displayed high levels of compassion and empathy for their work-from-home employees who were — like them — suddenly dealing with the multiple stressors of the world and household responsibilities. However, in some cases, patience has started to wear thin. Don’t let it. 

We may have all gotten more accustomed to juggling home schooling, childcare, meal preparation, lack of personal workspace and endless hours of daily screen time than we might have ever imagined. But that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily getting any easier. And if anything, as we set in for the long haul, it’s time to adjust your expectations that this is just a temporary situation. 

Embracing flexibility is the alternative. Some employers are already embracing agile working: “A way of working in which an organization empowers its people to work where, when and how they choose – with maximum flexibility and minimum constraints – to optimize their performance and to do their best work.” This might be the best route to go, allowing for regularly scheduled check-in and meetings as needed, to truly support your company’s culture for the long term. 

4. Failing to create additional opportunities for collaboration among team members and coworkers 

There are some obvious advantages of the new work-from-home lifestyle, especially for those who prefer to simply put their heads down and get to work without the distraction of conference room meetings and coworker birthday celebrations. However, the “working as an island” concept can cost your company the benefits of everyone maintaining focus on the shared purpose of projects and the big picture of your organization as a whole.

That’s why it’s up to remote managers to proactively create projects that require collaboration between team members. Given the access to all the online tools for sharing work and working together (Dropbox, Google Docs, Zoom), there’s just no excuse for different levels and departments to not share knowledge, brainstorm and take different on different parts of a larger project. Plus, this is a great way to strengthen relationships, build empathy and improve communication channels. It’s your job to find (or if needed, create) these opportunities.

5. Focusing inward rather than practicing active empathy

Now more than ever it is critical to practice empathy. This is easier said than done. First, you yourself are experiencing drastic professional and personal disruption. It can be hard to focus a lot of attention on your direct reports when you’re dealing with work stress and home stress. Second, each person is experiencing the “new normal” differently, which means you have to meet them where they are. For example, you might have some employees who feel like the restrictions on business and personal life as a result of the health crisis are unnecessary. Or others who feel like it’s not enough. It’s important to try to understand those perspectives and to address each employee based on those perspectives. 

This is hard. All of it. There are no magic solutions to keep remote workers engaged, productive and seen. But doing your best to stay connected, to stay flexible and to stay empathetic can at least help make sure the new normal isn’t always a bad normal.  

There's no doubt that things have shifted dramatically as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, leaders are asking themselves hard questions.

What does the next "normal" look like for them? And, how can they successfully implement new aspects of their culture into this new normal?

Here are four key things leaders must consider if they want to truly live their culture in the next new normal.

Work culture is the experience you have that is based on what you see and hear while you are at work. It is a feeling that you have when you think about your coworkers and your work environment. That experience or feeling can be positive or negative, depending on how people conduct business and work with each other. Work culture is shaped by the level of respect, rapport, trust and collegiality employees have between each other.

Every employee has the opportunity and responsibility to shape the culture in which they work, including the new and more prevalent virtual working world. So, don’t wait for your boss to take the lead. Here are five ways you can contribute to your organization’s virtual work culture and set the tone for a new “normal:”

1.     Keep your camera on during team video calls.

If you are on a Zoom meeting with your team and you have your camera off, people are going to notice. Video meetings can be exhausting, and you may not want to always be seen. But not having your camera on when your teammates have their camera enabled can make your colleagues question what you are doing and your commitment to the team. Keep your camera on during team video calls. Stay engaged. Be part of the team.

2.     Dress professionally.

It is tempting to keep your pajamas on or put on sweatpants and a t-shirt. It is easier and more comfortable than putting on a collared shirt and blazer. But try to resist. Wear what you would wear if you were in the company’s office. You want to continue showing up and showing up well.

3.     Be enthusiastic.

If you want to work in a positive work culture, you and your colleagues need to communicate and engage with a positive and inquisitive mindset. Being enthusiastic does not mean having to smile all the time or use a lot of exclamation points. Ask for an assignment. If you are in search of new opportunities within your organization, reach out to people at your company to network and learn more about their career trajectories. Show that you continue to be excited to work and collaborate with your teammates.

4.     Proactively support your teammates, if you sense it would help them. 

While the physical distance separating you from your colleagues may make you feel less a part of the team, you can still be a team player. You can still support your colleagues. Part of being a successful team member is having the emotional intelligence to sense whether a colleague needs help.

You might ask your coworker if it might be helpful to them if you proofread a slide deck or conducted some brief research on competitors that could bolster the proposal they are writing. Supporting your coworkers promotes teamwork and collegiality, which are both critical to fostering a positive work culture.

But don’t step on people’s toes or usurp an opportunity for your colleague to shine. Ask your teammate if and where you can be of help. Support them. Don’t supplant them.

5.     Get personal.

Getting personal can also help to lessen the feeling of isolation or detachment that your coworkers may feel working from home. Ask how your colleagues are doing or something simply like if they have read any good books lately. Talking about things outside of work can help people to feel connected on a more emotional level. 

You don’t have to get overly personal. You don’t have to share everything about your life or every feeling that you are experiencing. You should avoid asking about very personal topics. Keep the conversation light. 

Fostering positive work culture requires people to feel comfortable opening up about other things than just work. When colleagues feel comfortable talking about outside interests and activities, they tend to have stronger relationships that help with working together professionally.

A virtual culture is more than Zoom Happy Hours and random meme sharing. It’s a space where each employee feels comfortable, safe, respected and treated like a valued member of the team; it’s where they feel like they belong.

A recently conducted remote work survey by FinanceBuzz revealed, 46% of workers feel isolated from their team and a reported 30% admitted it’s challenging to collaborate with their colleagues. While no two cultures are identical, healthy ones have a similar foundation: they support the happiness and growth of their employees while fostering a culture of inclusivity, collaboration and engagement.

According to research conducted by EY’s Center for Talent Innovation, “39% of respondents feel the greatest sense of belonging when their colleagues check in with them, both personally and professionally.” Furthermore, “when people feel like they belong at work, they are more productive, motivated, engaged and 3.5 times more likely to contribute to their fullest potential.”

These four effective strategies will help managers build a thriving and inclusive virtual culture.

Drive A Sense Of Purpose With Over-Communication

Repetition in communication is a powerful and effective tool that isn’t used as often as it should. Redundancy or repetition prevents misinterpreted, erroneous or the loss of information when transferring from one person to another. This is why marketing abides by the “Rule of 7” which suggests an individual needs to hear a message seven times before they will consider taking action.

Tsedal Neeley conducted a study with Elizabeth Gerber and Paul Leonardi on the outcome of managers who over-communicate. They discovered managers who over-communicated through different mediums were able to get projects completed in a timely fashion compared to those who only delivered a message once or twice. Examples of different communication mediums consist of email, Slack channels, Zoom video calls or text message.

Despite what many managers believe, there’s no such thing as over-communication. In fact, under-communicating is one of the top reasons employees leave their job. It not only breeds doubt and uncertainty, but it contributes to missed deadlines, uncompleted tasks, decreased productivity and higher turnover. Companies lose millions of dollars annually due to employees not performing at full capacity which results in poor customer experiences.

Champion A Culture Of Collaboration

An inclusive workplace culture values peoples abilities instead of focusing on their limitations. Inclusive managers bring together employees, at all levels, and empower them to contribute their own original thinking and unique skills. Successful teams have a balanced mix of talents, personalities, skills and ideas where they’re able to communicate and collaborate together. A Salesforce survey uncovered 86% of employees and executives cited a lack of collaboration was responsible for failures in the workplace.

Championing a culture of collaboration is essential to growth. For example, instead of presenting a problem to a select few individuals, managers can host a video conference call to solve it together. Likewise, managers can make meetings more interactive where everyone has a chance to share and say what they need. Additionally, they can use the time together to celebrate individual and team milestones.

Kerry Wekelo, COO of Actualize Consulting, a management consulting firm, has found great success in conducting team building activities to keep employees engaged and connected. Wekelo said they do this through friendly group challenges where teams earn points while enjoying theme based team building activities. Recently, they did an elevator pitch challenge that turned out to be successful. Team building helps employees better understand their strengths, interests and weaknesses while getting to know their co-workers better.

C-level executives are less likely to recognise a shortfall in their own company culture than other employees, according to a recent research report.

It found that boards and CEOs need a reality check around culture change and management, and in particular, there are five “hard truths” for companies around this:

1. Culture problems are pervasive
2. Culture problems are often immense
3. Larger organisations have larger culture problems
4. CEOs have trouble seeing culture problems
5. Organisations need HR as a professional culture partner

“Despite the wake-up call delivered by the Hayne Royal Commission, it is alarming to see a clear disconnect still remains across Australian businesses between the CEO’s impression of company culture and what is being felt at the frontline,” said Lyn Goodear, CEO of the Australian HR Institute (AHRI), which conducted the report.

“They have to take accountability for their company culture, culture change, and to ensure that competent HR backed by industry certification guides cultural change.”

HR team members proved the hardest critics of company culture, according to the research report which was conducted in conjunction with Insync and took in almost 1000 professionals across Australia.

The research found that 90 per cent of respondents agree/strongly agree that their organisation’s culture is critical to the successful execution of strategy, while 95 per cent agree/strongly agree that CEO and executive leadership behaviours have a significant impact on their organisation’s culture.

A further 92 per cent agree/strongly agree that their organisation should make the best use of its human capital, but only 20 per cent agree/strongly agree that their company culture currently reflects this.

Survey responsents were asked to identify where their company culture was and where it should be in relation to many survey items measuring ethics and sustainability, and around 22 per cent thought there needed to be some change and 34 per cent thought that significant change was required.

“It is alarming to see a clear disconnect still remains across Australian businesses between the CEO’s impression of company culture and what is being felt at the frontline” 

4 keys to driving real culture change
The report also provided four guidelines for organisations and HR professionals to improve outcomes around culture and culture change.

1. Ask penetrating questions. It’s crucial to obtain a realistic view of the current culture, have a firm idea of the desired culture and a commitment to achieving it, according to the report, which said the organisation should be asking itself a number of questions, such as:

• How self-aware are your organisation’s CEO and executives? Do they know that most employees see a greater need for cultural change than most CEOs and executives?
• Are your board and executives united in their description of the organisation’s vision, expected values and behaviours, and of the company culture it hopes to have (in say, three years)? Do you have a robust plan to get there?