The Age of Mistrust

August 30 2010 by Chris Edmonds in Culture |No Comments

Today, it seems that trust of workplace leaders in the USA is at a very low ebb. According to reports, many American employees plan to look for a new job when the economy stabilizes. Those that do cite low trust of their workplace, senior leaders, direct bosses, and even co-workers as a primary driver.

Two recent research studies have noted this “age of mistrust.” According to Deloitte’s 2010 Ethics & Workplace Survey, one-third of employed Americans plan to look for a new job when the economy gets better. Of this group, 48 percent say that a lack of honest communication from company leaders is their primary reason for that decision. This survey also reports that 65 percent of Fortune 1000 executives who are concerned with the upcoming “talent drain” believe trust is a factor in this potential voluntary turnover.

Maritz Research’s recent workplace study echo’s the Deloitte findings. According to the Maritz poll, only 11 percent of American employees strongly agree that their managers show consistency between their words and their actions. Only 7 percent of employees strongly agree that they trust senior leaders to look out for their best interest (!) and only 7 percent believe their co-workers will do so.

The Maritz poll also found that about 20% of respondents do not believe that their company’s leader is completely honest and ethical; fully 25% disagree that they trust management to make the right decisions in times of uncertainty. Of those employees who do not trust company management, only 3% look forward to coming to work every day!

Behavioral Integrity: A Proven Practice for Building Trust

In September 2002, Cornell University professor Dr. Tony Simons published an article, The High Cost of Lost Trust, in the Harvard Business Review. In that article, Simons describes his team’s efforts to examine a specific hypothesis (“Employee commitment drives customer service”) in the US operations of a major hotel chain. They interviewed over 7,000 employees at nearly 80 properties. What they found was that, indeed, employee commitment drives customer service, but, most critically, a leader’s behavioral integrity drives that and more.

Simons’ team defines behavioral integrity as “managers keeping their promises and demonstrating espoused values.” Their research methods and analysis discovered:

  1. When employees believe their bosses have behavioral integrity, their commitment goes up.
  2. As employee commitment goes up, employees willingly demonstrate discretionary effort. Employees are more proactive, more present, and more productive with the application of their discretionary energy.
  3. Employee discretionary effort is visible to and highly valued by customers. Customers respond by staying more frequently, staying longer, eating on property, etc.
  4. Those customer behaviors generate higher profits. Significantly higher profits!

Dr. Simons’ team created an assessment that measured behavioral integrity on a five point scale. Their analysis found that a 1/8 point gain on this scale generated a profit gain of 2.5% of annual revenues . . . which translated into $250K for each hotel! This study made an important link – one that had not been demonstrated before: manager behavior, specifically keeping promises and demonstrating company values, generates hard dollar profits.

Simons’ work continues at The Integrity Dividend with a book, programs, blog, and more.

Sharon Allen, Deloitte’s chairman of the board, notes that, by focusing on talent management and retention strategies, “executives may be able to reduce attrition.” She goes on to state, “Establishing and enforcing a values-based culture will ultimately help cultivate employee trust.”

We’ve seen significant positive impact of behavioral integrity in our client’s evolving organizational cultures. If you need help with the creation of a values-aligned workplace, reach out to us.

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Netflix’ Unique Culture, Beautifully Defined

August 23 2010 by Chris Edmonds in Culture |No Comments

I’m working with five separate clients right now, helping them clarify values expectations for their organizations. I coach their senior executives to identify the values foundation for all staff – leaders, managers, front line staff, everyone – and define those standards in observable, behavioral terms. If you’ve been reading my posts here, you know that I provide very specific direction for this critically important task. That guidance is important because most senior leaders are enthusiastic and not yet skilled in the task of creating appropriate, behaviorally-defined values for their organization members. Over the last 12 years, I and my culture change co-author colleagues at Blanchard have “cracked the code” on valued behavior definition through a lot of hard work and diligent refinement.

A terrific example of clear values expectations was released into the websphere about a year ago in the form of Netflix CEO Reed Hastings’ terrific 128-slide PowerPoint presentation on Netflix’ “Freedom and Responsibility” culture. If you’ve not seen that presentation and you are interested in high performing, values aligned organizations, you really need to read through it (it’s embedded below).

I’m surprised when I discover that the senior leaders I’m coaching have usually not seen Hastings’ presentation, as it was celebrated in blog postings around the globe. I share the presentation with my clients not because I think they should “duplicate” the values that obviously work so well for the Netflix business model (and staff and customers!) but to understand how clearly Hastings defines Netflix’ values expectations in tangible, observable terms.

Define the Playing Field

Hastings believes values are the behaviors and skills valued in fellow Netflix employees. The nine specific values, clearly defined, include Judgment, Communication, Impact, Curiosity, Innovation, Courage, Passion, Honesty, and Selflessness.

Hastings boldly states that he expects all Netflix employees to question any actions they deem inconsistent with the organization’s declared values. (That commitment is part of the Courage value.)

Hastings wants a culture that attracts and retains what he calls Stunning Colleagues – stars who are able to responsibly perform amidst the ambiguity of a technology driven, fast-paced market that’s attracting competitors every day.

There is no room for “good performers.” Adequate performance will get an employee – at any level – “cut from the team,” to make room for a star in that role. There is no room for brilliant jerks; if jerks are discovered after Netflix’ thorough hiring process, they are offered a fair severance package . . . and quickly sent packing.

Let the Players Apply their Skills and Commitment on the Defined Field

The Netflix culture does not value process adherence – it values freedom, responsibility, innovation, and self-discipline. It values context, not control – by setting a few rules, high performing, responsible staff can creatively respond to opportunities, recover from the few mistakes they make, and continue the company’s growth and innovation.

For example, Netflix’ stunning colleagues have created a killer iPad application that enables live streaming of hundreds of television shows and movies – at the touch of a button. It is amazing technology that just works.

Hastings creates clear expectations for what a great Netflix corporate citizen looks/acts/sounds like and also maps out the context for those desired behaviors and skills.

There are many more insights to be derived from Reed Hastings’ marvelous foundation of clear values expectations. The key learning for my clients and me is that spending the time to map out exactly how a great citizen will go about accomplishing the organization’s goals will generate fabulous results. Our culture clients have enjoyed increased profits, fast-to-market solutions, talent retention, and employee passion. How will your organization benefit?

Netflix Culture

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Top 10%: Deliver Performance AND Values

August 16 2010 by Chris Edmonds in Culture |1 Comment

How can you differentiate your business from the many others that offer similar products and services in your market? How can you earn “provider of choice” status with your customers by being in their “top 10%” of providers? It isn’t about a flashy new marketing campaign or a spin on what your product or service does. It isn’t, in fact, about external communication at all – at least, not at first.

The secret to creating a sustainable business that creates passionate employees who exceed performance standards and consistently wow your customers is embedded in the graphic at left, which we call the “Performance Values Matrix.” This model is the core of Blanchard’s proven, award winning culture change process.

This model comes from Jack Welch, who, while President/CEO of General Electric, was the first corporate senior leader to formally hold leaders and managers in his organization accountable for both performance and values.

The model is a simple X-Y graph with the vertical axis representing PERFORMANCE and the horizontal axis representing the VALUES MATCH. The quadrants represent the four possible combinations of high or low performance and high or low values match.

Starting Point: Clear Expectations

The first step is to ensure that expectations are clearly defined and agreed to by all parties. That means all employees have formal performance plans that outline project, goal, and task expectations and those expectations are agreed to. In addition, it means that values are defined in tangible, behavioral terms, and those expectations are also agreed to.

The best place for staff (leaders, managers, supervisors, employees – everybody) to exist on this model is the upper right quadrant. That means they are meeting or exceeding performance standards and are consistently demonstrating desired valued behaviors. You should wildly praise and recognize the high performance, values aligned players that reside here!

A not-so-good place for staff to reside is the lower left quadrant. If they are here, it means these players fall short of performance expectations and do not demonstrate desired valued behaviors. What should you do with the “low performance/low values match” player? Lovingly set them free. Or, as WD-40 President Gary Ridge says, “Share those employees with your competition!” It is unlikely that time and energy spent to raise skills (to improve performance) and coach to modify behavior (to increase the values match) will pay off in the short run (or long run). It’s best to let these folks go work somewhere else. “Lovingly” set them free because the way you treat staff – those that are leaving and those that are staying – says more about your values than any published statement.

The bottom-right quadrant offers an interesting challenge. What should you do with the values-led players who are unable to perform? Train them, build skills, and even shift their roles to leverage their talents as required. You don’t want to lose the values-match! If they are unable to consistently perform in any role, then you need to lovingly set them free.

The upper left quadrant is where the most damaging players reside. The high performance/low values match players are poison in your organization. They exceed performance expectations (good!) while demonstrating a very different set of values from those you desire (bad!). What must you do with these players? Lovingly set them free. As fast as you can. Their existence in your organization erodes leader integrity and trust among staff and customers.

Accountability for both performance and values can occur only after expectations (for both) are clear and agreed to. It takes intentional effort to build the necessary foundation for applying this model and creating the high performance, values-aligned organization.

Once you have embedded the desired values and are delivering consistent performance, your customers will become a tremendous positive word-of-mouth marketing force for your business.

Client Successes: Profit, Service, Passion

Our culture change clients have enjoyed hard dollar benefits from our proven process, including increased profits, efficiency, product quality, employee engagement, and customer service rankings. They have also enjoyed reduced turnover and reduced conflict across their work environment.

Check out Blanchard’s culture change “Client Results” success stories. How can we help you create a high performance, values aligned culture?

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Most Teambuilding Isn’t.

August 9 2010 by Chris Edmonds in Culture |2 Comments

This is the time of year when managers and leaders are inspired by the summer weather. They decide that their team needs to do some outdoor bonding and celebrating, so they sign up for a “teambuilding” session. Activities such as paintball, whitewater rafting, ropes courses, simulations, cooking competitions, and the like are common team building exercises. The hope is that the team activities will help improve relationships across team members, increase cooperative interaction, and team productivity.

The reality is that many of these teambuilding programs do not generate long term benefits. How many of you have gone to a teambuilding program yet found that little changed when the team returned to their work environment?

To ensure teams benefit from teambuilding activities, spend time planning exactly what goals you have for the session (“what do you want to accomplish with this activity?”). Find a provider that has proven experience with intentional instructional design and focused facilitation to help embed take-aways, beneficial agreements, and help teams demonstrate desired behaviors back on the job.

Before you engage in teambuilding, consider a more foundational step first. Our research and experience tells us that teams need clarity of purpose, values, goals, and strategy as a foundation for team performance and team member morale. Chartering your team helps align team member skills and effort towards the accomplishment of agree-to goals and targets. In addition,  these clear agreements enable desired norms in how team members work with and treat each other as they  work to accomplish team goals.

Key Elements of a Team Charter

Your team charter formalizes performance expectations and team values, which clarifies what the team is delivering and how they’ll work to deliver those products and/or services. It is a working document that evolves as the team learns how to increase productivity and team member satisfaction over time. The main elements of a team charter include:

  1. Organizational Vision, Purpose, and Values – all teams are “sponsored” by the organization in which they operate. A team must understand the vision, purpose, and values of the company so that it can align team purpose and values with those defined organizational elements.
  2. Team Purpose – the team’s purpose statement identifies what the team does, for whom, and why it is important. A clear purpose provides direction for identifying team goals and the roles needed to accomplish those goals.
  3. Team Values and Norms – Values are the enduring principles that guide team and team member plans, decisions, and actions. Norms are the day-to-day ground rules that clarify appropriate behaviors for team members.
  4. Team Goals and Roles – goals identify the measurable outcomes and timelines that must be delivered upon to ensure team success. Roles define the individual responsibilities required for the successful operation of the team.
  5. Team Practices – this section defines the team’s strategies and processes that ensure the team stays on track to deliver promised outcomes. Practices include communication strategies, decision-making authority, and accountability practices.
  6. Team Resources – these are the tangible materials the team needs to accomplish its goals, including time, budget, people, equipment, training, etc.

Most teams get a goal or project and madly start working on goal accomplishment. Without these clear charter agreements, though, teams experience what Peter Drucker described when he said, “The only things that naturally occur in organizations are anger, frustration, and fear.” If your team would benefit from clear agreements and norms – if conflict, silos, and entitlement inhibit team performance – formalize a team charter.

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Catch People Doing Things RIGHT.

August 2 2010 by Chris Edmonds in Culture |Comments Off

During a coaching session with one of Blanchard’s culture change clients, the president of the organization told me that he’d recently had an epiphany (we love it when that happens!). Lee said, “I’ve been a manager for 30 years. All that time I thought my job was to manage processes and results. This culture change journey has helped me redefine my job. Today, my job is to manage people’s energy.”

Lee and I talked for some time (and continue to do so today) about HOW Lee makes this shift. Today, Lee consciously refines his emphasis, his language, and his behaviors so that his interactions with followers across the company lead them to feel trusted, honored, and respected. He continues to thank them for their contributions to the organization’s success, as well.

Most senior leaders in Western organizations see their jobs like Lee did: managing processes and results. It’s no surprise that senior leaders do that, as they have been trained for decades by their bosses, stakeholders, and even Wall Street to deliver results, no matter what the human costs. This philosophy leads leaders to focus on what people are doing WRONG – to catch them at it (sometimes with a “gotcha” attitude), correct the problem, then move on to find someone else doing something wrong . . . and the cycle continues, day in and day out.

Our view at Blanchard is much different: leaders need to inspire followers with clear vision, formal goals, meaningful work, and a culture of gratitude (and even fun). Leaders need to manage by wandering around, looking for things that are working, and catch people doing things RIGHT – with on-the-spot praising and encouragement.

Two Proven Approaches to Catching People Doing Things Right

  1. Planned Spontaneous Recognition – Bob Lorber, a member of Blanchard’s board of directors, shared this best practice with us. Years ago Bob was impressed by a third-shift supervisor who transformed his team from the worst performing group to the best in less than a year. The supervisor, Sid, clarified performance expectations, monitored performance daily, and frequently praised and encouraged workers to help them stay on track.As performance improved, Sid added this new twist to his communications with his team. Every day while driving in to work, Sid would decide what he was going to look for that day. In his manufacturing environment, it might have been clean & safe work spaces or efficiency or information sharing, etc. Then, as Sid saw that “benefit” being demonstrated that day, he’d spring the “gift” on that team member or the group. It might be pizza for lunch one day or ice cream sundaes or movie tickets . . . whatever. Sid told Bob that he planned what he was going to look for and what he was going to “gift,” but it looked and felt to the team like it was completely spontaneous. Sid’s actions improved performance and commitment on the part of every team member.
  2. Six Pennies – I learned about this mechanism from one of my best bosses, Jerry Nutter. At the time, Jerry was the CEO of a large full-facility YMCA with child care, fitness programs, racquetball, indoor pool, etc. Jerry knew staff were doing great things every day with members – and that he’d miss those things if he was tied to his desk. Each workday morning, Jerry would put six pennies in his right front pants pocket. For an hour, he’d tour around the facility, looking for people doing things right. When he found one, he’d wait for the appropriate moment to pull them aside, praise what he saw, thank them, and move on. In two minutes, he validated their contribution and commitment.As he left, he’d take a penny from his right front pocket and move to his left front pocket.He kept meandering through the facility until he’d delivered at least six praisings in that hour. In the afternoon, Jerry would spend another hour again, praising RIGHT actions, moving pennies from his left to his right pocket. Jerry’s staff (I was one of them) LOVED him – they genuinely felt trusted, respected, and honored.

Your staff do a great number of things right every day. Stop and notice! You will enjoy better performance and better relationships when you catch people doing things right.

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Two Steps to Help Senior Leaders Understand “It’s Time” for Culture Change

July 26 2010 by Chris Edmonds in Culture |Comments Off

A recent lunch meeting with a colleague generated some great insights about how to help senior leaders make the decision to refine their organization’s culture (thanks, Melissa, for your terrific questions and enthusiasm for this topic!).

Previous blog postings have explained the reality of a senior leader’s world – they have been trained to primarily (OK, even exclusively) focus on performance, results, and financial targets. Most are unaware of their organization’s culture and too few senior leaders understand the impact of culture on performance, results, and financial success. If they are aware of the power of culture to drive results, most senior leaders do not know what to do to refine their company’s culture. Most senior leaders have rarely experienced successful culture change; even fewer have led successful culture change.

Two Steps Can Help Senior Leaders Understand “It’s Time”

Senior leaders are comfortable with data. They study performance data every day. We culture change consultants must leverage this highly-developed skill to educate senior leaders about the current conditions that exist in their culture. By clarifying exactly how their culture operates today, we can help senior leaders see the gaps between how their organization operates and the characteristics of high performing, values aligned organizations.

Step 1: Show them the Data! We need to help senior leaders discover:

  • Data from outside their organization that clearly describes the best practices of high performing, values aligned cultures, and
  • Data from inside their organization that clearly describes what’s happening in their company’s work environment and highlights what best practices are NOT in place in their company’s culture.

We want these leaders to realize that they have (intentionally or not) reinforced the current culture and the ways the business operates today. In essence,  they’re getting from their culture exactly what they should expect to get. It is what it is – the current operating environment has been reinforced (consciously or unconsciously) for years. And, what the work environment delivers today may not be good (culture, results, customer relationships, etc.) – and culture change is needed to enable that environment to deliver really good outcomes, consistently. Solid data can help “clean the eyeglasses” so that a senior leader can see why the business operates the way it does, and what needs changing.

Step 2: Show them the Cost of Doing Nothing!
Once senior leaders examine this data, they’re typically not satisfied with how the culture operates ( results, customer relationships, employee relationships, values alignment, etc.). They know the culture needs to change, but to do so they’ll probably travel down an unknown path. They’ll be concerned about what to do to change their current culture . . . and may prefer the safe path, staying with the current, known issues rather than embark on a path that (they feel) may not make the culture better.

We need to create an urgent insight that “staying the course” will not serve senior leaders well. A great way to do that is through Blanchard‘s online Cost of Doing Nothing Calculator. This easy tool enables leaders to enter real data from their organization and, in minutes, establish the hard-dollar costs of keeping the current conditions in place.

Once senior leaders understand the costs of “status quo,” they are typically ready to dive in to culture change . . . guided by experienced culture change consultants who created a proven, award-winning process.

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Five Critical Success Factors for Culture Transformation

July 19 2010 by Chris Edmonds in Culture |1 Comment

My work with culture change clients is some of the most gratifying of my career. Guiding committed senior leaders to define their desired culture and to rally their staff to embrace desired values and behaviors is marvelous to observe. If done properly, their culture refinement efforts generate higher performance . . . increase genuine consideration of bosses, peers, customers, and stakeholders . . . and create a values-aligned work environment where players are  trusted, honored, and respected.

In our meta-analysis of culture research and in reviewing our work with culture change clients, my co-author colleagues (of Ken Blanchard‘s award-winning, proven culture change process) and I have identified five factors that were present in every single successful culture transformation we’ve guided. These are also posted in the culture change section of Blanchard’s web site.

Organizations that successfully create high performing, values-aligned cultures share these five critical success factors:

  1. The senior leadership team must demonstrate commitment to the long-term process. The culture change process must be embraced and championed by the entire senior leadership team. They must lead this effort with “one heart, one mind, and one voice.” Senior leaders cannot delegate the responsibility for culture creation, maintenance, or refinement any more than they can delegate the responsibility to breathe! They will be held to high standards as desired values are defined (in behavioral terms) and communicated. Cultural transformation is an ongoing project that will never go away.
  2. Values must be defined in behavioral terms. This is the only approach that makes your desired behaviors observable, tangible, and measurable. Ultimately, you don’t care about someone’s beliefs or attitude – you care that they demonstrate desired valued behaviors with every boss, peer, customer, and stakeholder, every day, in every interaction.
  3. Accountability for delivering promised performance and demonstrating valued behaviors is paramount. Consequences must be swift and consistent. Positive consequences for meeting performance and values expectations must be described and demonstrated. Praise and encourage the performance and values demonstration you want! Negative consequences must be applied when performance is below standards or valued behaviors are not demonstrated. You must not tolerate undesirable behavior from anyone at any level.
  4. It is vital that all staff are involved in and buy into the culture transformation at every phase. This process is not about “managing by announcements,” where leaders tell everyone what the new expectations are but don’t invite thoughts or hold people—including themselves—consistently accountable. For all staff to embrace the desired culture, they must be included in the clarification process. They must help define and commit to what the new culture will demand of them (and their bosses and peers).
  5. One step at a time. Find a manageable scope for the change initiative. Don’t try to change the entire organization at once; move at a pace that the organization can tolerate. Start with a distinct part of the organization—a department, division, plant, or regional office—to learn how the process flows. Then select another distinct part of the organization and begin the change process there, modifying and refining the roll out based on what you learned with the first group. Continue until you’ve “digested the entire elephant.”

If you skip any of our process phases or key activities or do not have these critical success factors in place, you will not gain traction on your desired culture. If you’d like to see a higher performance, values-aligned culture in your organization, let us know – we’d love to help guide you.

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How does your Company’s Culture Measure Up?

July 9 2010 by Chris Edmonds in Culture |Comments Off

How well does your current company culture support desired performance as well as maintain consistent employee passion?

Are your customers pleased – maybe even thrilled – with the products and services you provide and how they are treated by your staff?

Do current and potential employees believe your company is a great place to work? Are your customers positive “word of mouth” marketers of your company and your products and services?

All of these are indicators of a healthy corporate culture. Most senior leaders are unaware of the powerful impact that culture has on their organization’s performance and on employee satisfaction/engagement/passion. Blanchard‘s award-winning, proven culture change process helps educate senior leaders about their responsibilities to proactively manage their company’s culture. Those activities include role modeling and reinforcing performance and values expectations, holding all staff accountable for those expectations, and refining those expectations over time as your market and opportunities evolve.

The creation of a valid, reliable culture assessment is no small task. When we first built our culture assessment, process co-authors Bob Glaser, Garry Demarest, and I did an extensive literature review and meta-analysis of culture change research and of best practices around the globe. We continue that study regularly to ensure that our profile assesses the right cultural elements today. Our culture change clients tell us we’ve got it right.

The items on our culture change assessment describe the best practices of high performance, values-aligned cultures. We use a six point rating scale (an even numbered scale prevents respondents from select a neutral, mid-point answer, which doesn’t provide you with actionable data):

  1. Strongly Disagree
  2. Disagree
  3. Slightly Disagree
  4. Slightly Agree
  5. Agree
  6. Strongly Agree

We do provide a response category titled “don’t know/doesn’t apply.” However, we’d prefer to see no responses here – as you’ll see from the sample items below, all of these statements apply in a high performing, values-aligned culture!

Here are a few sample items from our culture assessment for your consideration:

  • Team members understand what it takes for our organization to be successful today.
  • Individual team members’ personal purpose and values are aligned with our organization’s purpose and values.
  • Team member performance plans include both ends goals (results) and means goals (valued behaviors).
  • Declared team values are the foundation of team decisions and actions.
  • Our work environment fosters trust among team members.
  • At work, team members actively praise and encourage each other.

What is a “good” response to these items? We want to see scores at the 5-6 level for every item, across the organization, from frontline employees to senior leaders. That kind of alignment to these cultural best practices does not happen casually – it happens only with consistent focus by the senior leadership team and leaders across the organization.

As part of the two-day process kickoff workshop for the organization’s senior leadership team, we typically complete two different culture assessments as prework and analyze the results together during the session:

  • The first context is of the senior leader and his/her direct reports ranking their executive team. In previous posts here I’ve stated the vital importance of an aligned senior leadership team that proactively manages their company culture with “one heart, one mind, one voice.” This data helps the senior leadership team understand what gaps exist today and enables action planning to close those gaps across this team.
  • The second context is from the “frontline,” assessing how employees rank the organization on these key questionnaire items. This “overall” perspective is important as it helps the senior leadership team understand culture gaps perceived by their “first customers” – their employees – and begin action planning to address those gaps.

So, how does your company’s culture measure up? By using our assessment you’ll discover what gaps exist between the best practices of high performance, values-aligned cultures and your organization’s culture. We stand by to help you address those gaps and build an amazing work environment for employees, customers, and stakeholders.

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A Leader Only When You have Followers

July 3 2010 by Chris Edmonds in Culture |Comments Off

This YouTube video was shot in May 2009 at the Sasquatch Music Festival, which is held at the Gorge Amphitheater outside of Wenatchee, WA.

It shows how one shirtless dancing guy creates a wonderful dance party – in minutes – all because of the commitment and willingness of his first follower.

I learned about this impactful video from one of our culture change clients, the senior vice president of a US-based retail giant. Joel’s division includes seven states, over 300 stores, and more than 85,000 employees (!).

Joel is a fabulous servant leader and has a very clear vision of how he wants employees to feel at work every day: trusted, honored, and respected by their bosses and peers. This won’t happen without leaders across the business serving their employees FIRST and their customers SECOND.

Joel sees this video clip as the perfect demonstration of followers making a huge impact, very quickly. In discussions with managers in his division, Joel describes not just the cool dance party this guy generates – but how impressive it is for that first follower to join in the dance. Without followers, leaders are not leading – they’re just filling a role.

Joel is trying to be his division’s “dancing guy” – describing how to manage their business in a values-aligned way, to benefit employees so they perform well AND love the work they do, which positively impacts the customer experiences, etc. – and Joel cannot accomplish this vision unless his managers follow him.

Joel’s vision and values – and his team’s commitment to clear expectations and accountability – have helped the stores in his division increase performance in three vital areas over the last two years: employee satisfaction, customer service ratings, and profitability. Joel is a marvelous, inspiring, effective leader – you can tell by observing the motivated, skilled, high-performing followers at his side!

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How Tolerations Hinder the Values-Aligned Culture

June 27 2010 by Chris Edmonds in Culture |Comments Off

As part of my work with Blanchard‘s coaching.com team, I was exposed to a very powerful concept: tolerations. This idea is critical to living a values-aligned life in your family, community, or workplace – and to creating the high performance, values-aligned culture.

The concept of tolerations was developed by Thomas Leonard, often called the creator of the life coaching movement. Thomas founded Coach U and the International Coaching Federation, and created many programs used by coaches worldwide to help clients be more effective in their lives. Thomas passed away suddenly in 2003, leaving a legacy of exceptional coaching methods and standards.

Here’s how Thomas positioned tolerations:

“Let’s define tolerations as things that bug us, sap our energy, and could be eliminated! Tolerations are holes in your personal success cup; they drain away your contentment and good fortune. They drain YOU. They make you feel less attractive to yourself. Tolerations often represent compromises you’ve talked yourself into.“

My focus in this article is on how senior leaders’ tolerations impact their organization’s culture. If senior leaders want a high performance, values-aligned culture yet tolerate behaviors that are inconsistent with desired valued behaviors, there are undesirable results that always occur:

  • Leader credibility is eroded – if senior leaders say they want a certain culture yet they tolerate poor behavior from organization leaders or members, then senior leaders’ words and commitments are not trusted.
  • Organization leaders and members are frustrated and disappointed because accountability is inconsistent, which erodes both performance and commitment to the organization, its customers, and its stakeholders.
  • The desired culture never gains traction.

Senior leaders are often blind to what they are tolerating in their culture and do not clearly see the negative impact of those tolerations. Tolerations create a frustrating work environment and inhibit performance and creativity. They drain energy and commitment and erode trust across the workforce. The costs are real.

The good news: controlling senior leader tolerations is about each senior leader’s choices and behavior – it’s not about fixing others around them. Sometimes partnering with a competent executive coach can help senior leaders see their culture from a new perspective, and help them identify the key tolerations that are causing frustration and holding their organization back.

Recognize and Address Your Tolerations

Whether you are a senior leader of a multi-million dollar company, a project team lead, or anyone in between, eliminating tolerations follows the same series of steps.

  1. Create a list of the things that bug you, that drain your energy, that compromise desired behaviors in your culture. Focus particularly on behaviors that are inconsistent with your organization’s desired valued behaviors.
  2. Prioritize your list so the issues that have the greatest negative impact can be addressed first. Being conscious of what you’ve tolerated in your culture helps you modify your choices and your behavior to no longer accept those tolerations.
  3. Have conversations with those players whose behavior you’ve been tolerating, one at a time. These are non-judgmental conversations – not emotional or explosive conversations. These people have been behaving in these ways for a long time because you have tolerated their behavior. Now, you have made a choice to not tolerate that behavior any more.
  4. Secure clear agreements about future behavior, and hold those players accountable for their commitments. Praise progress and accomplishment, and redirect players if they struggle with their new commitments. If players are unable to keep their commitments, lovingly set them free – help them out of the organization as they are unable to demonstrate desired valued behaviors.

As you eliminate tolerations in your culture, you will be amazed at the demonstration of increased energy, motivation, performance, and commitment by organization leaders and members.

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