My student pulled me aside during our break to ask me a coaching question with regard to her recent classroom presentation.  “When I was speaking, did you notice anything peculiar about how I was speaking?” When my students present for the first time, I often pick up on distractions in speech or body language, but doing my best to recall for this student, I didn’t recall anything outstanding beyond what we already covered.  Then she followed with this statement, “My manager wanted me to come to class today because he doesn’t like my voice. He said it’s annoying.”

I’m pretty sure my eyes telegraphed what I was thinking. I was not only shocked but also heartbroken for this student. Regardless of how the initial feedback was given by the manager, the message sent to this student was, “You are less than. I am more. You are not essential. I am. You should change.”

Culture Defines Success

Whether you’re leading an entire corporation or a project team, our interactions with others create our company culture. Dr. Noelle Nelson, author of Make More Money by Making Your Employees Happy, cites a study from Healthstream, Inc., which shows, “companies that effectively appreciate employee value enjoy a return on equity & assets more than triple that experienced by firms that don’t. When looking at Fortune’s ’100 Best Companies to Work For’ stock prices rose an average of 14% per year from 1998-2005, compared to 6% for the overall market.”. If we want to develop the strongest culture, we need to avoid these 7 culture killers.

7 Ways to Kill Your Corporate Culture:

1. Believe you’re always right (i.e. your opinion = truth)

When we offer coaching feedback in our workshops, our coaches always set the stage by telling all attendees that 95% of what we share with them is just our opinion. The rest of it is truth and cannot be disputed. If you believe your ideas are more than just your opinion, then you will hang on to them as truths, or laws of the universe! Humble leaders are willing to entertain a different thought without actually accepting it.

2. Feed your ego

In 2000 I had a meeting with a VP of Technology at the now-defunct Enron Corporation in Houston.  When my sales engineer and I arrived, she was not alone.  She had brought a gang of 10 other direct reports with her. All 10 of her direct reports sat in silence like the gallery at a golf tournament. They all just observed the meeting without offering anything. When the VP told me our company would need to cover all the capital expenses for the computer hardware, I politely told her that wouldn’t happen. Her response (for the benefit of her audience) was, “I don’t think you understand who you’re dealing with… we’re Enron!”  When your ego becomes your prime directive, the company loses.

3. Ignore anything that sounds different

When my students learn a new communication technique, I will sometimes get a couple students to cross their arms and say something like, “That won’t work here.” or “That’s not the way we do it.” or “We’ve always done it THIS way.” Preserving the past through traditions is meant for the holidays, not for business. If you’re breeding a culture of complacency you’re breeding a culture of mediocrity.

4. Always try to be right

In my workshops I’ll ask someone to make a fist and hold it out. Then I do the same and push my fist on his/hers. They will inevitably respond with more pressure as I apply more pressure. Then I’ll stop and ask, “Why are you pushing?” The response is always the same, “Because you are!” It is our natural programmed self to prepare for battle when we feel threatened. That means we will push back on anyone pushing on us, not physically, but verbally. When we feel attacked, adrenalin starts pumping into our system and it clouds our mental ability to think logically. If your objective for any conversation is to win, your motives become tainted. You may win the argument but the culture suffers.

5. Publicly point out what’s wrong with other people’s ideas

If you want to stop the flow of innovation, publicly ridicule other people’s ideas. As soon as the word gets out to others (which won’t take long!), you’ll have a culture of “status quo.” Keep your head down and just do what your told! When you can accept all ideas for consideration it will create an atmosphere of collaboration. Research at the University of Minnesota shows that two steps for listening to ideas without immediately shooting them down is beneficial to the culture.

1. Listen and withhold evaluation
2. For perspective, look for evidence in what they say to prove your own idea wrong

6. Stop listening to others

As you begin to speak, your manager looks down at his smartphone and begins to reply to a text message. You pause for a moment to let him finish. Then he looks up and says, “Go ahead. You can keep talking while I do this. I’m listening. I just need to reply to this real quick.” This seems more like a convenience for the boss to multi-task and take care of two things at once, but doing neither of them very well, I might add. Research shows that teams are more likely to be on-board with a new direction, even if they disagree with the final decision, as long as they’ve had a chance to be heard. Listen to your team.

7. Don’t worry about feelings. This is business.

“My boss said I talk funny and he doesn’t like my voice.” You can’t tell me that hearing those words from your manager wouldn’t generate a feeling inside you? If you want compliance from your team, then forget about feelings and just apply hard influence. It’ll get the job done. But, if you want to build a culture of commitment, think about how you can approach the conversation… as a human!

Without consistent attention to the culture we have and the culture we’re building, we can create the beginning of our end. We all need to take the time to give culture the attention it deserves.

What’s your favorite part of your company culture?

Please leave your comments below!

Still doing my best to learn each day!
See you next week,
Russ

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