The Leadership and Corporate Culture Challenge.
Everyone wants to experience a better tomorrow than their yesterday, a better next year than the previous. In an organizational setting, this is called continuous improvement. Every organization is looking forward to a better experience in the new year. The major factors that can be influenced to achieve a better 2019 in an organization are organizational culture and leadership. Sound leadership combined with a sound culture will produce a sound performance.
Both the leadership and organizational culture are to be addressed together because they are closely linked. When leadership fails to set the tone and pace, things definitely will not get better. The organizational structure influences the leadership and leadership also influence the organizational culture. Trying to improve organizational culture and closing the leadership gap should be the utmost plan for organizations that are looking forward to a better 2019.
CLOSING LEADERSHIP GAPS
Leadership gaps are loopholes in one’s leadership function that can result in the poor functioning of a leader. A leader might be functioning as a good leader, but this existing loophole can easily be exploited by people with ulterior motives to satisfy their personal goals instead of the organizational goals.
Filling up these leadership gaps is solely dependent on the leader’s development. Leadership development programs should be engaged for leaders, not necessarily those currently leading, but also those that are potential leaders. Having potential leaders engaged in leadership development programs means they are being prepared for the task ahead. So when the need for a leader who can fill up a leadership gap arises, they are easily fixed in position instead of going about searching for a new leader.
MAINTAINING STRONG ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE
Corporate culture is one of the major keys to business success in organizations. 94 percent of executives and 88 percent of employees regard corporate culture to be important for business success, based on a survey conducted by Deloitte. When there is a strong and positive corporate culture, it makes recruitment of employees easy, promotes better performance and better collaboration, increases the loyalty of employees, and keeps high morale in organizations. When people have an urge for coming to work, they are likely to give their best efforts to make sure it stays that way.
As time goes by, people change and there is a need for improvement in organizational culture to fit the changes that happen with people, so improving the organizational culture of an organization needs to be done regularly. Leaders are advised to get to know the opinion of their employees by asking employees what they like and what they do not like and how it can be changed. Employees should be encouraged to speak on elements of corporate culture that are harmful.
For a strong corporate culture to be created and maintained, there is a need for outstanding leadership.
LEADERSHIP AND CULTURE INTERDEPENDENCE
For a strong corporate culture to be created and maintained, there is a need for outstanding leadership. When there is a strong corporate culture in an organization, it helps the leadership. The key to empowering a leader to take a genuine look at the organizational culture and the leaders role in it is leadership coaching. Leaders can develop various skills from leadership coaching, these are delegation skills, organizational skills, communication skills, and decision-making skills. These are the required skills to learn when a leader wants to analyze and improve the corporate culture of an organization.
When there is bad leadership existing in an organization, it will reinforce negative cultural elements in a negative way, and good leadership does the opposite, so both leadership and organizational culture are key to running an organization.
With an expectation of a better year ahead, one needs to put into action the skills that would help improve their leadership and corporate culture. Be conversant with your strength and your weaknesses in both leadership and corporate culture and start working on improving on them. By doing this, you will improve performance and create a better workplace for everyone. Gain more in-depth knowledge on leadership and corporate culture and you will be sure of a healthier bottom line this year.
If you would like to develop your leadership effectiveness or those of emerging leaders in your company to close the leadership gap and improve organizational culture, we invite you to learn more about the Intelligent Leadership Coaching program. Recently named one of the top three advanced leadership development programs in the world, it is a 9 to 12 month “immersive” leadership and personal growth journey that unlocks and unleashes a leader’s full potential so they truly become the best leaders and people they can be.
