I always get great ideas and best practices for creating cultures of leadership from my MBA students. In a recent discussion thread about innovative approaches to leadership, there were two that talked about taking over as the new leader of a troubled organization where the damaged culture was the doing of the prior manager. They described typical toxic, low-performing environments where people were unhappy, doing the minimum and showing up only in body. Not unusual is these times businesses have reacted to the downturn by reducing staff and expecting more of the people that survive. As the economy recovers, they’ve begun to leave and both internal and external customers are increasingly unhappy. Real bad situations for a new manager!
I was impressed with the examples of interventions they shared. First, they made personal, individual connections with each of their reports. In one-on-ones, they expressed a desire to support their growth, identified their goals and got their input to a plan. As a means of exploring possibilities, one of the new leaders introduced “walk in my shoes” days where their employees spent a day in a department with which they interfaced; also inviting the other functions to do the same. This resulted in such improved teamwork that each function learned to count on each other to provide back up support or resources. Both of these new leaders increased communication using multiple channels, emphasizing its importance and encouraging their people to do the same with everyone they worked with. And while they implemented the recognition and rewards that had been missing, they also managed out any employees unwilling to embrace the change.
These were all effective ways of influencing the best in people and creating an environment where people like to come to work. Although the actions may appear to be common best practices, what my students pointed out was that in too many organizations this kind of approach is outside-the-box thinking because managers care less about connecting with their people and focus more on doing more with less – losing sight of the reality that it’s through people that everything gets done.
