An Enthusiastic, Energetic Culture is Magic — and Mid-Level As Well as Senior Leaders Impact Our Culture

We cannot over-emphasize how important our organizational culture is to our company – to the people of our company, and our people are our company! Our people, and therefore our culture, determine the quality and consistency of our results.

If our people, our team members, are happy and contributing their ideas, striving to grow, learn and develop themselves, are encouraging and helping their teammates, and seeking ways that we as a company can improve, we will thrive. Their positive energy will fuel our success.

Not enough attention is given to who creates and maintains our organizational culture. The immediate thought is that our culture comes from the top, our senior leaders. Yes, they certainly are a huge and critical influence. Yet, remember that people don’t leave their company, they leave their boss.

While we want our senior leaders to be servant leaders, and walk the halls and have conversations with our people asking for their ideas and how they may be helpful, their leadership principles and practices must be emulated throughout the company. The leadership behavior of our mid-level managers is also vitally important in creating and maintaining an enthusiastic, high energy and positive culture.

We need to train all managers to be highly effective leaders. Anything less is not acceptable. There must be accountability.

Everyone wants to do a good job and be successful. Our managers at all levels have a responsibility to help bring out the best in our people.

Does every manager know that leadership is one conversation at a time?

Do they know that they must treat each person as a teammate, not an employee? Do they know that everyone wants to feel appreciated, valued, and heard, and that their ideas matter? Do they know the importance of their timely responsiveness? Do they know that they must promptly address problems and a difficult team member, i.e., to learn the art of having the difficult conversation?

From top to bottom, these leadership principles matter greatly and must be a priority.

This need not be a time-consuming and expensive goal. My personal experience is that the most effective learning comes from getting groups in a conference room and having a participatory conversation, which can be more effective than seminars, webinars, and outside courses.

We want an outstanding organizational culture. Let’s make that a top priority, and let’s make it happen. We’ll have happy team members, and happy team members do better work!