Lee Ellis's Blog, page 294

Culture Leadership: How a Strong Team Propels Success

By Lee Ellis

Think of the organizations that have strong connections with you—more than great service or products, you have a strong, emotional connection with them. To achieve this level of engagement, they’ve likely worked very hard to create an internal culture that reflects their external culture.

Current Culture Examples

I realized how popular the NASCAR brand had become a few years ago while facilitating a group of PricewaterhouseCoopers consultants, most of whom were only a few years out of college. During a break in the action, two of the young ladies carried on a long, informed discussion about the Bristol Race, which had occurred the previous weekend. I was amazed to see how NASCAR had transcended its provincial beginnings and gained loyal fans in sophisticated business circles.

Zappos Shoes is another compelling example of building culture and employee engagement with its staff and customers. They’re so committed to creating a culture of passionate, engaged employees that they now offer $5000 to anyone that would like to leave the company at the end of their training period. If a one-time bonus exceeds one’s commitment to the Zappos brand, then they want to know at the beginning of the relationship.

There are many other examples of companies making their mark in their respective industries—Starbucks, Chick-Fil-A, and Duke Energy just to name a few.

Their cultural development process is more than a tactical plan—it’s a deeper layer that taps into the emotions and deep desires of human nature.

Building Culture in the POW Camps

Even in challenging times in the POW camps of Vietnam, our senior leaders instinctively created a winning culture to fuel passion and commitment with me and my comrades. Here’s how they did it.

As the senior ranking officer in the camps in the early years, Lt Col Robbie Risner wasted no time in issuing simple and direct guidance:

“I’m in charge, and here’s what I want you to do. Be a good American. Live by the Code of Conduct. Resist up to the point of permanent physical or mental damage and then no more. Give as little as possible and then bounce back to resist again. Pray every day. Go home proud.”

Risner’s policies passed quickly through the camps via covert communications, clarifying our mission, vision, and values for what would turn out to be a long war. Risner made the military Code of Conduct the cornerstone of POW culture. The Defense Department had adopted this code after the Korean War as a tool to help POWs resist Communist exploitation. Virtually every warrior in the U.S. military had memorized it during training, and Risner made it clear that he expected everyone to follow it to the best of his ability.

During our darkest moments, knowing we were united by common values and shared commitment to mission and vision made a difference in our mental and physical survival.

The Honor of Building a Winning Culture

Organizational cultures are shaped by the values and beliefs established by leaders and shared by the people and groups in the organization. Positive cultures increase motivation, teamwork, and commitment. With a clear understanding about core values, operating styles, and standards of behavior, people can focus their talents and energies toward common goals. A common mindset also enables people to operate independently, while remaining aligned with the values and policies of senior leaders.

Establishing a culture requires clarity, commitment, and creativity:

– Clarity about vision, mission, core values, and operational policies. Over-communication is a key to clarity—sharing it multiple times, multiple ways.

– Commitment to the organization’s mission and defined values. An over-arching principle in the military is a “Be responsible, No excuses” attitude, for example. Creating an attitude of ownership and healthy accountability with your team also cranks up the commitment level.

– Creativity to make the cultural story unique and compelling. What are some ways that you can make the culture-building process more fun or emotional? Think beyond a set of rules and descriptors.

Once the culture is defined, it must be communicated fervently and frequently, until it is caught and bought in every corner and on every level of the organization.

The Big Payoff

What’s the payoff for creating strong employee engagement and a positive culture?

In a Gallup article, organizations that engage their employees grow their earnings more than 2.5 times faster than organizations that do not. In addition, “optimized” teams within an organization — those that are in the top 50% of teams on both employee and customer engagement — generate a 240% boost in financial performance compared with teams that fail to engage their employees and their customers.

In summary:

Engaged employees yield engaged customers.
Engaged customers yield happy, committed customers.
Happy, committed customers enthusiastically use and enjoy your products and services as part of their lives.

It’s an emotional process that yields positive strategic and tactical outcomes. What has been your experience and tactical steps to creating a winning culture? Please share your comments.

LE

Watch This Month’s Leading with Honor Coaching Clip!

Watch Lee’s Leadership Coaching clip on this month’s topic of building healthy employee engagement and a winning culture. Register for Free, and receive it in your inbox. 

Need to Convince your Leadership to Build a Winning Culture?

Looking for a way to convince your leadership to build a winning culture in your organization? Lee gives his wisdom and advice on the topic in this month’s free Leading With Honor Video Coaching clip.

Please register to receive in your inbox at the link below, and we hope that it’s great insight for you –

In Stressful Situations, Do You Dominate or Withdraw? Learn How to Engage Instead

Leaders who lack courage to engage problems usually veer off course in one of two directions: they will either seek to dominate, or they will seek to withdraw (fight or flight; violence or silence.) Both of these counterproductive behaviors have the same root cause: fears and doubts.

I’ve found the Leadership Engagement Model™ to be extremely helpful for improving the cooperation and productivity of teams working cross-functionally, especially if a “silo mentality” is prevalent. It has also been beneficial for strategic partners who have competing interests.

Download and distribute this model to your leaders and/or team, and please share your comments –

On This Day in Leadership History, October 4, 2015

On this day in leadership history in 1931, the comic strip “Dick Tracy” made its debut in the Detroit Daily Mirror. The strip was created by Chester Gould. Whether it’s creating comic trips or working in a Fortune 500 organization with thousands of employees, leaders must stay true to their natural behaviors, talents, and experiences to be most successful. You’ll never make it if you try to be someone else. You can be the authentic you!

Dick Tracy – Wikipedia

Building Organizational Values – Tips on Being Inspired and Staying Connected

Need some practical ways to maintain and fulfill your personal and organizational values? Lee shares a couple of important ways to stay on track – which one works the best for you?

1. Inspiration is Important and Must Be Ongoing. Emotions are the energy that drives us to accomplish our deepest desires. Find your inspiration from various sources –

Spiritual Foundations – renew them and be true to your faith.
Family Relationships and Traditions of Your Heritage
Personal Development through Conversations, Books, Blogs, Podcasts, Events, and more. Are you authentically sharing with others to help them develop?

2. Stay Connected to People Who are Likeminded.

Who is speaking into your life?
Do you have authentic relationships?
Be discerning. Don’t let those with negative values pull you down.

Please also share your wisdom and experience – which tip has worked best for you in the past?

Leading with Honor – Link

 

Leading with Honor Wisdom for Today, October 2, 2015

“A true leader is one who is humble enough to admit their mistakes.” – Unknown

Building Your Leadership Credibility – Three Values Checklist Items

Do you want to be taken seriously as an authentic leader that others consistently want to follow? Clarifying, committing, and acting in alignment with your personal values will make a difference.

Lee provides the short checklist below to help you confirm your personal values –

Clarify Your Values. What do you really believe? Who are you? What do you stand for? Reflect on the foundation of your beliefs. Your faith, your family teaching, your professional ethics, your patriotism, your sense of community. What are your non-negotiables? The Honor Code would be a good place to start.
Commit and Stand Courageously. Will you stand firm in the face of a busy schedule, unfair competition, the need to look good, the desire to meet legitimate desires for comfort and pleasure in ways that compromise your values? Recognize that your doubts and fears will take you out. Commit to suffer and sacrifice to remain faithful to your values.
Act in Congruence with Who You Are. Be true to yourself. It’s not easy; we are humans and not firm and fixed. We operate by ebbs and flows of our commitment. Fight the battle to keep your honor intact and when you fail, admit it and bounce back.

Please also share your wisdom and experience in this forum on building a values plan –

Leading with Honor – Book

 

Inspiring Work and Leadership Organization – The VVMF

Lee Ellis and team can’t say enough about the Vietnam Vets Memorial Foundation. Founders of the Vietnam Wall Memorial, they’re dedicated to preserving the legacy of the Memorial and ensuring that future generations learn from this critical time in history.

Join us in supporting them this Fall with your time and contributions – learn more

Unusual and Inspiring Leadership Promotion – See Enclosed

Here’s a very unusual leadership event, and we wanted to share it with you. Pictured is Brig. Gen. Blaine Holt promoting his younger brother, new Brig. Gen. Cameron Holt. Lee was privileged to be their commander during their AFROTC experience at Det 160, University of Georgia – way to “Go Dawgs.” Very proud of Blaine and Cameron and our other UGA Flying Bulldogs. Thanks for celebrating with us!

AFROTC Det 160 – Link

Leaders – Need to Align Your Team? See Inside

One of the biggest challenges for leaders is aligning their teams with a common goal and vision. Leading with Honor wants to help you take the next steps with our group training resources. Proven principles and results from the POW camps of Vietnam.

Click to Learn More and download a free sample –