As a leader, you must understand your organizations culture. Not the vision and mission statements, but the people and how they actually work and behave. In a study, most people in organizations responded that general order / policies and procedures/directives are ignored in order to get things done. Then, when something goes wrong, they are punished for not following the written directives that no one else follows. As the manager, you think all is well once the person had been disciplines. Well, you’re wrong! Nothing really changed. The culture has decided to ignore the directive. Without getting tied into the minutia of how you examine the directive to see if it needs to be modified, I will move the discussion on about culture.
Your organizations culture is all inclusive. It encompasses who gets hired, who gets hired, who excels, and who is getting buy. It is the formal political system, and the informal political system, by which we get things done. It covers how we look at the word, and react to changes in our operating environments.
By creating a culture of leaders, and not simply one leader and a staff of managers, then the culture is better prepared to anticipate and make changes. When your organization faces change, can your culture willing or even able to adapt? Is it flexible? Will people openly question the need for change, find answers, and then make the changes? Or, will they secretly undercut your efforts and find creative ways to prevent the changes from being implemented?
As a leader, you must have your finger on the pulse of your organization to find out what its true culture is. If you are not working to lead through your culture then the culture is actually leading you to success or failure.
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