Culture is Not What You Say - It’s What You Do - By Rick Williams
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FIRED! Because he did not instantly respond to his boss’s 11 PM text.
During a catch-up dinner with close friends, I heard the story of their son, who was fired because he was not responding fast enough to his boss’s late-night and holiday texts and emails. She put him on notice with HR and eventually terminated him
My friends are not concerned about their son because he has strong credentials, but the story reminded me that we, as leaders, create the culture of our organization by what we do and not by what we say.
What we say can be a carefully written HR manual or feel-good slogans on a placard in the office. Your team and your staff see the sign on the wall, but they know how the culture really works by what you are doing.
Yes, we have crisis situations when urgent communication is required at all hours. But punishing your team members and collaborators for not being constantly synced to your schedule is asking for trouble.
I am working with a wonderful collaborator in Pakistan, and we exchange information frequently during non-US or Pakistani work hours. While I was waiting for the next revision of a video, he told me that he was at the Eid al-Adha festival. I told him to enjoy the festival with his family. I wanted him to know that his family time at the festival was more important to me than a quick revision to the video.
Culture is not your values poster. It’s the behavior you and your leadership team model every day. Your culture is how failure is handled. Is this an opportunity to learn or a time to blame?
Culture is what happens when someone raises a difficult truth in a meeting. Do people lean in or go quiet? When you acknowledge or don’t acknowledge the creative but crazy idea, you are defining your company’s culture.
Here is what I have seen consistently across decades of advising leadership teams. Leaders shape culture through what they reward, what they punish, what they acknowledge, and what they accept. Not through speeches, but by what they do.
The culture of all organizations starts at the top – with you.
If your company does not have the culture you believe is required for success, look at what you and your leadership team are doing every day that must change.
The War Against Ukraine: Why It Matters and What Comes Next
You know about my trip to Ukraine last year, taking non-military supplies to Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine.
On Tuesday, June 16, I will be sharing my experience in Ukraine as part of a terrific program hosted by the Harvard Business School Association of Boston and many other leading professional associations.
For more information on the event in Boston and registration, please go HERE. No Harvard or HBS affiliation is required for attendance.
I will show my Ukraine photographs and share my experience there and my conversations with Ukrainian leaders. The former Director of Harvard’s Ukraine Institute will brief us on the history of the war and where he believes it is headed. We will be interviewed by Prof. Olena Lennon, who is an expert on US Foreign and Defense Policy and the Russian-Ukrainian War.
If you are in the Boston area, join me and hear the untold story, in the US, of intense fighting, high casualties, and the complex history behind the first major war in Europe since World War II. The program is supported by the Wharton and Harvard Kennedy School alumni organizations, plus Ukrainian organizations in the US. This is a very important gathering of folks who care about the future of Europe and America’s role in the world.
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