What if...we consciously shaped culture?

Here’s what’s in this week’s newsletter:

• A story of conscious leadership

• Some tactics to be more conscious in your leadership

• A new free resource

• 3 upcoming free events

A story of conscious leadership

I recently took part in a round table discussion on “conscious leadership” which intrigued me as a title.

We defined the term as:

“Proactively and mindfully leading the evolution of the culture”

The group was made up of senior leaders looking to encourage culture change within their organisation and the discussion was really interesting.

It started off with one senior leader of a social media company describing a situation where a member of staff came up to say they were very close to leaving the company because the working environment had got so bad.

This leader (we will call them Jo) was very unaware of the things that had been going on and was really disappointed to hear about behaviours that were clearly counter to the culture they were looking to create.

Jo began to reflect what they could have done differently and this formed an interesting discussion in whether they were blind to what was going on, simply turned a blind eye, or hadn’t explicitly called out the positive expected behaviours.

Or perhaps all three.

There are a couple of mantras that have stuck with me around culture change that came up in this discussion:

If you let people be jerks because they are so talented or you don’t want to call them on the behaviour then you will allow and encourage a culture of “jerkiness”.

Great leaders consciously take a stand against bad behaviour and make it clear where the line is.

Sure, there’s nothing wrong with giving people the benefit of the doubt and a chance for redemption but they will call things out.

And the more meaningful the consequences the stronger the message. For example one leader at the round table told a story of how a colleague called out a client for their behaviour and was prepared to lose business to stand up for the dignity and safety of an employee. Powerful stuff.

Sure, calling out what isn’t desirable or tolerated is very important but that only identifies the anti-pattern; it doesn’t instil the pattern so conscious leaders will make a point of catching people doing things right as much catching people doing things wrong.

If you see someone modelling the values of the culture you are looking to instil…notice it, recognise it and publicise it.

Tactics to be more conscious in your leadership

As well as calling out bad behaviours and catching people doing things right here are a few more tactics you can employ.

Don’t get tunnel vision

One thing that a lot of the leaders in this round table had in common was getting too caught up in work to notice or consciously evolve the culture. As a result, the culture evolved in its own way. More often than not, in a way the didn’t want it to.

Take time to speak to people, listen to people, get feedback that people feel safe enough to share and follow up on it.

Identify and recognise cultural architects

People pay attention to who gets rewarded and why. If you want to grow a culture of collaboration and customer focus then find people who display those attributes and build the culture around them.

Give them prominent responsibilities and make sure people know it’s because of their living the cultural values.

Get out in front

Set out some clear examples of what you’re looking for, including stories of abstract things like values or principles in action. Even better is telling stories of how trade-offs can be made where necessary between two “good” things but prioritising the important cultural values.

No learning opportunity missed

Things will go wrong…and while that’s not great…you can ensure that you learn from it. Admit failings and try a mini retrospective to find out what could have been done differently and what can be put in place to avoid a repeat.

Of course, there are many more things you can do to more consciously lead cultural change and I’d love to hear about your examples.

New Free Resource: Miro Template for Scrum Master Affirmations

Being a servant-leader is tough.

It’s easy to doubt the value we add and fall in to one of the many anti-patterns of servant-leadership.

That’s why I have decided to create a free tool for Scrum Masters and other servant-leaders to help you reflect, reframe and reinforce the value you add.

Affirmations are true and helpful statements that, when repeated and internalised, increase your resourcefulness, resilience and sense of self-worth.

Check out the template in the Miroverse here.

Upcoming Free Events

23rd May: Standing Out in a Crowded Job Market

Johannes Geske and Stephen Sykes, along with Chad Beier and Jeff Bubolz founded ScrumMatch to help experienced Scrum Masters receive validation for their experience and Scrum maturity.

In this session Johannes and Stephen will cover:

• The factors at play in the job market right now

• The problem(s) ScrumMatch was formed to solve

• Some case studies (could be fictionalised for anonymity) of different maturity levels of Scrum Masters

• Things that help the more mature Scrum Masters stand out

• Top tips that people can do now to enhance their profile and maturity even if they don’t have a job

• Q&A

NOTE: This session will be recorded and made available to those who attend

June 13: Don’t cascade OKRs! Build a Solar System

Cansel Sörgens will share her approach of making OKRs work for you – her "OKR Solar System". This talk will delve into:

• The What and Why of OKRs

• Disadvantages of cascading, inherited, org-chart copied OKRs

• How to create strategic alignment

• Introduction of OKR Solar System

• Product OKRs, Shared OKRs, and Strategic Theme OKRs

• Q&A

Have a great week and don’t be shy if you want to get in touch