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The visionary leaders of
these and other culturally astute organizations
understand that a strong corporate culture is central to
their long-term success. Of course, that doesn't make it
any less impressive or less challenging for a company to
maintain a healthy culture.
Organizations involved in the cultural evolution process
have moved beyond control-based management practices and
discovered both the art of leadership and the discipline
of leadership development. Sadly, far too many
organizations still cling to old-fashioned control-based
management beliefs, behaviors and governance systems
more appropriate for the industrial age than today's
global information age.
Visionary leaders have already made a fundamental
transformational shift. As Collins and Porras told us in
"Built to Last", enduring success is found when:
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A company has a culture that gives guidance and
inspiration to people inside the company (vision,
mission and values)
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And the company lives it's values
(values-driven
decision-making)
These organizations have mastered the foundations of
financial stability, consistent product/service quality
and effective communications. They excel at customer
care because they understand the power of employee
empowerment and engagement. They also know the value of
developing strong leaders who live the values of the
company in their day-to-day decision-making.
However, making a strong corporate culture even stronger
is a never-ending job which requires ongoing focus and
commitment. Sustaining company values and finding ways
to deepen the connection with each employee's passion is
no easy task.
Tapping Employee Passion is a Forever Unfolding Odessey
Even when your values, vision and mission are crystal
clear, consistent communication and courageous dialogue
are needed for them to drive decision-making on a
day-to-day basis. And even after you accomplish complete
clarity, there is the much more complex challenge of
making those values come alive in the hearts of your
employees. After all, people desire a strong connection
to their work and their organization. They need it to
fuel their passion and light the fires of their
creativity. The art of leadership is so much more than
just clearly communicating vision, mission, values and
expectations. And as difficult as that is, it is even
more challenging to establish and maintain the depth of
connection required to unleash the full potential of
your organization.
The seeds of such inspirational leadership are often
born in the heart, mind and passionate actions of a
visionary founder. The founders of Hewlett-Packard, Bill
Hewlett and Dave Packard, serve as a classic example.
They created a culture which penetrated deep into the
company and which served HP well for many years. Dave
Packard created
11 Simple Rules that clearly and
concisely laid out the values of how to treat people
that guided the leadership at HP for years, well after
Dave and Bill left day-to-day leadership of the
organization. In 2006, Hewlett Packard found itself
embroiled in a public scandal; a significant divergence
from the 11 Simple Rules. Some speculate that the
ethical employee base was diluted by the company's
merger with Compaq, the hiring of many senior managers
from other firms and the elimination of many long term
employees through layoff and early retirement. At HP, as
with all companies, it eventually falls on other leaders
to continue the culture of the visionary founders.
Without constant renewal and attention to the culture,
allegiance to values, mission and a compelling future
vision become ambiguous.
Connecting Deeply With The Hearts & Passion of Your
People
Author and leadership expert John Maxwell said:
"A great
leader's courage to fulfill his vision comes from
passion, not position."
The power of a heart connection, the inspiration and
creativity that flow when passion is engaged, are
undeniable. The question is how can it be tapped? Can we
consistently and authentically connect at such deep
levels with our employees? Is it realistic? Is it even
possible?
There are many great leaders who realized amazing
visions by connecting with the hearts and passions of
their followers. Every revolution had its Thomas Paine,
Martin Luther King Jr. or Gandhi. Most people have been
personally fortunate enough to have their hearts ignited
and passions flamed by particularly good teachers,
coaches or mentors.
Tap Into Employee's Passion -Tap Into The
Organization's Unlimited Potential
Great leaders have the ability to tap the passion of
their followers and leadership development courses
abound that aim to help people develop leadership
skills. The question remains however: "Can passion be
instilled and nurtured or is it only the blessing of the
few fortunate naturally charismatic leaders?"
Hope for Non-Charismatic Leaders
Charisma may be the gift of a few, but most leaders can
learn to inspire others. Desire and a willingness to
explore oneself are essential. Research supports the
concept that great leaders can be developed. The process
begins with the development of self awareness.
Transformational leaders know themselves well and are
engaged in a journey of transformation. Positive
Psychology has coined the term psychological capital as
a knowing of who you are and who you are becoming. The
designation of self-awareness as a form of capital may
be new paradigm for some leaders, yet is of paramount
importance to an organization's cultural transformation.
Leadership Beyond Limits, LLC offers a program to
develop transformational leaders. Transformational
leaders:
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model doing the right thing for the right reason
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show genuine caring for the people they work with
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inspire others, because of their clear sense of
purpose
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intellectually challenge and creatively stimulate
others
To learn more about our leadership development programs
click here.
Recent Breakthroughs In 3 Related Sciences Now Address
These Leadership Challenges
Leadership Beyond Limits has devised a way to combine
three scientific breakthroughs to create a single
customized solution for organizations who have invested
in their corporate culture and wish to accelerate their
cultural evolution. Each organization is unique, and
requires a customized application to realize its
distinctive potential. Each of the three methods is a
true breakthrough in their respective fields. All three
have incredible value and application in their own
right, when implemented within corporate culture and
leadership development efforts. Each is regarded as
leading edge for building a positive corporate culture
and each is generating a lot of press, discussion and
most importantly- measurable results.
Positive Psychology is a new branch of psychology which
focuses on the empirical study of human well-being. It
embraces three paths to well-being: positive emotions,
strengths-based character, and healthy institutions.
Appreciative Inquiry (AI), the rapidly growing
discipline of positive change was first articulated by
two professors at the Weatherhead School of Management
(see David Cooperrider and Suresh Srivastva, 1987).
Since then, thousands of people have been involved in
co-creating new concepts and practices for implementing
AI, and bringing the spirit of AI into organizations all
over the world.
Cultural Transformation Tools ® for the cultural
transformation of corporations, non-profits, NGO's,
government institutions, schools, communities and
nations has brought the discipline of measurement to the
"soft " side of business: leadership, values and
organizational culture. The fact that individuals and
organizations evolve through varying levels of
consciousness is an underlying principle of the tools.
Our tools define an organization's current cultural
position and support the organization in developing a
plan for future evolution.
Although each of these three methods has incredible
value when applied in their own right, the potency of a
combined solution virtually guarantees any organization
will reach its maximum potential.
Putting Measurement in Place: Defining Current Culture
The first step in extending cultural evolution is
defining the organization's current culture. Leadership
Beyond Limits' Cultural Transformation Tools ® create a
clear and measurable picture of your current culture and
compare it with the personal values of your leaders and
with their most desired culture. Our research shows that
the most successful, high performance organizations
demonstrate a strong alignment between personal and
current culture values, and current culture and desired
culture values. Putting this measurement system in place
is critical to both measuring the impact of your culture
over time as well as measuring the depth of your
cultural connection with your leaders and employees.
Decision Point: Next Best Steps
Next steps are different for each organization, but
typically the leadership team chooses one of three
directions:
-
Expand the cultural assessment and initiative to the
entire organization
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Focus on the leadership team and leadership
development as a priority
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Integrate the measurement tools to augment current
cultural initiatives
Whichever path is chosen, Leadership Beyond Limits is
proud to become a valuable ally to its client
organizations in reaching their maximum potential. Most
companies on the path of cultural evolution already have
significant leadership development and cultural
initiatives in place. Honoring the current culture while
integrating the latest advancements from Positive
Psychology, Appreciative Inquiry and Cultural
Transformation Tools ® is our unique offering.
Results That Speak Volumes
Appreciative Inquiry, Positive Psychology and Cultural
Transformation Tools are being used by many elite
companies with superb results.
Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, One of America's Fastest
Growing Companies and #1 Award-Winning Corporate Citizen
has leveraged the personal change that comes from AI
through organization-wide summits. The tremendous
impacts gained from these practices include: engaging
employees in the development of corporate principles,
mobilizing strategic plans at a system level, and
advancing the company to the next stages of corporate
social responsibility. When the company began using AI
as its organizational development approach, stock prices
hovered around $18 per share five years later, the stock
went to $61 per share.
At Boeing, a crippled defense program was over budget,
behind schedule, and facing cancellation. Relationships
between employees, unions, and customers were at an
all-time low. AI approaches were implemented for
strategic planning and transformation to a team-based
culture. Within five years the program became the 'cash
cow' of the largest aerospace company in the world. It
won the Malcolm Baldrige Quality Award.
Lowes Foods, a large retail grocery chain, used a series
of three-day AI summits involving more than 500
front-line employees and managers in the development of
customer service innovation projects. Results include
35% higher sales per man-hour ratio and powerful stories
of how employees have transferred this experience to
their families.
U.S. Cellular, a Fortune 500 telephone company won ASTD's award for best organizational change program in
the country for its application of AI to improve
union-management relations and for using AI methods to
re-write the contract. Estimates place the value of the
initiative in the millions of dollars, saving the
company thousands of jobs, and securing a stronger
competitive positioning in the field.
The Methodist Hospital in Houston, Texas committed to
revitalizing the mission of the organization with a
renewed focus on creating a spiritual caring environment
in1997, and they wanted to make it measurable. Achieving
this goal became a truly transforming exercise for all
facets of the hospital's operations. Using the
values-based Cultural Transformation Tools® (CTT), The
Methodist Hospital has experienced an unprecedented
cultural change that is bringing its vision of spiritual
caring to reality - with quantifiable benefits to
employee satisfaction, patient care, health and safety,
and the bottom line. One of the impacts of the values
initiative has been to reduce turnover from 24 percent
in 2002 to 15 percent in 2004, a 38% decline. Vacancy
rates went from 6.7 percent to 3.1 percent over the same
period. The organization was honored as one of the "Top
100" hospitals in the United States and is #10 on the
2008 Fortune Magazine list of 100 Best Companies to Work
For.
Toyota, one of the best-run organizations in the world,
has integrated the science of Positive Psychology into
its leadership development. Mike Morrison, VP and Dean
of University of Toyota has been actively translating
the science and findings of Positive Psychology and
applying or embedding them in their learning programs.
Typically organizations focus their development on the
knowledge and skills managers must obtain to be
effective leaders. But at Toyota the focus is on the
personal leadership journey - discovering one's
strengths, values and beliefs to develop one's authentic
leadership voice.
Low Risk, High Value Assessment
As we've said, the first step is easier than might be
expected. The web-based nature of the Cultural
Transformation Tools® survey allows an entire leadership
team to complete it on their own schedule and in less
than 20 minutes. Within a couple of weeks the Leadership
Beyond Limits consultants will provide detailed feedback
to the top leadership team. They will receive:
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A 20+ page report with detailed map the values of the
overall organization with breakdown available by staff
levels, business units, locations and/or regions or
determine demographic differences.
-
A 2 hour executive debriefing session, where the
leadership team can ask any questions regarding the
report findings and recommendations.
-
Specific conclusions and actionable recommendations
for strengthening the current culture and moving towards
the desired culture.
How Does a Leader Know if This is Right For
Their Organization?
Why not find out? Leadership Beyond Limits is giving
select new potential clients 2 free offers:
-
Call or email today to set up a telephone
consultation with Tom or Julie. There is no cost or
obligation for this consultation. Leadership Beyond
Limits works with clients who share our
passion for bringing meaning and value back to work.
-
Take a free LEADERSHIP SELF-ASSESSMENT. This tool is
guaranteed to give you new insight into your own
personal leadership style and will familiarize you with
the power of the Cultural Transformation Tools®
Contact Leadership Beyond Limits to explore maximizing
the full potential of your organization.
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