culture

Do you know enough to care and care enough to know?

Corporate culture drives results. Improve the culture and you WILL improve the results. It’s why so many companies are investing in and evaluating their corporate culture. Beginning a culture change or shift is a senior leadership thing, not an HR thing. HR can assist and guide; however, the leadership team must be on the same page to ensure that the desired results from a shift or a change are achieved. When it comes to instilling Servant Leadership in your culture, you’ll want to focus on individuals along with results. Building a culture of accountability requires having measures in place to ensure that responsibilities are being met by each individual.

Building trust with your team is crucial for people to feel confident in making decisions and taking ownership of their individual responsibilities. This is a core element of Servant Leadership, and it begins with a simple understanding. First understand yourself, how you come across to others, and how people may perceive you. Then focus on understanding another person and then understanding a group. When you understand the beliefs and motivations of a team, real understanding can be created which leads to trust.

If the idea of a Servant Culture resonates with you, I invite you to become part of a movement we are starting that is growing across the state. Join Servant Leaders of Wisconsin, Fox River Valley Group, for our free quarterly meetings. On September 21st, Robert Chapman, CEO and chairman of Barry-Wehmiller, will share his people-centric philosophy that he and his team have replicated over and over in the dozens of companies they own across the world. Come to be inspired and meet like-minded people, and we’ll help you get started on your Servant Leadership journey.

E-mail me at joek@prophitmarketing.com to reserve your spot. Space is limited so please let me know how many will be attending. Meredith will send you more information on the event if you’re interested.

Change your culture, change your results!

Joe Kiedinger

ACTION PLAN: Join us September 21st from 3-5 p.m. at The Marq. R.S.V.P. is appreciated.

Traditions are key to belonging!

We have a new intern working at About Me International. His name is Anh (On) Tran (Tron). Anh is from Vietnam and I have known him for two years while working with St. Norbert College, of which he is a recent graduate. Anh spent the July 4th holiday with my family up at our cottage, and it was really healthy for Danica and I and the kids to hear about his world back in Vietnam. I asked him if he and his family have any annual traditions. Like most of you, they do. When he discussed their traditions, he was fully engaged and excited. I get the same way when I talk about the traditions that my family has followed over the years.

In reflecting on this idea of “traditions,” I was reminded of how important traditions are for a family in bringing everyone together and the same goes for a company. Do you have regular traditions where you work? At our company, one of the things that we do is a holiday party that is full of traditions. For example, our guests only have about 60 minutes over the entire evening to chit chat and eat, and then it’s on to the party games! I know, it sounds exhausting but it’s tradition! Our other traditions include quarterly Servant Leadership half-day sessions and when a new client signs up we send around a symbolic “GONG.” It’s a gong like you would see in The Gong Show, except it’s a good thing!

What traditions do you have or what traditions can you start? Everyone wants to feel a part of a family or a group. Traditions help to bring commonality to everyone and are important for a rich culture to endure.

Joe Kiedinger

ACTION PLAN: Identify current traditions and start creating new ones!