Leadership Dialogues

Organizational Culture

Organizations

Performance

Lifecycle

Culture

Teams

High Performance Teaming

Sales Success Profiling

Individual Leaders

Assessing Leadership

Career Fit

Accelerating Potential

Preventing Derailment

Motivation and Communication

Two major responsibilities of leaders are setting the strategic vision and aligning the culture of their organization or group to achieve it. This is a particularly critical skill during times of rapid, business and market shifts. The key to this cultural synergy is the alignment among the actual culture, preferred culture and individual attributes of employees.

Our approach to culture is behavioral rather than based on a specific theoretical framework. We can map which aspects of the culture, job, and environment are likely to enhance or inhibit potential performance. Three cultural questionnaires allow us to assess:

	Actual Culture—how employees experience the attributes of the current culture
	Preferred Culture—how they would like the culture of the company to be
	Satisfaction/Commitment with the existing culture

An organization’s preferred culture targets might be high innovation and high competitiveness. If the workplace reflects an actual culture where these attributes are absent, the gaps present substantial obstacles to business success. Understanding these gaps can inform change management efforts with current employees and well as provide a template for recruitment of those with natural attributes that will fit the preferred culture and business strategy. In addition, high performers often leave companies where the culture does not match their expectations and needs.

To illustrate here are the actual and preferred culture scores which show the biggest gaps experienced by a high potential employee. These scores suggest the possibility of turnover, if these important performance enhancers and satisfiers are not present.

I work (want to work) in an environment…	ActualCulture Rating	PreferredCulture Rating	Difference
Where there is a clear vision for the future	1.00	9.00	8.00
Where decisions are made quickly	2.00	9.00	7.00
Where negotiation is expected	2.00	8.00	6.00
Where people are listened to	3.00	9.00	6.00
Where people are positive about change	2.00	8.00	6.00
Where people ask for feedback	2.00	8.00	6.00
Where people cope with pressure	2.00	8.00	6.00
Where people know why others do things	2.00	8.00	6.00
Where there are effective plans	2.00	8.00	6.00
Where there is a clear strategy	2.00	8.00	6.00
Where things are continuously improved	2.00	8.00	6.00
Where things are done properly	2.00	8.00	6.00
That is competitive	3.00	8.00	5.00
That is lively	2.00	7.00	5.00
Ratings used a 9-point scale ranging from 1 = Very Strongly Disagree to 9 = Very Strongly Agree.