Great Place to Work® is a global authority on building, sustaining, and recognizing high-trust, high-performing workplace cultures. The organisation has created a Trust Model© built on 30 years of research and data collected through their Trust Index© Employee Survey, which is taken annually by millions of employees in hundreds of organisations worldwide. One such organisation is Daimler Financial Services.

In 2015, Mercedes Benz Financial Services South Africa (MBFSSA) scored in the bottom quartile of companies in its Daimler region (Africa, Asia, Pacific). When the survey was repeated in 2017, MBFSSA came 1st in the region! This is a huge cultural turnaround in a very short time. How did they do it?

I interviewed the current CEO of MBFSSA, Joerg Essig, and asked him how he did it. His story is especially encouraging in a country where changing organisational culture is a national imperative. We speak of the ANC, national government, State Owned Enterprises, and a host of organisations in the private sector that are feeling a groundswell of public pressure to change in favour of a more ethical and transparent culture.

An organisation’s culture does not need to be outright toxic in order for change to be desirable. When Essig arrived at MBFSSA, he came into a culture in which there was a lot of hierarchy. “At all levels people had belief in the hierarchy with the consequence that people didn’t speak up, raise their voice or deliver at 100%. We had so much unused capacity. People were delivering at maybe 70 or 80%. There were lots of issues regarding opportunities, race, fairness, credibility and respect.” This situation could probably have continued for years without much negative consequence. After all, it doesn’t sound too awful – and business results were fine. However, various audits revealed that there was insufficient quality and attention to detail.

Any new leader worth his salt will spend the early days, weeks and months of his tenure listening, gathering information and making observations before forming clear opinions and plans. Essig sought and listened to input from people all over the organisation. There were the “official voices” of his managers, and the “unofficial voices” of those in non-managerial positions. Something didn’t add up. There was lack congruence in the information.

Of course, this is completely normal – whenever there is a new leader, you can expect to find that people will craft the message they want that leader to hear according to their own agenda. You will find that there are people invested in preserving the status quo (especially at a senior level), and those who are invested in change – so who do you believe?

When Essig read the comments from the 2015 Great Place to Work® survey, he was able to put 2 and 2 together. It was clear that something fundamental needed to change and that he needed to unite his Exco team around the change. After all, MBFSSA had once upon a time been the benchmark in the wider international organisation.
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Not only did Essig want to see the business reclaim its former glory, but it was also essential to transform the company in order to take it into the digital future and deliver results. “We needed to leave a sustainable legacy. International assignees come for 3 – 5 years, but what they leave behind is not necessarily sustainable. How would we make this transition to a digital future, create something sustainable and not personality-based, in a declining market with this atmosphere? We really needed people to be willing to show up 100%. We were going to need them to dig deep, work awkward hours and be on their toes to move from a mediocre to a high performance culture,” says Essig.
This was not the first time Essig had needed to change an organisation’s culture. He speaks of the fact that his own leadership values are in line with the kind of workplace Daimler Financial Services (the global business) seeks to achieve. The common theme throughout has been the sense that the department or company was not performing at 100%, so the main driver in each case has been the need to deliver results while and through creating a positive culture.

I asked Essig what the key ingredients are in his approach to changing culture:

1.       Make it easy for your people to have lots of personal encounters with you. “Be as close to the people as possible and as time allows. Walk around. Speak to people. Show that you care, that you are interested in them as people and in their business.” This is classic MBWA (Management By Walking Around, as recommended by management guru Tom Peters). “I would ask people about how it was going, what are the challenges, etc. You can’t underestimate the impact that this has on the other leaders. They see what you are doing and start to do some of the same. It is interesting how so many people find this way of leading closer to people’s hearts than commanding. So people jumped on the bandwagon very quickly. Those who didn’t join in discovered they were in the minority and would either face consequences or would take themselves out of the organisation.”

2.       Get your leadership team aligned behind the change. This can be a real challenge to achieve and to sustain. “We had lots of discussions with members of the team who struggled to align; we had to be open and honest and trust them to deliver. We had to give them support and encouragement and a certain amount of choice in terms of aligning themselves with what we were trying to achieve.” In any culture change, those who are unable to get on board often take themselves out of the organisation voluntarily. If they don’t, they need to be helped to leave and move to an environment where they fit better.

3.       Make culture change a project. Essig ensured that a Great Place to Work® project team was put together of people from all parts of the organisation, charged with looking at how systems, processes and structures needed to change in order to align with the desired culture. Make sure that this team is empowered and has a budget. It needs to have real clout.

4.       Talk a lot about what is important. “We have shorter meetings now, but we have more of them. Our monthly Town Hall meeting is an opportunity to share information, celebrate successes, talk about target achievement, people on the move and people development, birthdays and anniversaries. Now I don’t do all the talking any more. I only have a minor part, and all sorts of other people from all levels stand in front of 150 people and lead and moderate the meeting. Project leaders talk about their projects. GPTW people talk about their project. At our 20th anniversary we had a Town Hall with senior international guests. It was entirely moderated and presented by non-managerial employees on a big stage to 200 or more people. I felt so proud of this.”

5.       Celebrate successes. Reward and recognise team members publicly when they do contribute. “You have to speak for your great people so that they get the recognition they deserve.”  Daimler Financial Services has regional and global awards. It has become a feature of the organisational culture that leaders and team members in MBFSSA make compelling submissions about their colleagues for these awards.

6.       Create a family feeling. Make a real effort to include every member of the organisation. Raise their expectations and give them the sense that every one of them can contribute. This was more important in South Africa that in other countries where Essig has worked: “This family feeling does not exist in this society. There is nothing else that brings all of us together.” It was important to create a family feeling in MBFSSA that transcends racial and social divisions. This belonging and family feeling causes loyalty and energy. Where this safety exists people will step out of their narrow job descriptions and get engaged. “Now we have a choir who we use in Town Hall and other celebrations. They run it themselves. You don’t have to do for them – just give support and a budget and they do for themselves. Give them the responsibility and they will fill in the space.”

7.       Be courageous and model the behaviour you are looking for. Essig was looking to create a culture in which transparency and openness are a feature. This meant that he had to demonstrate this openness. “We did some brave things in this context. We had no Q&A. We started a box where people could ask anonymous questions. We would open this publicly and answer questions openly. Some questions were personal and nasty, but we answered as well as we could in the moment. Colleagues found this brave and acknowledged this openness. The box is still there but is empty because people now ask their questions more openly and more appropriately. Now everyone knows how bonuses are calculated, and can see month to month how we are doing – and how they can contribute to target achievement.”

8.       Be consistent. What you start you must sustain. “There are some moments of truth where you have to really walk the talk – it is difficult to recover when you have been seen to not uphold your talk.”

9.       Learn. Understand that you will make some mistakes. “There are always some things that one might do differently with hindsight – people who might be given second or third chances; situations one should have handled quicker or more decisively.” These are learning opportunities for both the leader and the team.

“Changing culture is a lot about ego – you need to be credible, and you are credible if you are authentic. Some people will need to get their ego under control because it can get in their way in terms of connecting with people. You also need to have people around you who will give you honest feedback.” You can’t allow your ego to get in the way with this.

The point of this story is that it is possible to change an organisation’s culture in a relatively short time. What is crucial is that this change be led by a person who is absolutely clear on what a more positive culture looks like, brings a key team of aligned change leaders along for the journey, uses organisational conversations as an opportunity to regularly and consistently keep culture and culture change top of mind at every level in the organisation, and makes sure that desirable behaviour is recognised and rewarded and that people are skilled to act in alignment with the desired culture. This is true regardless of the size of the organisation.
 
Sources and recommended reading:

Great Place to Work®: https://www.greatplacetowork.com/
Harvard Business Review January – February 2018: this issue has several articles on Culture and Culture Change

Everything we do or don’t do leads us towards or away from our vision. Behaviour is not neutral – particularly not behaviour that represents how we do things around here. All endemic behaviours that are observable in organisations speak to the prevailing culture in that grouping.

In South Africa (and we are not special – this is happening around the world), we are confronted with daily headlines that repeatedly remind us that all is not as it should be. We read of the likes of Bell Pottinger and KPMG – stories that describe a company culture that supports and encourages behaviour that speaks to a lack of integrity; our own government appears to be rotten to the core, where corruption and capture are simply how things are done around here; companies that sanction dishonesty in pursuit of market dominance and billings. One can be forgiven for believing that the rot has gone too far and that the patient is doomed to die of gangrene.

Changing the culture of an organisation is difficult, but it is not impossible. If you have been handed what appears to be a poisoned chalice – think of Cyril Ramaphosa, who appears to be sincere in his wishes to clean up the ANC, and Nhlamu Dlomu who has been afforded her own special opportunity to fly KPMG, South Africa – you will need to think very carefully about what it will take to bring about the change that is required to restore trust in your brand and create a positive culture.

This is not the preserve of the seriously tainted organisation either. Successful organisations with strong brands can also succeed despite the prevalent negative leadership culture. Think of those companies you have dealt with or heard of that are leaders in their markets, but scratch beneath the surface and you may find a culture in terms of which “the way we do things around here” is experienced negatively by those inside the organisation. Perhaps executives get away with being bullies, going after colleagues who they perceive as opponents (or on the other team) even to the extent of sabotaging them and their careers; and companies where the only managers who get ahead are those who kick butt and take names – even if there are more positive leaders who achieve real results without ruining lives. What about those companies where the Financial Director is expected to “massage” the results in order to tell the board what they want to hear? You can be sure that this extends to all other parts of the organisation where people at every level have learned to be creative in their reporting in order to ensure that the higher ups only hear what they want to hear – for to hear the truth would incur intolerable wrath and end careers.

I believe that these examples of negative company culture can be found in most companies – even if only in pockets – and the price will be paid, whether it is in the form of some scandal, broken employees, low morale or declining results.
So what is to be done? In this series of articles, I will discuss what can be done to turn a negative culture around and create a way of doing things around here that is constructive, healthy and worthy of pride, while delivering results. Let’s be clear, culture is driven from the top – be it the leader of an entire business or the leader of a junior team. The leader creates and drives culture. The leader shows the rest what behaviour is desired and what will be rewarded. You cannot change culture from the middle – it has to start at the top.

To start with, it is important to take stock:

1. What is your personal value system? How do you believe people should be treated – colleagues as well as customers? What are your beliefs about how people should go about achieving results? What do you believe it takes to get people to perform – do you have to be tough on people or do you need to be tough on task while being supportive of people?
2. What have you noticed and why does it trouble you? What are the behaviours you have noticed? What language is used? What do you think it is causing or supporting that behaviour?
3. What would you prefer to see? What currently mitigates against this? How are people rewarded and punished, and how does this mitigate against more desirable behaviours? Is your own behaviour consistently congruent with the culture you would like to create? If it isn’t, you need to start with yourself! 
4. Who do you have around you? Whose behaviour exemplifies a more desirable culture? Whose behaviour emulates the undesirable culture that you see? Of these people, who do you think might be behaving in this way in order to survive, rather than because this behaviour squares with their own beliefs and values? Who might you enrol as collaborators with you? Who else? And who else? Who are the opinion-leaders around here? How might you enrol some of them? How will you enrol them? This enables you to create a team that will drive the change you seek to achieve.

Changing culture is not so different from any other change in an organisation. This model from John Kotter and Dan Cohen’s Book, The Heart of Change – Real Life Stories of How People Change their Organisations, illustrates a typical successful change process:​

We are ending the "Leaders are Dealers" series on one of the most critical topics: the effective use and allocation of resources within an organization.  If you would like to catch up on previous articles, please follow this link.

This is a critical leadership role – choosing where to allocate resources and where not to. It must be guided by your strategy – which contains all your key choices (read “Playing to Win” by A.G. Lafley):

• What are you trying to achieve in the business – your winning aspiration?
• Where do you play?
• How do you win?
• What are your core capabilities?
• What management systems are required?

These choices will determine where you will allocate resources – people, money, time and attention – and where not. Choices must be made and you need to have a reference point for making these choices.

Every day leaders must make decisions about how to fund or resource competing and dissimilar initiatives. For most managers, allocating resources is fairly easy. After all, they have a fairly narrow set of objectives to achieve, and they choose based on what will deliver the best financial results. However for a CEO or business owner it can be far more difficult as s/he juggles more complicated financial goals. Does one go for revenue or profitability? One tactic is to ask those requesting such resources what they would take out of their budgets in order to fund the initiative in the event that additional funding were not available. The response is telling – especially if they decide they wouldn’t take anything out because this new initiative is a lower priority than what is in the budget.

Allocating people can be even more difficult. Business success depends on being able to attract and retain the right talent – as well as utilising this talent in the best possible way. This allocation of people needs to work for both the organisation and the individual. This can be tricky. If an employee’s interests lie in one direction, while the organisation needs that person focused elsewhere it can create tension that could result in the employee becoming disaffected. This is a tricky juggling act, and needs to be handled sensitively. Could you free this person up to work in their area of interest on a project basis rather than permanently - if moving them permanently creates additional problems for the business?

To what do you refer when you need to make decisions about allocating funding to initiatives that have not been included in the budget? What tactics help you make an intelligent choice? Do you have a talented employee filling an essential role – but this employee is desperate to do something different? How could you manage this in such a way that you act in the best interests.

Watch this space for the new series, starting in January 2016, and please feel free to contact me any time with queries, suggestions or comments.

Change is an inevitable and often wearisome aspect of organisational life. If you’re not implementing SAP, you’re restructuring. When you’re not restructuring, you’re initiating a new project that your team must work on in addition to their current projects. Or there is a new CEO, and she is doing things differently, and you are moving offices for the third time in four years. Change is not going to go away – it is inevitable, along with death and taxes. While there may be many problems that accompany change, it has been my observation that there are two main issues.

The first is that the change is initiated as a reaction. The economy has slowed down, or a particular initiative has not born the desired fruit, so a change is initiated – perhaps a change in direction or a change in focus. This, in itself, is not the problem. The problem is that these changes take place every few months and seem to be knee-jerk responses that come from fear, rather than being strategic responses to changing market conditions. When this happens several times in a year, or over several years it creates a sense amongst employees that you are lurching from one drama to the next – a bit like a rudderless ship in a storm. It is unsettling and creates uncertainty and insecurity for employees, customers, suppliers and other stakeholders. It does not inspire confidence.

On the other hand, if the business has made and communicated some very clear choices about where it’s going, where it plays (and doesn’t play), how it seeks to win (and which games it will not play) and what it is superbly better at than anyone else, any changes in direction that might be made can be communicated in the context of these choices. These changes will inspire confidence in a way that knee-jerk changes in direction will not – because they can be arrived at and explained with reference to the current, clear strategy. When the North Star is always in sight, changes will be seen in the light of their ability to keep the organisation flying right.

The second problem is that the people side of change is given short shrift – until serious resistance has become apparent – and then there is a whole “change management” intervention. This should have been an integral part of the change in the first place. In any change, people will focus on what they expec to lose. The change may result in a loss of status; it may mean that, whereas you used to be an expert, you are now a novice. It could mean that you lose a certain amount of comfort and predictability, or daily interaction with work buddies. Whatever it is, there will be loss. However, there will also be gain.

The best way to enable people to focus on what they will gain is to involve them in the change process before it even happens. Involve them in discussions in which it becomes clear that not to change is untenable. Let them feel the discomfort of staying the same so intensely that they cannot wait for the change to happen. This is called “constructive discontent” – when the discontent with what is is so intense that we cannot wait for what is to come. This can be done in focus groups and brainstorming sessions – and will pave the way for a far more positive response to the change when it eventually happens.

Read more about change by John Kotter, one of the best known change management experts: http://www.kotterinternational.com/the-8-step-process-for-leading-change/ .
Think about a change that you are going to have to roll out. Is its alignment with the company strategy clear? If not, how can you create clarity? Who can you talk to? Is it possible that you have knee-jerked out of fear and that you should actually go back to your strategy in order to more clearly think through how to respond to whatever gave rise to this change. How will you get people on board? How will you create constructive discontent so that your people cannot wait to make the change?

How has your leadership style and approach changed as a result of this series of articles?  Please send me feedback and let me know what you would like more of.  For previous articles in this series, follow this link.

In the previous article in this series we looked at talent and managing the risk of losing talented team members.  Hopefully you have implemented a few changes in strategy to avoid losing your talent.  If you have missed any of the previous articles with their practical tips, questions and exercises, you can read them by following this link.
 
Essentially this article is about continuous improvement. Whether the leader is developing people, resources, systems or anything else, the focus is on being better tomorrow than we were yesterday. Some of this continuous improvement – for example, that which relates to systems and processes - may be about finding incremental improvements in the way we do things. However, there may come a time when small increments do not do the trick. In some instances, the most innovative thing you can do is eliminate the system – or a particular stage in the process. The mind-set that looks for small increments is unlikely to notice that a process is quite useless – unless some bright person has a blinding flash of inspiration and asks “Why are we doing this?” That can be a telling question.

When it comes to developing people, that is also, to some extent about “continuous improvement”. As people develop, their ability to make a contribution grows. Furthermore, they have more options in terms of how they apply their abilities. As a consequence, they become more engaged and do better work. Managers who do not spend time developing their people are not serious about being managers! Any manager who is not willing (or claims to be unable) to invest time in developing team members does not deserve to have that role. Becoming a manager is not a reward for good work. It confers on the manager total responsibility for the performance of the team – and that means that a good proportion of your working hours must be spent developing your people: clarifying expectations; coaching them; giving them projects that stretch them; reviewing their work and spending time supporting them in their work. It takes time – and that means you need to allocate this time. It is not an interruption to your work. It IS your work.

How do you foster development in your team? What disciplines or routines do you have in place that create opportunities to critically evaluate your systems and processes? Do you have a team member who asks “Why are we doing this?” How do you take advantage of this point of view in the interests of improving how you do things? Or do you dismiss these questions? Not a good idea. Rather give this person the opportunity to critically evaluate your systems and processes and make recommendations for improvements. How much of your own time do you spend deliberately developing your people? Do you treat this as an irritation and an interruption? Rather schedule time for this into your calendar, and give it your full attention at those times.

Please don't forget to contact me with your comments, queries or simply to let me know if there is anything you would like me to address in one of my articles.

This article deals with averting the risk of losing talent and organizational knowledge in an increasingly competitive, cut-throat business environment.  If you've missed previous articles in this highly popular series, follow this link.

There is a war on for talent, and your good people are going to be wooed by your competitors, so what could you do? A recent article in the Harvard Business Review by Rebecca Knight called “When the Competition Is Trying to Poach Your Top Employee” suggests that you focus on being the employer that no-one wants to leave. Pay attention to the indicators. Apparently people are most inclined to look around for opportunities around particular anniversaries (either work anniversaries or birthdays), so this would be good timing for career discussions and getting them involved in new projects. A great employee who has just had a project they were invested in put on hold or cancelled is likely to be ripe for the picking – so make sure you quickly address their negative feelings and show that you care. If you can, assign them to a new project that will make their pulse race.

Stay connected to your people to make sure you know if they no longer feel challenged or valued. Notice if they suddenly want to do courses and attend conferences – these could be indicators that they are looking around, so check it out. You can ask the question directly – but make sure that they would feel safe to disclose. You need to tell them that there will be no negative consequence if they are looking around – you just want to know, and you want to know if there is anything you can do to change their minds.

Be alert to opportunities to reduce some of their frustrations. Might flexi-time do the trick? Would working from home twice a week make a difference? Don’t underestimate the impact that these small concessions can make.
Do not allow yourself to be held over a barrel. You are at risk if a single talented individual has knowledge and experience that is crucial to the success of your business. Make sure that you always have alternatives. Ask and answer the bus question: “If this person was taken out by a bus tomorrow, what would I do?” If you struggle to answer the question, you are at risk and need to take action. Make sure these talented people have individual development plans that give them a clear sense that they will benefit by staying.

In the long-run, however, we need to make peace with the fact that there will always be a certain amount of movement – it is natural and sometimes even desirable. For more, read the original article: https://hbr.org/2015/09/when-the-competition-is-trying-to-poach-your-top-employee.

Have you noticed who might be at risk in your team? Any anniversaries? Any big disappointments experienced by key team members? How will you respond to these talented people? Do you have a plan that mitigates any risk attached to having too much intellectual property vested in one individual? Do all your talented people have an inspiring personal development plan? If not, what do you intend doing about it?
 
The next article in this series will look at the concept of development in a broader sense.  If you have any feedback on your progress that you would like to share, email me.  Email me if there is a specific aspect of leadership that you would like me to explore.

Due to the great response to the first 12 articles in the “Leaders are Dealers” series, we have decided to add a few more.  The series of leadership articles deals with those challenging times when inspiration deserts the leader, and the vision seems vague and irrelevant to what is currently going on in the business.  To read the previous articles, with their practical advice, hints and tips, click here.
 
At the very least, a good leader surrounds herself with good people - particularly people who have strengths where she is weak. A leadership team full of clones is a very risky thing – they see things in the same way, they think similarly, they have similar weaknesses and similar blind spots. We seek the kind of diversity that ensures that there are various points of view, thinking and learning styles, approaches to business and life, interests and concerns. In a patriarchal country with a racist past, diversity includes gender, race and ethnicity. When diversity is well managed, it can improve the quality of decision-making as well as enhancing the reputation of the team.

​Perception is everything. The team shows commitment to equal opportunity and inclusion is likely to win the trust of the broadest spectrum of stakeholders – and trust is currency! The leader who stands up for what is right, and makes a deliberate effort to bring into the team good people who represent the diversity of our population, is likely to be trusted, and sets the example to others. See Rosalinde Torres' TED Talk on leadership in the 21st century: http://www.ted.com/talks/roselinde_torres_what_it_takes_to_be_a_great_leader/transcript?language=en and Susan Conantuono's TED Talk on the gender gap: http://www.ted.com/talks/susan_colantuono_the_career_advice_you_probably_didn_t_get#t-822011.
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What have you done to broaden the diversity in your own team? Have you given up, claiming that “they are just not out there”? How are you developing people who can bring diversity to the team? How could you do it better? Where could you find likely candidates who could be trained? What industries have the kind of people you are looking for? How could you attract them into your team?
 
Good luck in moulding your team into a powerfully diverse concentration of talent.  As a team leader, you will be leaving a truly invaluable legacy.  Keep tuned for the next article on talent.

This is the final article in the series of twelve articles on developing, regaining and retaining inspirational leadership.  A clear focus on the vision, on what needs to be achieved and how best to go about it, gives the leader the ability to lead calmly, consistently and in a way that reassures the team regardless of internal or external factors.

A leader is a dealer in calm. You need to keep your head while all around you are losing theirs – to paraphrase Rudyard Kipling. Dealing in calm means taking measured, considered decisions. It means staying the course – if it is the right course - even though you are being pressured from all sides to change this or go there. Your people can see when decisions are being made out of panic and desperation – and it does not inspire confidence. Keep your eye on the vision. Stay true to the guiding policy of your strategy – who you are; what you do; what you don’t do – and refuse to be rushed into making rash decisions that create confusion and uncertainty. Keep taking that 20 mile march every single day in the direction of your destination.

Take a long hard look in the mirror. Are you the picture of calm? Or do you exude panic? Do you keep your team calm, or are they also headless chickens. You need to create a calm ocean. If you are not, take this into your coaching and work on it. Your team cannot win if you are in a panic – and you will never be able to hide it.

Thank you for joining me on this journey to tap into the inspirational leader within.  How has coaching, and having a trusted sounding board assisted in developing your ability to remain calm? Email me about your successes.

Advocacy is closely related to the concept of trust.  This article builds on the article on the concept of trust, and deals with being an advocate for your team.  To read previous articles in this series, including the article on trust, follow this link.

A leader is a dealer in advocacy. If you want your team to go into battle with you in tough times, when the market is soft and competition is fierce, they need to know you have their back. If your team expects that you might hang them out to dry, their efforts will be safe and tame. If they know you will protect them from criticism and attacks from your upline, they will push the envelope and make courageous efforts. The greatest destroyer of trust is that you sit back and allow your upline to tear your team to shreds in front of them. You need to cover their backs – either exclude the team from these meetings and take the heat yourself, or be bold and defend them. Definitely not for sissies!

Are you guilty of exposing your team to unhelpful criticisms and attacks? Who do you need to shield them from? What can you do to shield them better? How can you advocate better on their behalf? With whom do you need to have a fireside chat about the negative impact their criticism and attacks has on your team? How do you intend having this conversation? Who can help you to prepare?

Answering these questions and implementing the suggestions requires a high level of self-awareness, and awareness of your impact – as the leader – on the team and its performance.  It is always helpful to revisit the vision so that you can “play the ball and not the man”.  Do you think you can do it?  Let me know how it goes.