Workplace Culture and Leadership - Not doing Business with Mates

The other day one of my team members informed me that we had lost out on winning a major account. She believed that one of the major reasons for our replacement was due to the winning provider having a friendship with one of the Directors of this company. My team had been through a rigorous process to win the account, tailoring solutions to meet the client’s specific needs. Upon deciding we didn’t want to play games anymore, we withdrew and the account was lost. My team and I agreed that the relationship did not present a values alignment and after some short lived disappointment I spent some time contemplating a question I haven’t for a long time. ‘Are there still organisations winning business through boys clubs and ‘old school and society connections’? I am so naive! Of course there are.

iHR Asia/Australia is now 11 years old. We are experts in building leaders, workplace relations and specialist outsourced HR services across Australasia. I look at the iHR client list; great organisations that are leaders in technology, the petrochemical industry, government bodies, media and advertising, retail and wholesale, emergency services, health services, education, telecommunications, not–for-profit, manufacturing and personal services. Most interestingly, each of these organisations seem to have chosen iHR on its merits. No previous relationships, no major networking efforts and no boozy lunches. However, all of them have had one thing in common: a resounding commitment to workplace culture.

Is this a whinge? No, it’s a fact. I think I am proud of it! But the truth is I could never have started iHR on the basis of connections because I didn’t know that many people who were connected or wanted a friendship based on sharing connections. I have a close network of friends from very diverse backgrounds. Musicians, story tellers, doctors, unemployed nurses, directors, academics, gardeners, lawyers, judges, sales people, masseuses, CEO’s and teachers. If I had ever asked them if they could please suggest a good business contact they would have probably looked at me in disgust and never asked me for dinner again. Of course so many people legitimately start businesses on the back of long corporate lives, but I never really kept in touch with those from my past professional endeavours.

Actually, I think I am a lousy networker. Good friend but a lousy networker.

One thing I can say is that the iHR culture is one that ‘values good clients’. It has created a culture which still exists today; a culture where good professional relationships are valued. Nothing is taken for granted. We cherish every good relationship but are also welcome to let go of poisonous relationships because there are no personal feelings at risk. My people are not second guessing whether or not the Managing Director will be furious because they have conveyed a difficult point (in a nice way of course) to his best friend.

iHR also drives a culture that values honest achievement. A culture where a piece of work is won on the basis of a great training program or demonstration, a strong recommendation, a fine speech or some great advice over the telephone. This means that when we market we do it on the basis of performance which in our game is everything.

Some weeks ago iHR Asia won an account to work with a major US petro chemical firm based in Bangkok. I didn’t have much time to meet with them because I was required back in Sydney for a meeting. I offered to have a working lunch with them. Professionally and in the kindest of ways it was refused. Why? The organisations’ policy is not to engage external companies in ‘indulgent relationships’ that have the potential to compromise quality and professionalism. It was a breath of fresh air. A moment to cherish! A moment to say maybe those years of working hard to prove that we are so very competent will hold us in good stead for the future. What ever the case, I am sure we have lost plenty of work along the way given the MD’s lousy networking record.

Please feel comfortable sharing your comments regarding the importance of business networking as a means of winning the golden prize in 2009. We love reading your responses.

Can a Leader be Friends with their Team?

The other day a supervisor participant in one of my leadership programs asked me ‘Can my team members also be my friends?’

My answer was ‘Do you have the capacity to be a convincing leader and a friend?’

Being a leader is ultimately about ones capacity to inspire another person or group of people to move from one point to another. To do this we have be convincing as a leader. We have to fulfill or surpass the leadership expectations of that person or group we intend to lead. Increasingly, those who work in modern professional workplaces expect their leaders to demonstrate a sense logic, fairness, objectivity, consistency and achievement. Why? Because education, especially the clear thinking element, has encouraged people to demand these qualities from leaders. Once upon a time, a workplace leader’s ‘acceptance’ was decided by achievement, decisiveness, forcefulness and/or social/hierarchical positioning.

The challenge of mixing friendship with leadership in the workplace thus becomes magnified by these expectations of logic, fairness, objectivity and consistency. For example Sarah misses out on her promotion to work peer Kevin who is close friends with Patrick the Supervisor. Patrick often openly speaks about his social escapades with Kevin to the team. Of course, Patrick is now faced with justifying the ‘promotion’ decision within the context of his friendship with Kevin. Immediately on the back foot, he is subjected to intense scrutiny by the wider team, perhaps faces unjustified criticism of unfairness and lack of objectivity. Suddenly team expectations are perceived (perhaps unfairly) to have been denied. Expectations not met or surpassed equals potentially de-motivated and disengaged team members. Now Patrick faces a problem because his capacity to inspire the vast majority of team members to follow him is reduced.

On the other hand you may argue that workplace leaders who are perceived to be ‘friends’ can, for a short time, be ‘convincing’ in a way that perhaps the less attached leader cannot. The ‘you’re my friend so I will follow you out of loyalty’ or perhaps ‘I know you so I trust you’ kind of thinking, overtime, watch that blind faith erode as team members’ who are not on the winning end of the managers decisions start to question the decision making’- overtly or covertly.

The convincing leader can be ‘friends’ with some workers and not others. Of course people in workplaces build bonds over time from which friendships emerge. Sometimes a leader was friends with a person before they became a leader or before they joined the organisation (stay tune for my forthcoming blog on 'Taking the Step’ especially for peers who become leaders). The convincing leader, however draws the lines so everyone in the workplace can see them. The lines become evident in their everyday behaviours. They don’t sit in their office or workspace with that friend day after day giggling, pontificating or in deep personal discussions. They don’t discuss those ‘you have to be my friend to know what I mean’ discussions throughout the work day. They don’t sit at the end of table for the whole of Harry’s farewell dinner with the ‘great friend’ laughing and chatting while members of the rest of the table are left to second guess the conversation.

Convincing leaders have thought about the consequences of their friendship. They probably have discussed the challenges of being a leader and a friend with the friend. When at work they are willing to be friendly with and show interest in all team members without favour. They are able to be transparent about their decision making. Convincing leaders in modern workplaces ‘move around the team’ like the great dinner host who ‘works the room’. They communicate with ALL team members, extrovert and introverts’ in a way they ALL feel like they matter.

There are few leaders that can or should be friends with everyone in their team. Simply because most people are discretionary beings. They make values based decisions about friendships. However we do have the opportunity of being a plausible leader to most by acting in line with expectations of what an effective leader is. Those expectations in the modern professional workplace tend to be based upon finding a balance between showing you care and are interested, and introducing and demonstrating what we call ‘professional’ boundaries.

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Defining Workplace Culture – The First Step

Workplace Culture is the way we do things around here - and it creates a feeling that impacts on business performance, compliance, reputation and staff engagement.

I remember around the turn of the century I was doing a briefing (as a consultant) for a small team of executives from a professional firm. We were debating what actually is workplace bullying. Most of the senior team were getting passionately involved in the discussion. A female executive who was not so passionately involved and obviously quite annoyed about the time it was taking to discuss such a ‘ineffectual’ matter stood up and blurted ‘Actually all I want to know is how far I can go before we call it bullying’. Not an unreasonable question but perhaps it was the lack of thought and sarcastic tone in the delivery that drove me to react (and quite unprofessionally I may add) ‘Well how far do you want to go?’ I replied. Not surprisingly she responded: ‘Well that’s what we are paying you to tell us Stephen Bell-HR Expert!’ Suddenly I was caught in the battle. There were some smirks, giggles and ‘oh yeahs’ from one or two of the ten executives that were sitting around the table. All of a sudden I was being hit head on by ‘the way we do things around here.’

This was, in fact, an opportunity for the Regional Director to stand up and point to the organisational values. This was an opportunity for the HR executive to make a speech about making this an engaging workplace for people and the lines should be drawn by the value of our values. And then I, Stephen Bell (HR Expert!) could recite the definitions outlined in local OH&S guidelines. None of this happened. I did lamely recite the values probably with a quarter the conviction the Regional Director could have and encouraged them to turn to page 20 in their manuals where they could find the local definition of workplace bullying.

The Regional Director and HR Director remained relatively silent; the discussion lasted another 20 minutes before we all cordially shook hands and splintered off in our different directions to lead our very different lives. I left with a certain feeling about this organisation -‘Arrogant, undefined about behaviour and culture, aggressive and rudderless, lacking leadership.’ Perhaps unfair judgements, but real and powerful feelings for me. And if ‘that moment’ was indicative of the leadership behaviours, ‘arrogant, undefined about behaviour and culture, aggressive and lacking leadership’ become justifiable descriptions of the workplace culture. And in ‘that moment’ it was actually what was not said by the Regional Director and HR Director that was more powerful than what was actually spoken by the lady executive.

I also left that session with a resolve never to walk into a training session about workplace bullying and culture without ‘my actors’. Yes those actor friends of mine ensure people can see what we mean by ‘over the line’ rather than just discussing it. It was also then that I decided that iHR Australia and iHR Asia would start focusing on assisting organisations to properly define their workplace cultures so that leaders could properly articulate what was meant by a desirable, compliant and productive workplace culture that attracts the kind of people we want. More importantly my actors would give them the opportunity to see how they act every day has a direct impact on culture and subsequently on performance, compliance, reputation and staff engagement.

Defining workplace culture or the way we do things around here is an interesting process. It is about creating statements that align to organisational values but are more active. The workplace culture statement is an indicator of the pattern of behaviours we want to see. For example a workplace culture statement arising from the often articulated workplace value ‘Respect’ may be ‘We listen to and analyse the professional views of others’, ‘We listen to ideas and views from those around us or ‘We do not personally attack individuals when giving them professional feedback’. When developing ‘culture statements’ you may not cover every behaviour for every probable situation, but you leave leaders and employees within the organisation in no doubt what the ‘indicative behaviours’ of the organisations workplace culture are.

In general, organisations that are taking the time to clearly articulate what the workplace culture should look like are actually becoming strategic about workplace culture. That means recognising that workplace culture can be a driving factor in achieving organisational goals. They realise that culture can drive a range of important elements of the organisation. In order to explain the ‘business’ impacts of a good, bad or indifferent workplace culture I have identified three key workplace culture areas of impact. Simply I am saying that workplace culture impacts on:

• Organisation, team and individual performance;
• Brand perception for current and future employees, customers, stakeholders and business partners;
• Compliance, in particular the organisations ability to comply with policies and regulations.

In my forthcoming articles I will explain exactly why I believe workplace culture should be part of the strategic agenda for organisations aiming for sustainable success.

In 2009 as we start to emerge from the economic recession brought upon predominantly by an industry, and subsequently, workplace cultures where the unacceptable often became acceptable it is interesting to ask ourselves where business cultures will find themselves in 2010.

Looking forward the danger is that leaders will feel compelled to immerse their organisations in practices that reduce risk and drive a conservative rigour that, will in turn, stifle workplace cultures once labelled innovative, responsive and entrepreneurial.