CEOs understand that organizational culture impacts performance. And most of them recognize their own influence on culture. But most executive teams don’t do anything about it.
Why? Building and enhancing culture takes time. It’s much easier to focus on short-term, process-related efforts. Especially when executive tenures are short and business vision is myopic. And it takes strength and humility to critically assess your own company culture, as it’s a reflection of the leadership team.
Executives with long-term aspirations and those who recognize that people can be a competitive advantage have a unique opportunity to harness the power of organizational culture to drive performance. Aligning values and culture with strategic initiatives is an opportunity to enhance employee engagement, leadership credibility, and, ultimately, strategy realization.
Through insights gleaned from several executive interviews, rigorous research, and more than 35 years of firsthand experience, this white paper establishes:
How Culture Enables Strategy Realization.
Culture both emanates from and influences leaders’ decisions, communication, and plans. It determines employees’ motivations. And it serves as a constant force either inhibiting or enabling the strategy.
Current Trends Have Intensified Cultural Challenges.
Virtual work, talent shortages, and transactional approaches have complicated how leaders engage their most precious resources, people, to sustain performance and accomplish strategic initiatives.
Executives Must Take Responsibility for Culture.
There are many reasons executives don’t invest the time and resources into understanding and developing their cultures. Short-term fixes bring fast results. And assessing and measuring culture—and your own performance—can be challenging. But those who take a long view and make the decision to become the cultural architect of their organization can improve employee engagement and leadership credibility.
Our Recommended Path Forward.
A strategic framework can help executives to proactively assess, reshape, and align their culture with strategic goals, ensuring a sustainable competitive advantage and enhanced organizational performance.
Authors
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Robert Faneuff
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Mary Chapman
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Authors
-
-
-
Robert Faneuff
-
Mary Chapman