We were all sitting around the table when Karen said, ‘This isn’t working. We never should have done it that way in the first place. Tell the team to pivot. They really should have built a process that all of the leaders had a stake in in the first place.’ The rest of us just sat there dumb founded. My first thought, what will this do to the people building this after all that wasted time and effort? Just one more chunk of our culture chipped away.
When we originally brought Karen up to speed on the gaps in the hiring process (limited contact with new hires, disorganization, etc) we suggested a focus group of hiring managers to identify what worked and why. Karen then, only 4 short weeks prior, had argued that they were too busy and we needed to have a centralized process that we owned. After setting to work on her requested process we repeatedly brought feedback on lack of buy in from the teams because they weren’t held accountable. Now she was putting the blame on our teams who were just implementing her vision. Karen flip-flopped so often in her direction it was starting to feel like par for the course but was getting harder and harder to sell the pivot and maintain a healthy culture on the team.
Karen lacked a critical skill in leadership
While Karen often spoke with conviction, she was mercurial with her follow through, meaning, she never held her convictions firmly in the first place. She was portraying decisiveness and did everything she could to persuade or convince others to her way of thinking. Then, if something wasn’t going to plan, she would change her mind instantly.
This eroded the culture of those working with her for a few reasons. First, it caused rework which sparked resentment. Karen’s, seemed to move with the breeze. Second, there was a lack of trust over time. The team didn’t trust that what they were asked to do the first time would amount to anything. They now expected to have to start over eventually. This became them only giving limited effort because they were sure they’d need to rework things down the road.
Studies are finding now that culture and results have a strong positive correlation, meaning they rise and fall together. Karen’s lack of true conviction was making her team actually gravitate to the bottom on their efforts and results. What she saw as a minor inconvenience, when she noticed at all, was actually keeping her team from feeling pride in their work to spur them forward.
Photo by Yan Krukau on Pexels.com
Conviction impacts culture for more than just the team
When a high level leader lacks conviction, isn’t just those reporting to them that feel the effects. This blow to culture impacts all aspects of the organization. On the converse though, a high level of conviction will have an incredibly powerful, positive impact on the team, the organization, and the leader themselves. I cover how conviction, or lack of, impacts the leader specifically in the YouTube video. Here, let’s talk about how conviction impacts the culture of the team and the organization as a whole.
Impacts to team culture
- Trust: We already talked about how a lack of conviction can erode trust. Fortunately, the inverse is true too! When you hold your convictions firmly you show the team predictability that creates trust. Your team won’t always agree with your perspective or vision. They will feel comfort knowing what to expect from you when you consistently hold your convictions. For example, I built out a training program with an organization and asked the leaders for one thing we should keep top of mind as a through line. Two leaders said at the same time, operational excellence, and everyone laughed. The one thing could have been anything but this line was the CEO’s favorite and everyone knew it. Even when they wanted to go a different direction to support the bottom line or employee engagement, they remembered, operational excellence, and developed an accepting and positive culture around it as a result.
- Alignment: You saw how when the change in direction has no conviction behind it the team hesitates in their action. Thankfully the reverse is true too. When a leader is filled with conviction the team can create solutions that align with those convictions before they ever present the problem to the leader. One example of this was a client who has the utmost conviction in supporting his customers. He’s an manager in IT. His team knows that if there is coding to be done, and a customer with a problem, the customer is always prioritized. To the point that his team will escalate even small break/fix issues to him if it means a quicker resolution. They are so aligned with his vision and conviction that they know exactly how to prioritize their work and when to involve him.
Impacts to organizational culture
- Performance: There is a positive correlation in culture and results. That means they move together, as one goes up, so does the other. When high level leaders within an organization make decisions and act with conviction, the teams build trust and become aligned as we discussed. Confidence in the direction sets the team up for success in performance. When you’re confident that the decision won’t change with the breeze you’re able to just put your head down and get more work done. Then, as each level of the organization sees the results they become even more convicted in their position.
- Innovation: This one may sound just a little counter intuitive. Organizations with strong convictions are actually more innovative than those distracted by the next best thing. Having the ‘one thing’ (like the organization I worked with who was so focused on operational excellence) helps you focus on the most important aspect so you open more possibilities. Similar to when you have to entertain kids for a Saturday afternoon. When your options are endless you get stuck and do nothing. If you know you have to make the best of staying in the living room because it’s raining and the power’s out, your mind shifts. You suddenly have an amazing fort with flashlights and board games that you remember for years.
- Coca-Cola has capitalized on innovation based in conviction. Their marketing focuses on human connections and making people feel good. That’s it. Nothing else. Out of that they’ve created some of the most cutting edge, yet distinctly recognizable advertising the world has seen for more than 100 years. All because they held to that marketing conviction so tightly that they could innovate.
What does this mean for you and your culture?
Determine your strongly held convictions and those of the organization. Focus on where you’re aligned. Keep your decisions and your communication to those aligned points. Karen was so focused on the how that it seemed like the process was her conviction. This created rework, confusion, and arrogance on Karen’s part because she didn’t want to lose face. You can hold so tightly to the convictions that truly matter for you and for the company that you open up a whole host of opportunities for you, your team, and your organization.