Culture is the Key to Leadership
The blog series ends with one final necessary part on leading an organization, an addition to our previous discussions on leading yourself and leading a team effectively. While a CEO must rely on their team members’ unique talents to lead and be the face of the organization to manage it effectively, there are some things only a CEO or Executive Director can lead. These are skills to remember while preparing for this ultimate role.
Creating a Positive Company Culture
Leading an organization brings new challenges and rewards. One of these challenges and rewards is setting, defining, and nurturing a positive company culture. This means developing an organization's values, behaviors, expectations, and priorities, which ensure a successful and pleasing workplace. On a larger scale, leading an organization is similar to leading a team. A leader must still be able to reframe problems, pose probing questions, recruit talented employees, communicate clearly, and discover facts. However, there are some things only the CEO/ED can do. Some examples include:
Shape, nurture, and enforce a company culture
Define and share the values of the organization.
Develop and communicate an inspiring vision for the future.
Lead an organization through crisis and times of change.
Ensure employees share in benefits derived from the organization's success.
Represent the organization in the outside world and be responsible for its reputation.
Create a succession plan that fosters long-term success.
There is no how-to manual on some of these tasks; the only way to master these skills is by performing them. As Napolean once said, "Every French soldier carries a marshal's baton in his knapsack." He meant that in his army, anyone should be prepared to lead when necessary. This is true for any organizational leader. The better you understand the challenge of leading the organization you work for, the better you can serve in any capacity. This benefits not only yourself but everyone.
A leader's biggest challenge is the need for more employee engagement. A leader must create a high-performance culture to combat this issue. There are different types of high-performance cultures depending on the organization. Depending on the organizational needs, it could include leading with financial incentives, leading in teamwork, through ideological motivations, or a mix of all these forms of motivation. The question for a leader is what will work best for their organization and the arena in which they operate.
A leader aims to build a culture that insists on dedication to excellence by appealing to the best in people. A positive high-performance culture consistently outperforms a negative one. The first step in accomplishing this is to erase any negativity and cynicism that, over time, invades an organization. This can mean fixing a dysfunctional culture that relies on finger-pointing instead of fact-finding, open dialogue, and logical problem-solving. A leader should show up to work and be present. Present means actively listening to employees they rely on. This skill and action can carry enormous symbolic weight.
A good tool that a leader can use to ensure they are living up to the organization's culture is to take each value of the organization and narrowly define the value and their specific role within that value. The leader must enforce the norms of the organization and the role model. Leaders must learn to manage personal tensions among members and ensure the focus remains on the organizational needs.
Friction and unresolved issues will happen. Leaders must model the positive intent skill and the team-building culture they want to create. Assuming positive intent helps people focus on the real problems over getting bogged down in personal battles.
Lastly, the job of a CEO is to create a succession plan and develop a successor, someone who can step in and lead the team when it comes time to move on. An organization must continue in its tracks when someone in a leadership or executive team leaves. Succession planning is essential and typically something most smaller organizations struggle with creating. Succession planning helps create a high-performance and engaged culture because people feel there is room for growth and mobility.
There is more than one effective way to lead people, and it takes various talents and styles to build and maintain a prosperous organization. An intelligent leader recognizes their truths and learns to respect, appreciate, and foster everyone's diverse contributions to a team.
A Leader's Vision of Today's Reality to an Inspiring Future
As mentioned above, a CEO/ED should refrain from delegating the task of defining the organization's vision. This demands an understanding of the reality of the organization's current situation and creating a hopeful future. The first step of this process is to fully understand the organization, which means talking to everyone, from employees to outside organizations, members, regulatory agencies, etc. Every stakeholder impacts the organization's future. A leader should understand the differing views and opinions of others. Making and maintaining one-on-one connections with people allows a CEO to understand the organization’s reality fully. It is time to define and create hope for the future. The vision should be one where the CEO, organization, and people can move together.
A leader isn’t required to be a visionary. They must be able to picture the next steps in the unfolding reality.
Communication is a Team Sport
A CEO/ED is the frontperson of an organization. As a leader, they will have communication tools to amplify the reach of their message. These communication tools are powerful but complicated. When an organization is going through troubled times or complex internal or external changes, a leader must engage the support of numerous team members. This does not mean that everybody needs to love the idea. However, it is crucial to gain a few supports that will spread a leader's message in their daily words. To make this happen, a leader's statement must be transparent in their mind and communicated accurately and compellingly. The messaging process is where your team of advisors helps promote the message and give you honest feedback.
In today's ever-changing technological world, leaders rely less on significant speeches and more on other communication channels to share their messages. A leader must remember that technology comes with challenges in how people receive their information. People differ in how they absorb information; some are visual, others are kinetic, and others are verbal. As a leader constructing an important message, such as the mission and vision of their company, they should learn to utilize all different forms of communication. The better everyone understands the organization, the better the people make smart organizational decisions and improve, innovate, and enhance their efforts to achieve the overall organizational goals.
Another communication skill essential for a leader is establishing a shared language and using terms, ideas, and concepts. An absence of shared language can lead to miscommunication as everyone speaks a different language. This concept can be complicated due to an organization's diversity, but creating a shared language can overcome differences in dialogue, discussion, repetition, and practice.
A leader is also the speaker for the organization, and there are some essential skills to remember as being a spokesperson. It is important to remember that if there is something you want to say and are itching to say it, it is probably best not to say it in the heat of a moment. Also, avoid letting others frame your message. Always try to own and control your own words to minimize others distorting or misusing your words. A leader should also be present and aware of the national debates. A leader should speak up and contribute to the broader community with integrity, decency, and effectiveness.
The Journey of Leadership
I want to remind everyone that challenges in leadership are continuous. A leader should continually grow and set achievements higher every year. If people can learn to recognize and understand the barriers and overcome them, they can achieve great things. Leadership skills and strategies don't require extraordinary gifts; your abilities make a person an effective leader. The development and nurturing of the skills constantly make a great leader. I want to highlight some skills discussed throughout the blog series that help make a leader.
If early in your career, remember to seize every opportunity and grow, even if there is no immediate advantage or opportunity.
Reframe the situation by giving the problem a fresh perspective, which can result in creative solutions.
Assume positive intent when others pose obstacles, don't jump to conclusions, and think negatively. This skill can turn enemies into allies.
Build a team of adequate support. Ensure this team has different skills and perspectives that complement your own.
This team of support and advisors can aid you through difficult times, communication, and triumphs.
Master the two-up and two-down communication to understand and respond to the objectives and needs of people at all levels of your organization.
Learn to define reality for your team members to give them hope for the future.
Connect your dreams of the future with the values of the people you work with so they can be motivated to help you make the dream a reality.
Discover your authentic voice and use it to communicate insights clearly and pervasively to those around you and the community.
My Story
I am a managing partner of K&J Strategic Solutions and work with numerous organizations, including nonprofits and government agencies. I have observed multiple skills and adapted them to my skill set. Before K&J, I managed departments and identified skills that work best for specific companies.
Throughout my consulting and this blog, I have focused on the CEO/ED of organizations, but the other significant leaders for the nonprofit sector are the board of directors. A panel of directors helps promote the organization and set the direction through strategic initiatives of the organization. They are the background leaders, while the CEO/ED are the front leaders managing the day-to-day operations. The board of directors must understand their leadership roles and how their influence, words, and actions impact the organization. They are just as important in the reputation and success of an organization. They should possess the leadership skills to understand the reality in the hopes of a better future for the organization and community they serve.
