In any culture transformation leadership is absolutely vital. It is the
difference between success and failure. Within any organization, people follow their leaders.
The question is often asked: “Are we talking about the most senior leadership of
the company that is, the executive team, or middle-management, or the front-line
Supervisors?”
The answer is: “All levels.”
If the organizational focus is on a company-wide culture transformation, then the CEO and the executive team have to be fully involved. On the other hand, if the organizational focus is simply on a culture change within a division, then only the divisional head needs to be seen as its leader. Similarly, if the culture transformation is occurring at a local level, such as a distribution center, then the head of the distribution center needs to be fully involved. The principle is that the most senior individual in the area undergoing a transformation needs to spearhead the initiative.
This does not mean that the most senior person needs to be personally involved in every aspect of the transformation, or visible in every situation where the transformation is being addressed. Very often the transformation can be implemented by a team, but those affected must recognize that the most senior person is fully aware of the transformation being implemented, is fully supportive of it, and personally as fully engaged in the transformation as all other individuals are expected to be.
It is important to recognize that the mechanics, or tactics, of any transformation, will require a considerable amount of administrative effort and focus. Communication will have to be provided, training will have to occur, classes will have to be scheduled, memos written and videos created. Clearly, each of these can be done by a team of individuals who are focused on the transformation, but it is absolutely vital to realize that the transformation team are not the ones responsible for the outcome. They are responsible for the tactics, but not the outcome. The leaders are responsible for the outcome.
The most senior person should be relying on the implementation team for direction, for insight, and often for clarity as to where best to spend his or her time. The senior person is looking for the same level of support and help on the transformation that they might also be looking for from a head of Legal-on-legal matters, or from a head of Finance on financial issues.
As with any responsibility, the person responsible must be an example of the behaviors that are required. In a transformation typically these are new and different and may not come any more easily to those in senior positions. The leader must also be there to help support and coach where necessary. The leader must have as a nonnegotiable imperative that the new behaviors are something that every individual must adopt, and embrace. Without stepping up to this degree, and being seen to step up and lead the transformation, it will not be effective, or be only partially effective. It is critical for these leaders to understand the challenge and importance of first changing their own behavior if the transformation is actually going to occur. They need to model what they want to see in others.
This is also a challenge because transformation is not something that happens quickly, or easily. Rather it will take time, focus, and energy. People need to learn new ways of behaving, practice with them, overcome the natural problems they will encounter in attempting to adopt new behaviors and work with them until they become habitual.
Without the leader’s focus, and sustained attention on making sure that these behaviors actually remain top of mind, and helping people master them, it will be easy for individuals to slip back into their earlier ways of behaving, to stay rooted in the past, in ways which have previously been rewarded, and are typically more comfortable.
Within a culture transformation the senior people are the ones that should be providing the motivation for success. They should be reinforcing the rationale for the transformation. They should be front and center in encouraging people to persevere when it’s difficult to adopt new behaviors. In addition, they must demonstrate clearly that they are committed to the long-term sustained effort that any transformation will take.
This responsibility falls to every leader, not just the senior ones. It definitely begins with senior leadership, because they set the tone and the pace, but it must then cascade down to every level of leadership. This, in itself, is a challenge.
Below the senior-level the understanding of the need for the transformation is often not as clear. The senior team often best understands it and is willing to support it, invest in it, and do what is necessary to make it happen; but they have not been adequately effective at communicating the reason for the transformation.
Consequently, as the responsibility for living these new behaviors cascades throughout the organization other leaders may not accept it is as readily and completely as the senior leaders do.
It is critical that every level of leadership is able to demonstrate that they fully embrace and support the transformation. A challenge to this happening is that typically, as the leadership responsibilities move down through the company, leaders are increasingly less skilled, both in terms of communication and staff development. They’re not as effective at communicating the rationale for any change of this magnitude, nor are they as able to provide the necessary support and coaching to help their own people adopt these new behaviors. It is often the case that the transformation will fail not because the senior people are not fully committed to it, but rather that they have underestimated what is required to engage the leaders below their level all the way down to the frontline supervisor in the leadership of this initiative. It is therefore vital to focus a significant portion of the training on the leadership below the senior-level; to give them the skills, and often the conviction, necessary for them to provide the support the organization will need.
To underestimate the level of intensity of training required to make this happen would be a mistake. It is obviously important to train the employees of the organization on the new behaviors required by the transformation, but it is far more important to train the leaders of those employees around their role, and to give them both the skill and the confidence necessary so they can be seen to lead the transformation, and in fact to lead it.
Within an organization, the culture transformation is the responsibility of leadership.
All leaders carry the responsibility for their functions to ensure that the expectations of the organization are met as required. A culture transformation is no different. It’s the responsibility of leaders to ensure that this transformation, and the expected outcomes, are delivered as expected, and as required.
Simply because it is something that is perhaps new, or requiring skills that are not in their natural complement of skill sets, does not mean that they are not responsible for the successful implementation of the transformation. They are.
It then becomes the responsibility of the team charged with implementing this transformation to ensure that they provide the necessary training and support that each of these leaders will require. They must ensure that the transformation begins at the leadership level, and that leaders are equipped to be successful in this area. The current culture is as a result of the current leadership. If the culture is to change, the leaders must change, and the implementation team must show the leaders how this is to happen. They must provide senior management with the regular feedback they need to support it happening, and be able to demonstrate the patience required for it to happen. Learning these new behaviors will take time, and that must be clearly understood, both by those who wish to see it happen, and by those who are learning to make it happen.