127. 5 Ways You Are Killing Your Culture

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Hello and welcome to this episode of Ways to Change Your Workplace with MindSoft Preena Shah, where we uncover today how you can find ways to optimize your organizational culture.

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Hello, hello, and welcome back to another episode of the Ways to Change Your Workplace podcast with me, your host Priena Shah. And in this podcast, we dive deep into the heart of workplace culture and explore innovative ways to optimize it. Today we are tackling a topic that might make you a bit uncomfortable, but it's essential if you want to create a thriving and dynamic work environment. We are talking about the five ways you might be killing your workplace culture. Yep, you heard that right. Killing it. So grab a cup of tea, go for a walk, go for a run, whatever you do as you listen to podcasts, settle in and let's get in to the nitty-gritty. Way number one that you may be killing your culture is micromanagement. So micromanagement might seem like you're ensuring things are done correctly, but it's one of the fastest ways to stifle your team's spirit. Picture this you're a gardener and your team is your garden. Instead of letting your plants grow and flourish, you keep uprooting them to check their roots. What happens to that? They wither. So from a sociology perspective, there's a sociologist called Max Weber, and his theory of bureaucracy highlights how excessive control can lead to inefficiencies and demoralization. So similarly, in the workplace, micromanagement erodes trust and autonomy, two pillars of a healthy culture. If you strip it away, motivation plummets. So this is where Patrick Lencioni's concept of trust comes in in his book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. Lencioni states that trust is the foundation of a cohesive team. Without it, micromanagement thrives. So instead, aim to empower your team, set clear expectations, provide the tools that they need, and step back. Trust is the sunlight that your workplace garden needs. So an idea here is to create an empowerment day where each team member gets to lead a project of their choice. Imagine that. This day is dedicated to letting employees take charge, make decisions, and showcase their leadership skills. It's a really good way to build trust and show your commitment to their autonomy. Now, number two, way number two of the way you might be killing your culture, a lack of transparency. And I see this across organizations so much so. So imagine being on a ship with no idea where it's heading. The crew might start speculating, spreading rumors, and eventually panic ensues. In your organization, if you're not transparent about decisions, changes or even mistakes, you are breeding a culture of uncertainty and mistrust. Now you may have come across David Rock's Scarf model, which stands for status, certainty, autonomy, relatedness and fairness. It highlights how transparency directly impacts certainty and fairness, which are both crucial for a healthy workplace. Transparency aligns with the social psychology principle of fairness seen in the fair process effect, studied by many organizational psychologists. When leaders are open about what is happening and why, it builds a sense of fairness and inclusivity. Transparency doesn't mean sharing every detail, but being honest about what affects your team. It's the compass that helps everyone navigate the rough seas together. So imagine this: a transparency hour. Each week where you have an open door policy, perhaps, or each week where leadership shares updates on ongoing projects, company goals, and even challenges. Yep, challenges. Talk about the stuff that you're stuck on. During this hour, employees can ask questions and get real-time answers. It's a small commitment that can have a huge impact on building trust and openness. Way number three that you might be killing your organizational culture, and this is something that I repeatedly talk about, is ignoring employee feedback. So again, let's use an analogy. Imagine you're going to a restaurant, you're giving feedback about a dish to the chef, and the chef just nods but never changes a thing. How weird and frustrating is that? So ignoring feedback is a sure way to make your employees feel undervalued and demotivated. So the concept of a participative culture where people feel that they have a stake and a voice in an organization is essential. A real-world framework here is Kurt Lewin's change management model. Google it if you want to. And it emphasizes the importance of involving employees in the change process. The Hawthorne studies from the 1920s highlighted the importance of workers feeling that their import was valued, and social psychologists have found that feedback loops are essential for continuous improvement and employee satisfaction. So make feedback a regular part of your culture and act on it. Show your team that their voices matter. So I've helped many an organization to deal with this feedback void or you know the listening void as well. And I've got lots of different ideas, but one idea I'm trying recently is a feedback action board where employee suggestions and feedback are posted along with updates on what actions are being taken. This board can be digital or physical, but the key is to visually show that feedback is not only heard but also acted upon. We want to create a dialogue. We want that two-way effect. Way number four that you may be killing your organizational culture. You might be promoting the wrong people. So promotions, yes, should be based on merit and alignment with your company values, not just their tenure or just for convenience's sake. When employees see that promotions are given to those who don't embody the right values or who are not the right people, it demoralizes everybody. Sociologically, this creates a culture of cynicism and disengagement. There's a principle uh in business terms called the Prince Peter Principle, which I love, and a concept management theory is still developed by Lawrence J. Peter, and it states that people in a hierarchy, check this out, tend to rise to their level of incompetence. So it disrupts social proof, the idea that we look to others in our environment to gauge appropriate behavior. Imagine if you are uh promoting people to their level of uh incompetence. If the wrong people are promoted, it sends a wrong message about what's valued in your organization. And this is where Jim Collins' concept from good to great comes into play. Getting the right people on the bus and in the right seats is crucial. So promote those who not only perform well but also those who champion your culture and your values. So you might have culture champions within the organization, you might even have a culture champion program within your organization. So perhaps tap into that and see where employees nominate peers who exemplify the company's values. These champions can then be considered for potential roles in the future. You could even develop them, ensuring that promotions are based on a good cultural fit as well as performance. And finally, number five way that you might be killing your culture. And it could be that you have an over-emphasis on short-term results. I've seen this far too often. Yes, businesses need results, that's a given. But an obsession with short-term gains often sacrifices the long-term culture. So imagine running a marathon but sprinting at every opportunity. You'll burn out before you reach the finish line. So here I'm talking about sustainability and long-term thinking. An illustrative case study for this is a collapse of Enron. Who, if you haven't heard of it, please go and research it. And this is where short-term profit chasing led to unethical practices and ultimately Enron's downfall. So social psychologists studied that people need a sense of purpose and connection to the long-term vision. So work on meaning and motivation. Balancing short-term results with long-term goals is critical. So theories on competitive advantage highlight the importance of sustainable growth over short-term gains. So balance your focus on results with nurturing your team's well-being and professional growth. So, an idea for this is to create a future vision workshop. Or I often run sessions where we develop the desired culture. And this is where teams collaborate on developing a vision for the company's longer-term goals or longer-term culture aspirations. And this workshop can help align everyone on future direction and ensure that short-term actions are in sync with your long-term objectives. So, there you have it. Five ways you might unintentionally be killing your workplace culture. Micromanagement, lack of transparency, ignoring feedback, promoting the wrong people, and overemphasizing short-term results. It's never too late to course correct. Start by recognizing these pitfalls and making intentional changes. If you ever need help, as always, reach out to me. Thank you so much for tuning in to this episode of the Ways to Change Your Workplace podcast. If you found this episode useful, pass it on, share it with a colleague, or please do leave a review. And let's continue the conversation. Reach out to me on social media or via my email address. My details are in the show notes. I would love to hear your thoughts and experiences. And I'll see you in the next episode. How good was that episode? If you liked it, be sure to share it with a couple of other people. Also in the show notes are details about my newsletter. Keep in touch. I send a newsletter out around once a month. It won't be spammy, it will be very practical. And if we're not connected on LinkedIn yet, we must be connected with me on LinkedIn. And on Instagram, I am prina.sharp. I will see you somewhere else or in the next episode. Until then, goodbye.