Video transcript:
Our new podcast, Mastering Workplace Culture, is available on all your favorite platforms. Each week, we bring you unfiltered conversations with leaders who’ve transformed their organizations from the inside out. No jargon. No buzzwords. No BS.
Here are two powerful clips from our discussions with Tim Steinbeck, CEO of GRE HERC Services in Minneapolis, Minn., and David Mollitor Jr., president and CEO of Consolidated Electrical Contractors in Lansing, Mich.
In Tim’s clip, he explains how challenging it was for team leaders to begin to hold everyone accountable for the new company values and behaviors. Leaders weren’t used to coaching values — they were used to mandating results. Misaligned team members continued to treat others disrespectfully.
Tim describes how senior leaders rallied around the team leader and helped ensure that every team member understood the new values and behaviors, and that everyone is expected to model them. The misaligned players were coached to embrace the new behaviors, but they chose not to. The company helped those two players out of the organization; they went to work for someone else. It was a challenging situation, but it allowed for hiring two new players — great mechanics who demonstrate the new values — to replace those who left.
In Dave’s clip, he responds to co-host Mark Babbitt’s question about what issues caused him to reach out for culture help.
Dave explains that the leadership team’s challenge at the time was that the company was successful, but leaders and players didn’t get along. They knew how to make money, but the work culture was not healthy. They had tried a number of things to improve relationships and increase trust across the organization, but none of those efforts stuck. They needed guidance to define their ideal work culture, then align and refine people, plans, decisions and actions to that ideal culture daily.
Results aren’t the only important metric; in fact, it’s half the leaders’ job. The other half? Respect.
Opinions expressed by SmartBrief contributors are their own.
____________________________________
Take advantage of SmartBrief’s FREE email newsletters on leadership and business transformation, among the company’s more than 250 industry-focused newsletters.