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We hear stories about an organization having a culture that is so toxic. Employees are not happy working in this culture and productivity begins to suffer. Employees slowly start to disengage and productivity begins to slide even faster. We have a tendency to always want to look at the employees as the source of this discontent. Is that really the right place to be looking?
What I have found is that a culture that is not conducive to me wanting to get out of bed and come to work may very well be an outcome of poor leadership or just a plain lack of leadership. There are countless books written on the subject and lots of folks making good money on delivering leadership development programs but we seldom see the follow through that needs to take place. I can recall an organization that I worked for that spent good money on training its new leaders. When they came back from the training senior management proclaimed, “You are now a leader – go forth and lead!” Needless to say the majority struggled as what they were taught was not always how it is in real life. Perhaps the need to provide more hands on experience through the training process would have helped prepare them all that much more for the challenges of leading. Some of the existing senior leadership were definitely of the old style of leading – command and control. Employees were not to think, only to carry out the instructions of the leader. There was no opportunity to engage in critical thinking as you would be chastised for doing so if you did. People became mindless robots caught up in their daily mundane routines with the only highlight being coffee breaks, lunch breaks and for some smoke breaks.
Inspiring others to be the best that they can be is one sign of a good leader and yet it is a quality that a lot are lacking. Developing relationships with your employees is a must if you wish to truly be a great leader. Knowing one or two small details about each employee and demonstrating that you care doesn’t require a lot of skill but it truly demonstrates your abilities as a leader. The last thing that you would want is your employees running for cover when they see you as they wonder if it is their turn for discipline. If you spend the time to build relationships and nurture those relationships on a daily basis you would be surprised at the outcome.
One thing that I have learned along my leadership journey is the need for humility. I believe that it is a cornerstone to success as a leader. We all need to realize that we are only as good as the people around us and we need to recognize them for their qualities and help them grow personally and professionally. Imagine the success that we could have together if you leveraged each other’s strengths and recognized each other’s areas for improvement.
What if we have a toxic culture? Can it be helped through the “power of mentoring”? Can poor leadership be helped through the “power of mentoring?” We recommend that through a combination of coaching and mentoring you can make a difference in each situation but all too often we use one or the other or none of the above and we let a potentially great person become a rather poor leader. Not everyone has all the tools in their leadership tool box but wouldn’t it be nice to determine that rather than casting them aside because it takes too much work to help them grow personally and professionally?
Leadership has a huge impact on culture. If your organization is struggling with organizational culture challenges then it is time to embrace the “power of mentoring!” Can you afford not to?
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