Three Signs Your Company Culture Is Not Aligned
You can access more joy and fulfillment in your work life as a leader...And you get to align your company culture to make this your day-to-day way of being.
All it takes is a commitment from you to get clear on your values and passions. Once you do, you must choose to use them as your barometer while performing the duties of your leadership role.
When you transpose a leader’s values and passions onto a company, this is how you develop a congruent and satisfying company culture to work within.
Three Levels of Company Culture
In my experience, there are three main levels that make up company culture:
desired culture
stated culture
actual culture
Actual culture further subdivides into many subcultures.
When these three main levels of culture are not aligned it can cause difficulty and harm to your business or company.
Periodic reviews of company values and passions help ensure alignment with both their vision and mission statements. Doing so helps you to also keep a close eye on if you’re creating meaning for the company, leaders, teams, and clients you serve.
Know the Levels of Company Culture
You may be wondering what the differences are between the three main levels of culture.
Desired Culture is what the company wants to be, and who they say they are in their marketing.
You can also get an idea of the desired culture when listening to members of the executive team talk about the company in leadership presentations, at conferences, and during interviews.
When you and your employees hear the desired culture as discussed in these forums, what is the reaction?
Is there a feeling of alignment and calmness when it is spoken, or is there a twinge of disbelief or even a chuckle?
If the latter, there may be a misfire between the c-suite’s desired culture and what is being experienced day to day!
Stated Culture is just that—stated! It is what is written in the Vision, Mission, and Values of the corporation.
It can also encompass things like employee and leader competencies, employee handbooks, codes of conduct, policies, and procedures.
How does the stated culture align with the desired culture?
Is there internal alignment between vision, mission, and values and the competencies, handbooks, and other documented items? If there’s misalignment between the levels or between the pieces of the stated culture, there can be an erosion of trust and authenticity.
Actual Culture is what is experienced daily by employees.
If a value of the company is respect, are employees feeling respected and valued?
If customer service is key, are employees who take care of customers empowered to make decisions to make the customer experience better?
It is actual culture that drives business operations and determines the success or failure of the business plan.
When there’s a disconnect between the three levels of culture, you’ll see obvious signs, if you pay attention.
See and Read the Signs
If any of the following three major indicators exist for your company, it’s a clear sign that your culture is not aligned. Now may be time for that periodic review so you can pursue a realignment.
Sign #1--Business Decisions Take Too Long
Likely you’ve been in a meeting where the group is deciding how to frame a future meeting when a business decision will be made. Sounds tiring, no?
When new initiatives, projects, or strategies need this type of cultivation or needle-threading, your culture may not be in alignment.
In these pre-meetings, one may experience discussions about how different leaders, divisions, or departments will react to the new initiative. You’ll also hear how certain labels or words need to be revised to get others “on board.”
These types of deliberations are exhausting for the leaders and teams identified to launch an initiative.
Plus, they’re an expensive waste of time.
When you add up the salaries of the executives in the room and do the math, one hour of these meetings can cost companies tens of thousands of dollars.
The Realization From a CEO
As the executive leader of learning and development, I was in a series of these types of meetings personally.
We discussed how the company was going to launch a new customer care initiative to help employees deliver on what was promised in a new marketing campaign.
During the fourth meeting, the CEO leaned over to me and we had this quiet conversation:
CEO: “Didn’t we already discuss this last month, and make these decisions?”
Me: “Yes we did, but we had to revisit the decisions based on feedback from some of the departments. We can’t come to an agreement on the use of the word ‘customer’, nor on the definition of who the customer is! Plus, some departments think this will be too burdensome on their teams.”
CEO: “Hmmm, sounds like we need to be more explicit about our culture?”
When Culture Is Aligned Business Decisions Are Simpler
When the desired culture, the stated culture, and the actual culture of the company is aligned, business decisions come down to these few questions:
Is this the right thing to do for our customers and for the business?
Does it support who we are and who we want to be?
Is now the right time?
Do we have the money to do this?
What is the cost if we don’t do it?
Much simpler, isn’t it?
Of course, there still may need to be multiple meetings to frame and scope the initiative or project. But, those meetings do not need executives since they are supported by a clear mandate and a tie to the culture.
Sign #2—It’s Difficult to Agree on the Definition of Success
No matter what the business or industry, it’s imperative for companies to measure their success. It’s the only way to know if your goals are met.
People say things like, “What you measure you can manage.” or “You can’t fix what you don’t measure.” for a reason.
But companies whose cultures aren’t aligned frequently have a difficult time standardizing their definition of success.
During my time in a global financial services firm, we launched a franchise culture training to the top 10% of leaders around the world. The corporation just experienced a major merger and enormous growth through acquisitions.
The training was intended to bring the cultures of the various businesses into alignment and support leaders with a “one-company” mindset.
Here’s what that task looked like from the inside...
That top 10% of leaders numbered 35,000 people in 103 countries, across dozens of business lines. The training was an online module, back when online learning was incredibly expensive to create, especially in 16 languages.
To be transparent about it, the training module alone cost over $2 Million.
After months of design and development, there was one decision that held up the launch of the module—the definition of success.
Specifically what was the desired percentage of completion for leaders globally, by country, and by business.
Sounds like it should have been a simple decision.
The executive suite left those decisions to the project team and to the various business executives across the globe. Each of those stakeholders not only had a different desired completion percentage, but each had reasons to back it up.
We heard reasons such as, “My leaders bring in more revenue each year and they don’t have the time to do this,” or, “Our division doesn’t have any issues with culture so we only will require it of leaders with performance issues.”
The project team desired a 90% completion globally. The final decision was a 65% completion overall with various business lines having different success measures.
The module was delayed by over a month because of this one decision, and the reporting on completions over the course of the project was double what was budgeted. Over 90 different metrics had to be reported.
Sign #3—New Employees Leave Before Their First 90 Days
The clearest indication of a misaligned culture is evident with turnover of new employees within the first 90 days.
During my career, I’ve been accountable for new employee onboarding a few times. Of course, you want the new employee experience to be stellar, and you use all the cultural touchpoints to make that happen.
New employee onboarding is one experience where the desired and stated cultures are on full display.
Usually, videos of various executives welcome new employees to the company. And there’s always a review of the stated vision, mission, and values. Performance expectations, ethics, and any support mechanisms to ensure the new employees’ success are all divulged.
The real test happens when the new employee leaves orientation and completes their first week of work.
Did the promise of the company culture match what they experienced on the job?
In one company where I worked, we noticed a high turnover of new employees from specific business units. For some of them, the turnover was as high as 30% before the first 90 days. Something was wrong, but we needed to find out what.
We decided a 90-day new-employee survey would give us the information we needed.
Over the next months, the feedback was clear. The main issues for new employees who left the company were:
The job was not what was represented during the interview process (15%)
The culture we had promised them during orientation was not what they experienced on the job (38%)
While one is a recruiting issue, the more pressing reason for leaving at 38% was cultural misalignment.
Clearly there was a huge gap between the desired and stated culture and what new employees were experiencing in their day-to-day interactions.
Your new employees will give you the most honest information about your culture if you just ask. So, do it!
Culture Is King
When I think of exemplary company culture, I always recall my days working for the Ritz Carlton. Those 5 years prepared me well for all of my future roles, and much of their material stays with me even today.
The Ritz Carlton has succeeded as a premiere company because their desired culture, stated culture, and actual culture is aligned.
Their Credo, Motto, Three Steps of Service, 12 Service Values, and Employee Promise are the same today as they were when I worked there decades ago...There’s something to be said for longevity, isn’t there?
Every day in hundreds of hotels across many countries, their leaders review the same service value on the same day at the beginning of each shift.
Not only are they aligned on paper, but each and every employee who is guest-facing is trusted and empowered to do whatever it takes to make the guest experience the best it can be.
Leaders Who Align With Their Company Culture Thrive
When you lead a team within a company, you’re like the crew leader of a rowing team (a coxswain).
Under your direction, they’re all pulling the boat to flow downstream seamlessly. In other words, they’re all aligned with the desired company culture. They gladly play their parts expertly to live the company vision and mission.
I frequently partner with leaders to explore their personal values and passions as well as the culture they wish to establish in their businesses.
If your company culture needs reviewing and you need support to get started, I can help. I create cultures of care for those who care most! Schedule a free strategy session with me.