CULTURE HAS CASUALTIES
Building and sustaining a winning culture is so important to the success of any team, including yours. Culture is valuable because it clarifies for people what’s really important. It sets a standard of performance for the core values and non-negotiables of your experience together. Culture drives the behavior that produces results.
But creating a winning culture isn't easy. It’s one thing, after all, for a team to say certain things really matter, but another altogether to turn those words into reality. The truth is, you can find average or underachieving teams everywhere, and many of them have posters on the wall or pages in their notebook outlining the core values and non-negotiables of their culture. But a closer look reveals an obvious disconnect between what the people there say they’re about and what they’re actually about. You could call that a counterfeit culture.
That’s a big reason why leadership matters. Leaders serve as defenders of the culture. They do that in a number of ways. First and foremost, they lead by example. They are committed to modeling the core values and meeting the standard of winning performance. They also care enough about the team’s success to hold others accountable to that standard. Cultures become counterfeit when leaders don’t have the courage to confront behavior they know doesn’t belong.
Confronting behavior that violates the culture is awkward and uncomfortable. That’s why most people - even those who consider themselves leaders - don’t do it. It’s easier to excuse it, to let someone else handle it, or to hope the offender corrects it on their own. Far too often instead of addressing the problem, we avoid it. We ignore it. Ultimately, even if we don’t want to, we end up accepting it. And in doing so, we are also forced to accept that our culture probably isn’t strong enough to take our team where we say we want it to go.
If you’re a leader who's here today wrestling with your role as a culture defender, there’s something important you need to accept. The truth is, culture has casualties. What does that mean? It means that by its very nature, a winning culture is an exclusive enterprise. Not everything - and not even everyone - can survive there. There needs to be evidence - call it a casualty list, if you will - that certain behaviors are not permitted. In a winning culture, behavior that doesn’t belong is eradicated. If that behavior refuses to die, then perhaps it’s the person exhibiting that behavior who’s not capable of surviving there.
If everyone and everything is allowed and accepted, then you've probably created both a very welcoming and very average environment. But if, on the other hand, you want to create a culture of excellence? If you want to create a place where people are pushed to become their very best every time they walk in the door? If you really want your team to go where you say you want it to go? Then you need to accept that the culture required to get there isn’t for everyone.
That’s why I say culture has casualties. In a winning environment, losing behavior simply can’t survive. The leaders won’t tolerate it. If the behavior itself won’t go, then the person exhibiting it might have to. That casualty list can be painful to produce, but it does validate that your core values are more than a poster on the wall or a page in the notebook, and that your culture is strong enough to take your team where you say you want it to go.