Business success depends on having a healthy culture. A healthy culture depends on leaders who model the values and behaviors needed to build and sustain it.
How do you get there? How do you take whatever culture you have today and optimize it to endure and thrive even in this current environment of constant change and upheaval?
Bob Rosen, CEO of The Healthy Leader, and his colleagues are experts at building and sustaining healthy cultures. “Getting there may not be easy but the results that come from a thoughtful, focused cultural evolution are worth it,” Rosen said. “Imagine a future where change isn’t always some looming threat to prosperity but a grand adventure of growth and innovation. A healthy culture is the best way to get there.”
Cultural evolution starts by understanding where you are now, then looking at the culture you want to have and taking steps to bridge the gap between the desired state and the current one.
In their new eBook, Building a Healthy Culture, Rosen and his team lay out their program to bring out the best in your leaders and your people. They see a healthy culture as:
- Purposeful
- Resilient
- Collaborative
- Agile
- Adaptive
- High-performing
The critical first step to building the culture you want is listening to employees, according to Brandon Hall Group research. It’s important to understand that your current culture is what your employees experience, not what your leaders think it is. Sometimes there is a big difference in perception.
The research, based on qualitative studies and more than 100 interviews with a wide variety of employees and organizations, provides examples of what employees want to experience. For example, employees want to feel:
- They have meaningful work.
- The organization is fully invested in their wellness and well-being.
- Managers are invested in their performance and success.
- They are appreciated and recognized for their contributions.
- The employer is committed to developing employees’ potential through continuous learning.
- Performance goals are collaborative and designed to help them succeed.
The key to making employees feel this sense of belonging and feeling valued depends on leaders who understand the value of a healthy culture and are inclusive and collaborative in how they work with their teams. Our research, How to Develop Inclusive Leaders reveals the most important inclusive leader traits and the percentage of organizations that are actively developing them:
Inclusive leaders are healthy leaders and healthy leaders are the key to building a healthy culture. “They set the tone and give people faith the company can change. And they adapt continuously as the company evolves,” Rosen says in the eBook.
Building and sustaining a healthy culture is not easy. It is an organic process, Rosen says, that must be guided and tended to carefully. It takes meticulous planning and development. And the most difficult part might be sustaining the culture once developed.
“As we look across the horizon,” Rosen said, “one thing is certain: change is here whether you like it or not. The real question is: Will your organization be up to the challenge?”
The Healthy Leader and its new eBook can help you get started — or accelerate your journey.
-Claude Werder, Senior VP and Principal HCM Analyst, Brandon Hall Group
