Lead staff to do as you do

Carolyn Taylor with her book 'Walking the Talk'. She advises executives spend time defining what it is they need to do differently. Picture / Fotopress

It's impossible for you to successfully change the way colleagues think or behave until you've done so yourself.

Though most New Zealand executives realise there's a competitive advantage to be gained from mastering their organisation's culture, too few have the foggiest idea how to do it. What many executives lack, argues Sydney-based behavioural change specialist Carolyn Taylor is:

* Clarity around the cultural changes they're trying to achieve

* The behaviours that will achieve their strategy

* Sufficient commitment to leading by example.

Based on more than 20 years' consulting to organisations on both sides of the Tasman including Westpac, Lion Nathan, Goodman Fielder, and Shell, Taylor is convinced around 80 per cent of executives are capable of making the necessary behavioural changes needed to alter the behaviour of others.

Her new book walking the talk: building a culture of success provides a step-by-step guide.

"Before executives can begin to deliver desired outcomes they need to spend sufficient time defining what it is they need to do differently and why," says Taylor.

So what personal changes do managers have to make? To Westpac CEO Anne Sherry (who's worked with Taylor since her days as head of HR) it requires them to spend their time differently.

She says you need to be more conscious of the signals you're sending. For example, Sherry drives the same car other sales people are expected to drive and spends similar amounts of time with staff and customers.

"Learning how to walk the talk means being a better listener and spending more time with people face-to-face explaining why I see value in doing something rather than telling them to do it because I'm the boss," says Sherry.

Sherry argues that executives need to develop a greater awareness of the gulf between what they say they stand for and what they do.

"Contrary to their perception, most executives are sufficiently self-aware, and when you talk to their people that becomes all too clear."

It's only through greater self-awareness that Taylor claims executives can successfully bridge the gap between what the company is supposed to look like on paper and what happens when human nature intervenes. She says executives can only achieve sufficient self-awareness by being open to feedback.

"It's only through feedback that executives gain the clarity needed to identify (for example) why a certain strategy will deliver more profits or make the organisation a better service provider."

What executives also need, Taylor says, is the courage to challenge conflicting behaviour on points of principle. She claims that executives who see the "cultural stuff" within their organisation as being too "fluffy" are less likely to find the link between behaviour and performance.

"Executives need to ask 'Do the people within my organisation personify the culture I'm trying to emulate?"'

In the words of Mahatma Gandhi, Taylor believes "walking the talk" is all about being the change you want to see. But because of an inability to receive personal feedback she claims many executives tend to view problems as being outside of themselves. She reminds them it's the unspoken signals that convey the strongest external messages about what an organisation values internally and cites James Hardie as an example.

If the Australian building products company believed in making good the lives damaged (by its workers' exposure to asbestos at its factories) then she says their actions would have reinforced this.

Last year James Hardie paid out an average of A$250,000 ($272,000) to former workers in Australia suffering from asbestos-related lung diseases, such as mesothelioma and asbestosis.

But it has made no offer to New Zealanders who worked at its South Auckland asbestos factory from 1939 to 1984.

Similarly, Taylor says the behaviour of some Shell executives proved convincingly that short-term performance (which drives remuneration) was a greater priority than accurately stating oil reserves.

Shell angered its investors by giving former chairman Sir Philip Watts a pay-off worth more than A$1 million ($2.85 million). Sir Philip, was ousted from the oil giant in March last year after a scandal over the misreporting of oil reserves.

"How can executives tolerate poor performers and still claim to be 'walking the talk' on behavioural change?" muses Taylor.

From a New Zealand context, Taylor says the tendency for local firms to underplay their ability to foot-it on a world-stage only entrenches disbelief throughout the organisation.

That's why she thinks the notion executives can "action-plan" their way into new kinds of behaviour is a fallacy.

"Executives must believe strongly enough in desired outcomes and continue to do those activities that make a difference in the outside world - this is the acid test of walking the talk," says Taylor.

So how can a manager implement cultural change within their organisation without going out too much on a limb?

First, explains Taylor you must re-prioritise the way you spend your time. If you want to create a culture where coaching and developing people is important, you must do that, too.

Taylor says once you've worked out the paybacks desired outcomes will bring, it's time to establish the behaviours, symbols and systems that best illustrate what it is the organisation really values.

"The trick is to create a haven in your own team that supports the things you believe in without being too counter-cultural."

How long should it take to change your organisation's culture and how do you maintain it?

Depending on the size of your organisation, she says it could take three years to be clear about what you really want to see, to set necessary standards, and to start measuring against them.

"Change may require a whole heap of symbols and - layer by layer - working through each team to set new standards of behaviour."

But unless you're committed to a continuum of cultural change, Sherry says you can inflict more harm on the organisation than good.

"It's the art of engaging people to bring their hearts and minds to work - not just their bodies," Sherry says.

So once you've achieved the "big ask" of changing (part or all of) your organisation's culture how do you maintain it?

The key, advises Taylor, lies in the people you bring into the organisation.

Once you're clear on the values your organisation stands for, she recommends using them as a benchmark for recruitment.

On the flipside she says there's no better barometer on the cultural climate within your organisation than the people it's ejecting.

"There's no better indicator that your culture's in a mess than the number of good people leaving, and the opposite is true."

So what can you, as an executive, do tomorrow to positively impact your organisation's culture?

Taylor recommends sitting down with your team and simply asking - "What do we need to do differently and what would I, as an exec, have to do to make this happen?'

"But don't go out and make changes until you've understood how you have to change first. The harder you talk, the harsher people will evaluate your walk."

Ten tips for changing your organisation's culture

1 Be willing to change yourself.
2 Define the behaviours/outcomes you're looking for.
3 Commit to long-term change.
4 Develop your self-awareness.
5 Encourage honest feedback.
6 Lead by example.
7 Act on feedback.
8 Make change a continuum not a destination.
9 Reprioritise your time.
10 Ensure non-verbal signals align with desired outcomes.

* Source: Carolyn Taylor