Organizational Culture – Dan Greer

Five Essential Traits Of Post-Pandemic Leadership

Dan Greer — Wed, 20 Jul 2022 14:08:12 +0000

Even the most bottom line leaders should know by now that healthy relationships within their team is what delivers the most productive results. So now we are in a leadership culture where Character is far more important than Competency. Words like Trust are no longer considered soft skills but are very hard in impacting the bottom line.

This Forbes post is excellent: “The long-term impact of the pandemic on the work environment remains to be seen, but the pandemic’s immediate impact has been to underline the flaws in the entrenched industrial mindset approach to work. And while those flaws, and the attendant command and control approach to how work should be performed, have been acknowledged by organizations for more than two decades, without adequate pressure to change that mindset, the pace of change has been glacial.”

The Power Of Healthy Relationships At Work

Dan Greer — Wed, 22 Jun 2022 16:01:20 +0000

Any effective leader today knows that developing other leaders is the only sustainable way to deliver consistent results. This is not some back door way of being nice to drive up the bottom line but totally re-evaluating what is most important for your top performers.

They want a leader and an organizational culture where trust is high and feedback is consistent without toxic blame being assigned for every failure. This HBR post was an excellent read:

“Kushal Choksi was a successful Wall Street quant who had just entered the doors of the second twin tower on 9/11 when it got hit. As Choksi describes in his best-selling book, On a Wing and a Prayer, his brush with death was a wakeup call. Having mainly focused on wealth acquisition before 9/11, he began to question his approach to work.”

Does Your Company’s Culture Reinforce Its Strategy And Purpose?

Dan Greer — Mon, 13 Jun 2022 15:02:42 +0000

I have done a lot of work in the area of strategy because that requires you to define your competitive advantage in your market and find a way to leverage that to make a profit. Equally as important is the organizational culture your people work in to make sure they are empowered and love working together as a team.

What is rising to the top again is the North Star of purpose which takes leaders beyond making a profit to making a difference. This post by HBR is a very practical application of all three priorities:

“Early in my career, strategy was seen as the key to business success. More recently, purpose has become an essential element of doing business — the north star and inspiration meant to orient all company activities. But there is often a large gap between a company’s purpose and what its employees experience, and a simple communication campaign about the great new company purpose won’t do much good on its own.”

When Hiring Nobody Is Better Than Hiring Just Anybody

Dan Greer — Tue, 14 Dec 2021 14:40:53 +0000

This is a lesson as a leader that I have had to learn the hard way and it has cost me and the organizations I worked for dearly. We are now seeing an unprecedented worker demand and businesses are actually closing or open reduced hours just because they don’t have enough employees.

With that said, I am convinced that hiring the wrong person is worse than not having anyone at all. The damage they do to your culture will eventually hurt your business or team just as much as not having the position filled. This HBR post is a must read for all leaders:

“As the exodus of workers referred to as the “great resignation” tolls on, “now hiring” signs are ubiquitous. These vacant positions often increase the burden on existing staff members, creating the potential for dissatisfaction, burnout, and even more vacancies. Yet the temptation to hire anyone willing to take the job should be tempered by the many potential consequences of making a bad hire.”

The Six Traits Of Inspirational Leaders

Dan Greer — Mon, 05 Jul 2021 13:36:42 +0000

Transactional leaders who are very directive work very well in the middle of a crisis like Covid 19. They are focused on getting the right things done and the reality of a disruption forces quick decision making to sustain success. Now that we are transitioning back into at least a Hybrid model of work and collaboration, effective leaders must shift back to more of a relational style and inspire their people.

This Forbes Coached Council post offers some excellent reminders of what is important now:

“Are you an inspirational leader? We all want to work for someone who inspires us, someone who brings out the best in us and who is there for us when obstacles arise. Many job descriptions and postings I’ve seen lately often mention inspirational leadership, but what is that exactly?

Think about the leaders you have worked for: Did they inspire you? Were you willing to go that extra mile to get work done for them? If they moved on to another role, did you want to follow them? Were you given opportunities to grow due to their trust in you? As you think of the answers to these questions, think about your own leadership style. Do you inspire your direct reports, or even your peers, to do their best work?”

How To Lead Your Team Through The Transition Back To The Office

Dan Greer — Tue, 22 Jun 2021 15:05:04 +0000

For well over a year the number one topic with the corporate leaders I help to coach was how to survive the pandemic. Now beyond any shadow of a doubt the strategy for bringing their workforces back into the office while maintaining the appropriate amount of virtual time is top of the list.

Many very large and successful companies are finding that just saying we are all coming back to the office is not working and maybe it should not. This HBR post offers some excellent advice:

“If you’re anxious about how your team is going to navigate the transition to whatever form of in-person work your company is planning, you aren’t alone. By now, you’re likely aware that most employees don’t want to return to whatever normal looked like pre-pandemic. A recent survey from Harvard Business School of 1,500 employees revealed that 81% of them either don’t want to come back at all or would prefer a hybrid model of work.”

Four Guiding Principles To Improve Collaboration Among Leadership Teams

Dan Greer — Wed, 05 May 2021 13:59:35 +0000

Their can be a point in time where all the effort involved in collaboration does not translate into increased productivity. As an executive coach, I have seen a lot of time wasted trying to bring everyone on the team up to speed on all that is happening. The person with direct responsibility had all they needed to execute but the need for everyone’s input stopped the process.

I highly value team collaboration but this Forbes post asks some great questions to consider:

“In an ever more complex and information-overloaded world, teaming up to collaborate is key to learning, innovating and performing. We tend to misunderstand groups of people who report to one person as teams. When there is no need to work together to learn and achieve results, we should be OK being a group of direct reports without needing to call ourselves a team. A group of people can still offer some of the benefits that working in a team does.”

Company Culture Is Everyone’s Responsibility

Dan Greer — Thu, 11 Feb 2021 16:35:21 +0000

The two most important subjects for leaders today are strategy and culture. Because of Covid both have to not only move to the top of the list but also be done in a totally different way. Everything has changed and we simply cannot go back to the way things were before.

This HBR post is an excellent read that gives responsibility to everyone for creating and maintaining the best organizational culture:

“Here’s how organizational culture might have been handled in the past: The CEO commissions the Human Resources department to produce an effective company culture. HR designs a campaign to tout a mission statement and core values that the CEO and senior management developed. HR also implements some employee perks like free snacks in the break room or monthly birthday celebrations. Maybe they also field an annual employee engagement survey and report results back to the CEO. And then with their culture-building to-do lists completed, the CEO and HR move on to other priorities.”

Compassionate Leadership Is Important But Not Sufficient

Dan Greer — Mon, 07 Dec 2020 15:36:18 +0000

There has been a steady movement in leadership training towards valuing your people over everything else. This means that knowing how to understand your team and their individual needs is critical for maximum productivity. There is a clear tension though between just being caring and on the other hand making sure that execution is still successful. This HBR post is excellent:

“A global pandemic, Depression-level unemployment, civil and political unrest – from New York to Barcelona to Hong Kong, it feels as if the world as we know it is faltering. Economies are unwinding; jobs are disappearing. Through it all, our spirit is being tested. Now more than ever, it’s imperative for leaders to demonstrate compassion.”

Four Signs Of A Leader Of Hope

Dan Greer — Sun, 20 Sep 2020 17:25:59 +0000

There is an enormous amount of negative bad news coming every day that requires a new level of both character and competency for every leader. You must be able to see the current disruption as more than a crisis but also an incredible opportunity for positive change. Leaders must create a new vision for a better future if their teams and organizations are going to survive. This John Maxwell post is excellent:

“As I look around at our world today, there’s a certain feeling that comes over me, one that I don’t experience often, and I can’t help but bring it to you as we talk about the need for leaders who build bridges.

That feeling is “leadership sadness.” Given the struggles that our world is going through right now, it saddens me to see men and women in leadership positions and roles who choose to lead by pushing people apart rather than by bringing them together. I see too many leaders leaning into the things that separate us, stoking fear over hope, or leaders who simply shrink back from the moment and allow the darkness to swallow them instead of lighting candle to fight it.”