It doesn’t matter how good you think your organization is; if you take a closer look you may find problems that you as the leader are not (or do not want to be) aware of. This desire to not be aware is at the root of the Ostrich Syndrome.

Employees tend to move on to other organizations if their current company’s culture is not aligned with what they are looking for. I hear about this happening more and more as we travel around to various organizations. We also see employees remain where they are and become disengaged and negative, which can impact the organization’s bottom line. Word-of-mouth travels fast, so if people talk about their negative experiences with an organization, soon people will not want to work there.

I once worked at an organization where it was extremely difficult to get contract workers to come and work. Our culture was hindering our ability to attract and retain quality workers, which had a negative impact on our division’s ability to provide services to the rest of the organization. Our organizational strategy—the goals and objectives that had been set—could not be met, because the culture stood in the way of us doing so. Changes were made to the culture to more closely align all workers with a common purpose. Soon we no longer had to worry about acquiring top-notch workers—they wanted to come and work with us.

Here’s an interesting quote: “Culture eats strategy for breakfast, tactics for lunch, and now it’s staring with hungry eyes at your company. . . . Do you really want to end up as dinner?” As you can see, culture is a big word, but you, as the leader of the organization, have the power to change this.

Culture originates in the behavior of individuals, and every person in the organization contributes to it. When you have a mentoring culture, for example, everyone has embraced mentoring as a way of life in the organization, and they embrace living in a learning and development environment. Poor behavior on the part of the leader or the management team, however, can ruin everything. If an employee sees his managers demonstrating negative behavior and poor performance, and the behavior is not corrected (or even worse, condoned), the employee may assume that it is acceptable behavior and begin to emulate it.

Proper mentoring techniques—a mentoring culture—can assist in modifying that kind of behavior at all levels within the organization. But how can we develop a culture that ensures alignment between the culture and our organizational strategy?

Here are seven steps that we can take to build that strong mentoring culture:

1. Understand

• What motivates my people?

• Communication needs to take place and is most often forgotten or poorly done.

2. Take Action

• If you say you are going to do something, then you need to follow through with it.

3. Involve

• Engage your employees at the very beginning; the “top-down” approach does not work.

• Remember that culture comes from the employees.

4. Collaborate

• Empower your employees. They have as much at stake as you do in making the organization a success, and they want to work in an environment that has a high performance culture.

5. Demand Accountability

• A strong culture requires care and creativity.

• Make accountability a part of your culture.

6. Training

• Practice coaching and mentoring rather than criticizing.

• Training is the hallmark of a great leader and organization.

7. Standards

• Set high standards and stick to them.

• A good team will step up to the plate.

If you can do all of this based on a culture of mentoring, you will see huge improvements in your ability to attract and retain quality employees. You will create an organization that has engaged, empowered, and accountable employees. People will be knocking down your door to work in your organization. You will have in place a learning and development environment, where everyone grows on a personal and professional level. Communication and relationship building skills will improve, enhancing your customer service capabilities.

A culture of this nature can neutralize the disengaged employee. A high performance culture, when coupled with mentoring, will enhance your leadership development program. You will earn a high return-on-investment with employees by lowering turnover costs. You will have less absenteeism with better results for training and incentive dollars.

Align your culture with your organizational strategy and implement a mentoring culture. Embrace the power of mentoring!

References:

1. Iiya Pozin, CEO of Open Me. Columnist for Inc., Forbes, and LinkedIn. Serial Entrepreneur.

2. Steen Biilmann, CEO, bricsconsult.com.