Value of Delivering a Culture of Leadership – Aug 12, 2021
At this month’s Virtual Breakfast Forum, we were pleased to have Lynn Ferrari Director of People and Change at KPMG, sharing her thoughts on Leadership Culture; what it is, why it’s important, and the ways to achieve it. Leadership Culture is not something you can implement, or buy, but rather a conscious decision to purposely model behaviour, decisions and actions, every day. Lynn shared an eye-opening statistic: each of us, over our lifetimes, will work on average of about 90,000 hours. With this in mind, it is imperative that we, and our employees, try to make the most of our time in the workplace.
What is “leadership”? It is the ability to influence a group towards the achievement of goals.
What is “management”? It is the use of authority inherent in a designated formal rank to obtain compliance from organizational members.
What is “culture”? It is the working environment created by an organization’s values, strategic vision, and mission, and sets the tone for relationships between people in an organization. A healthy organization is able to attract, obtain and grow talent.
“Leadership Culture” is the way things are done: it’s the way people interact, make decisions and influence others.
A winning culture today focuses on empowerment vs management.
The absence of a Leadership Culture contributes to disengagement costs, such as 37% higher absenteeism, 49% more accidents, 60% more errors, and up to 50% turnover. However, companies with strong cultures can enhance engagement by 30%, resulting in 19% increase in operating income, and 23% increase in earnings growth.
Lynn shared the 5 different types of leadership that exist within organizations today:
- Directive Leadership – a culture of consistency.
- Transformational Leadership – a culture of inspiration.
- Participative Leadership – a culture of innovation, works to build consensus among team members.
- Servant Leadership – a culture of inclusion, focus on serving organizations stakeholders and the larger community.
- Autocratic Leadership – a culture of compliance, decisions that affect the business are made without consulting employees and their opinions.
Behaviors that leader’s model in a leadership culture would include:
- Integrity, Self-awareness, authenticity, teachableness, relationship building, valuing others, inclusiveness, accountableness, consistency, courage, respect, and humility.
You can assess culture by reviewing policies, interviewing leadership, survey stakeholders, focus groups and data analysis.
