Karen Greenbaum is President and CEO of the global Association of Executive Search and Leadership Consultants (AESC).
getty
A healthy organizational culture is good for business. “Companies with healthy cultures have three times greater total returns to shareholders,” McKinsey partner Brooke Weddle said in a podcast interview.
A positive organizational culture has the power to reduce turnover, elevate productivity and significantly improve employee engagement and loyalty. At the other end of the spectrum, negative organizational cultures lead to increased employee turnover, a noticeable lack of engagement and even careless mistakes or behaviors. This stark contrast makes it apparent that creating a positive organizational culture is a business imperative.
Although many companies strive for a healthy work environment with clear and intentional values, it can be difficult to achieve. In my organization’s latest survey of C-suite executives, leaders from around the globe identified five major aspects they wish they could change to improve their organization’s culture.
1. Communication
The most wished-for change, according to our survey, was better communication. Solid communication among organization members often ensures transparency and reduces conflict. Effective communication is also directly tied to trust. Trust is a critical component of creating a culture of inclusion and belonging. When employees experience trust, they feel they can bring new ideas to the table and share their diverse points of view, leading to greater creativity.
Not only do trust and communication contribute to a more innovative and collaborative environment, but they also impact a company’s ability to attract and retain top talent. Gallup research found that employees at organizations with open communication are “more engaged and demonstrate a greater intent to stay with the organization.”
As companies shifted to hybrid or virtual work environments, the need for greater communication has only heightened. For many, hybrid and remote work is here to stay, forever changing how we communicate. Employees have new needs and must find new ways to convey them. Organizations must employ digital toolboxes that reinforce connection, show empathy toward all team members and their experiences, demonstrate transparency and build on their digital body language skills.
2. Collaboration
Leaders made it clear in our survey that they have noticed a slip in collaboration. Prior to the pandemic, employees spent 85% or more of their time in collaborative work. As remote and hybrid work has increased, some employees have become siloed. Collaborative work has moved from in-person meetings to video chats and messaging apps. This means the way we collaborate needs to be more intentional. We must take the time to schedule meetings and “water cooler” moments with colleagues.
Communication and collaboration go hand in hand. Alternatively, clear and effective communication drive collaborative efforts within and among teams, leading to more innovation, reduced errors and improved skill sets. Employees become empowered to share their knowledge, ask for assistance, review one another’s work and experiment with new methods and strategies.
3. Adaptability And Agility
Executives want to see their organization be more adaptable and agile, a desire spurred by the Covid-19 pandemic, unprecedented technological growth and other global events. Throughout the last few years, organizations have had to quickly pivot their strategies, products and services to accommodate societal shifts. They have also had to swiftly take on new roles as leaders on topical issues ranging from social justice to sustainability.
Executives also indicated in our survey that adaptability and agility are two of the essential leadership qualities for post-pandemic success. It appears leaders hope that everyone in the organization—including themselves—improves their ability to quickly change or pivot in nearly any circumstance.
4. Innovation
Innovation is directly linked to diversity, inclusion and belonging. Organizations that make diversity and inclusion a priority typically showcase higher rates of innovation, coming up with new ideas, products, strategies and methods more frequently than those lacking these priorities.
An HBR survey of 1,800 professionals, 40 case studies, several focus groups and multiple interviews concluded that “diversity unlocks innovation and drives market growth.” Employees at companies with diverse leadership are 45% more likely to report market share growth and 70% more likely to report that the organization has tapped into new markets. Lack of leadership diversity, according to HBR, “costs their companies crucial market opportunities, because inherently diverse contributors understand the unmet needs in under-leveraged markets.”
5. Strategic Alignmenthe final aspect leaders want to change about their culture is strategic alignment. Executives desire better alignment with strategy across the organization, an ask that aligns with the need for better communication, stronger collaboration, more adaptability and agility and more innovation. Without solid communication and collaboration among departments, leaders, teams and employees, it’s unlikely everyone in the organization will remain aligned with the organization’s strategy. In turn, a lack of alignment with goals and strategy can reduce an organization’s ability to be agile and innovative, inhibiting success.
Efficient strategic alignment is also indicative of good company culture. Leaders must curate a culture of autonomy and innovation to ensure teams are empowered to take risks and adapt to new conditions. According to MIT Sloan Management Review, “Corporate culture, like an organization’s strategic priorities or objectives and key results, represents a powerful way to align behavior with a company’s strategy and mission while allowing employees to exercise judgment and initiative.”
An organization that exhibits strong communication and collaboration, fosters a culture of adaptability, agility and innovation and ensures strategic alignment from the top down will have a competitive advantage in the future. Overall, it appears that leaders across the globe are hoping that their teams better work together over the coming years to improve their organization’s culture as a whole, therefore, improving the organization’s efficiency and success.
To attain this goal, leaders must look in the mirror and realize that they set the tone for their organizational culture. They must begin to embody these characteristics before any true change occurs.
Forbes Human Resources Council is an invitation-only organization for HR executives across all industries. Do I qualify?
