Making of an Exemplar

“Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast,” a remark attributed to Peter Drucker and popularized in 2006 by Mark Fields, president of Ford Motor Company, where it continues to hang in the company?s War Room. Many business leaders quote it. But, do they really understand the profound message implicit in the quote?

Most C-levels and their lieutenants are obsessed with the bottom line and the balance sheet. Of course, these are important. Missing frequently is the emphasis on culture which can have profound impact on performance of any company, large or small.  

Business history is littered with companies whose skillfully crafted strategies failed. Many of them had spent considerable resources, time and money, and even hired brand name, high priced consulting companies for help. So, why did these strategies fail? While there could be several explanations, one key reason is the absence of culture in which these strategies could be executed.

The history also shows that leaderships of great companies focus on instilling exemplary culture, values and vision, which has major positive impact on the company performance. If a company has an exemplary culture but flawed strategy, the culture will fix it. Result? The leaderships of such companies end up spending their time trying to keep up with the growth, and the exemplary culture they build becomes an incubator for outstanding employees – the Exemplars.

How can leadership instill exemplary culture?

Define Vision[1]

This is not a To Do List, a five year plan, or a mission statement. Typical vision statements tend to get written by getting a whole bunch of corporate people in a room pulling together the words that best describe their business. Then they create a one-sentence vision for the company that no one cares about or reads ever again.

A real vision comes about when the leadership (founder, CEO/COO, entrepreneur) plants one foot in the present and then leans out and places the other in the future, in the “what could be.” The time horizon needs to be short enough to be seen as realistic and achievable, yet long enough to allow the company to realize innovative and expansive ideas.

Define Values

People must know how to consistently demonstrate the values of the organization. This is not the same as the leadership issuing a pocket-card with a bullet-list of company values.  The leadership is responsible for identifying the cultural essentials that are drivers of performance, and embed them within the company culture. Here is an example of such cultural essentials:

1. Decision Making

?     Sound judgment for good decisions

?    Empowered employees to take ownership of decisions

1. Passion – – Inspiring others with enthusiasm and drive for success
2. Courage

?    State controversial views without fear of repercussions

?    Make proactive proposals

?    Make tough decisions when others won’t

1. Innovation

?    What is innovation to the company?

?    What kind of culture will spark it?

These are the questions leaderships must ask. Just appointing a mid-level employee as an “innovation manager” will not cut it.

1. Effectiveness

?    An ongoing measurement and monitoring infrastructure for continual improvements

1. Teamwork

?    Genuine desire and actions to create and inspire high-performing teams

Develop a common language

The biggest piece to keep in mind is to have a common language where everyone understands the expectations within the company. It is not enough simply to create vision and values. Everyone in the organization must focus on the same vision and values, and that vision and values must be in sharp focus.

It is essential that leadership communicate the vision and values to employees, suppliers, shareholders, and even customers. Let them know what the business is going to look like at every stage of growth.

Leaders must constantly communicate what the vision and values are in their recognition efforts.

Install an accountability Infrastructure

The organization must hold individuals accountable and have an effective, appropriate accountability infrastructure in place.

Who is an Exemplar?

According to Seth Godin, the old “American Dream” consisted of these basic rules (modified):

1. Keep your head down (good dog!)
2. Follow instructions (1G Robot?)
3. Show up on time (punch that time card!)
4. Work hard (donkey!)
5. Suck it up (promote the subservient)

Sometime in nineties, communication and information revolution gained solid momentum. With the advent of Internet and e-commerce, employee mindsets began changing:

?    Work was no longer about Spartan living – – living to work, paying the bills, and having two weeks of vacation;

?    Hard work was to achieve instant gratification – –  a wide array of benefits, such as stock options, flexible hours and remote working, gourmet cafeterias, team building events at lavish resorts and a “fun” work environment. (Ah! The days of Ma Bell, Lucent, DEC and similar great companies).

In the current global economy, according to Seth Godin, the new “American Dream,” has new rules:

1. Be remarkable
2. Be generous
3. Create art
4. Make judgment calls
5. Connect people and ideas

Today’s exemplar employees must think for themselves and contribute “emotional labor[2]” beyond their job descriptions, doing with their feelings, not just body. Though submissive employees are easier to control, they’re not going to drive sales, develop new products, or create customer loyalty. Exemplar employees do that by going beyond the mediocre and not settling for average work.[3]

Here is one view of typical characteristics of an exemplar employee[4]. They:

1. Lead and connect people in the organization, actively and with finesse.
2. Deliver unique ingenuity – Ingenuity is personal, original, unexpected, and useful. Unique ingenuity requires domain knowledge, a position of trust, and the generosity to actually contribute.
3. Manage complex situation or organization – Exemplars make their own maps and thus allow the organization to navigate more quickly than it ever could if it had to wait for the regimented and paralyzed crowd to figure out what to do next.
4. Respect and inspire the other people on the team and prove it by pitching in and expanding their job description. They inspire others and understand that it is their job to make something happen.
5. Lead customers – Every person who interacts with a customer (internal or external), is doing marketing as leadership. There is no script for leadership.
6. Are authentic and true to themselves – they bring their true selves to the workplace every single day no matter what’s going on.
7. Are loyal and honest and they have a great sense of humor – not taking themselves too seriously.

How to nurture the Exemplars?

The exemplars want recognition for their good and committed work. If they are not given the type of reward they are looking for and expect, they could become really negative.

What to do in the face of such adversity? Logan[5] says that answer is twofold (modified):

1. Leaders must “walk” the culture – – to create a culture of exemplar employees, the leaders must be models themselves. They have to demonstrate the kind of behavior that they want from other team members.
2. 2.     The leaders must create a partnership/ownership arrangement with exemplars – – an atmosphere of partnership so that everyone is responsible for developing everyone else —including the people who have the fancy titles.  

What can jeopardize Exemplary culture?

Patrick M. Lencioni, author of The Three Signs of a Miserable Job, shares three important underlying factors (modified), that remain largely unaddressed by most organizations:

1. Anonymity / Obscurity: “Do I really know my people? Their interests?”

People cannot be fulfilled in their work if they are not known. All people need to be understood, want easy access to important people and must be recognized for their unique qualities by someone in a position of authority.  People who see themselves as invisible, generic, or anonymous cannot love their jobs, no matter what they are doing.

1. Irrelevance: “Do they know who or what their work impacts, and how?”

Everyone needs to know that their job matters to someone, and that they are doing meaningful work. Without seeing a connection between the work and the satisfaction of another person or group of people, an employee simply will not find lasting fulfillment. They must also understand how their work contributes to the success of the company.

1. Lacking Measurement: “Do they know how to assess their own progress or success?”

Employees need to be able to gauge their progress and level of contribution for themselves. They cannot be fulfilled in their work if their success depends on the opinions or whims of another person, no matter how benevolent that person may be.

Exemplar culture cultivates exemplar employees and that creates an Exemplar company!