No one wants to wake up in the morning to go to a job they aren’t fond of. This is something that happens with just about any organization. In fact, 94 percent of executives and 88 percent of employees in a recent Deloitte Survey felt that it’s imperative to build a distinct positive work culture that promotes genuine behavior.
Why is that?
Simply put, it’s the best avenue for long-term success. While it might impress new employees to run a business with the best technology or extra employee incentives, the power behind a genuine leader is what truly promotes a positive work culture.
For example, leaders who encourage sharing one’s truth or perspective in a frank and forthright way further decision-making and problem solving. It separates an organization with a “yes man”, group-think culture from one that can deal with problems realistically and preemptively.
Kicking employees into gear through honest, open and reality-based conversations leaves the best impression on employees. When someone feels comfortable to express what is working or not working with their job, they do better. This is especially true when their perspectives are heard and responded to with direct, honest and open problem-solving ways.
Genuine leaders build a happier, more positive work culture.
A business retains satisfied employees longer than one with unsatisfied employees. That’s why focusing on core principles that promote employee satisfaction also build high performance, positive work cultures. These principles are research based and measurable They include trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success (TIGERS®). They are also observable daily in how all employees treat one another and how employees treat the organization and customers.
Satisfied employees tend to defend their organization. Dissatisfied employees tend to work against the organization or leave to pursue a more positive work culture environment.
These six core principles stem from the desire to enforce positive work culture behavior. If one or more are less developed, a business will experience predictable problems. These problems often make it hard to retain the talented employees needed to run a successful company. Whether you have run a business for 20 years and are now contemplating selling it to a star employee or are leading a startup company, getting clear on positive work culture behaviors is critical to both sale and growth success.
When looking for new leaders, search for genuineness. Leaders who are genuine and guide genuine conversations are reality-based. They influence positive work culture behavior by modeling desired behavior themselves.
Positive work culture behavior starts with building genuineness systems.
Going to work in an emotionally comfortable place is vital to the productivity of a business. Every employee should know that they can speak their mind when they need to without fear of negative repercussions.
Sometimes this is hard to create when lack of genuine leadership has steered the organization off course. For this reason, having good problem-solving and decision-making systems in place makes it easier for employees to apply their thoughts and perspectives to good outcomes.
CultureIQ also found that 86 percent of employees in a strong work culture feel their leadership is attentive to them. Those who don’t experience positive work culture behavior are a little less confident (70 percent).
So what does this mean?
Being genuine with employees means having your heart open and a willingness to listen to employee concerns. Employees want to feel like their boss is human too.
For example Inc performed an eight-year study. The study found the following takeaways that directly corroborate to building a genuine bond with employees:
- Recognizing employee accomplishments and setting new challenges is a great way to promote a genuine leader in the workplace. Rewards and new challenges make employees excited. Positive reinforcement works. A leader anchored by genuineness has no problems with recognizing excellent accomplishments.
- Being open and honest is key. When delegating jobs to others, be upfront and frank about it. Allow employees to tailor the process to what works for them. A team leader’s openness and honesty is crucial to the genuineness of their entire character. When information needs to be passed down, the leader must be able to communicate effectively. Positive work culture behavior can’t be enforced without these vital factors: openness and honesty.
- Intentionally building relationships with employees facilitates a bond of trust between employee and employer. When an employee knows they can share a problem with the leader, the leader demonstrates genuineness. Genuineness does not mean being best friends with the employees. It does mean being forthright, frank and honest. It requires being observant and caring about building and maintaining positive work culture behavior. When an employer or leader builds trustworthy and genuine relationships with their employees, they are ultimately investing in the growth of the business.
- When being genuine, it’s important to promote both authenticity and vulnerability. Being open is one thing. It’s another to show that a leader is just as human as anyone else. This is because trust doesn’t come easy. Therefore, it’s important that a leader remains true to herself while advocating for being free of bias to perform leadership duties. When a leader can express genuine feelings and advice with an employee, it can transform the employee’s experience.
When a leader is genuine at work, it promotes productivity for everyone else. If a leader can’t be genuine, one can argue that she is not fit for the job. This is especially true in an age where leaders must also be open to leading a diverse and inclusive workplace. Someone who is authentic is going to be able to delegate decisions based on merit, not on personal feelings or bias.
Transparency works with genuineness to enforce positive work culture behavior.
When looking for a genuine leader to run a team, an employer must also look for transparency. To enforce transparency across all departments, Fast Company recommends building connections and staying in frequent contact with employees. Demonstrating that level of care for employees is telling about leadership character.
No one should be fearful of having an open and honest dialogue with someone that they work with. Once there’s been a permanent beneficial environment created at the workplace, integrating positive work culture behavior falls into place.
The bottom line is that everyone benefits from genuineness. Employers who support and empower their workers, invest in business growth and success. This is because workplace toxicity is minimized by leaders who demonstrate genuineness.
Positive work culture behavior through genuineness will be harder to secure in the future.
Work culture is rapidly changing. In the next 11 years, genuineness will be more important than ever. For example, Fast Company found that being an effective communicator is going to get harder. As the workplace becomes more diverse and inclusive, genuineness will need to impact a more complex employee base.
The communications skill gap, however, is predicted to widen by 2030. This is due to the ever changing technology landscape. It’s not enough to just be genuine in person. A leader will need to display their openness and transparency across all platforms.
A selfish leader cannot promote positive work culture behavior.
The second a leader starts acting cocky or immodest; it throws the group they are leading off. That’s why it’s so vital to find genuine leaders who model a company’s core behavior principles.
According to the Deloitte study, only 12 percent of executives feel that they are driving the proper culture. Another 19 percent feel that they already have that culture. That leaves 69 percent in limbo.
To be a successful leader that models positive work culture behavior, being genuine is critical. The good news is that genuineness is measurable in group dynamic behavior. Like any change, however, it does not occur over night. This is why the TIGERS® six principles combine group assessment with 52 weeks of principle-specific micro-training for all employees. Becoming more genuine is accomplished one step at a time and in a responsible way.
Genuineness and positive work culture summary.
When a leader brags and postures, he is viewed as someone who only thinks about himself. The way a leader publicly perceives themselves is going to be the way that everyone else does, too.
A leader should always engage with employees to ensure that they are feeling good about their job. Listening and correcting problems when problems exist can make a huge difference in that employee’s life. That employee is bound to share their positive experience with other coworkers.
When a leader models genuineness, the success shows. Everyone benefits from it. About 90 percent of those working at a place with a strong work culture have complete confidence in it. That’s the kind of confidence that every workplace must aspire to.
Genuineness stems from being frank, forthright and honest. It is brought about by good listening skills and the ability to communicate well. When you have a genuine leader in place promoting positive work culture behavior, your business is bound to shine for years to come.
Care to dig deeper into this positive work culture conversation?
The following resources are valuable for adding to your understanding:
- Genuineness and Trust Build Strong Communication
- TIGERS Micro-Training Solutions
- Company culture and Employee Engagement Statistics
- Are You Missing The Message Hidden In Silence?
- 5 Ways Work Culture Will change by 2030
- 8 Years of Neuro Research Shows You How To Increase Employee Productivity by 50 Percent with One Initiative
- Deloitte GX Core Beliefs and Culture PDF
Copyright TIGERS Success Series, Inc. by Dianne Crampton
About TIGERS Success Series Group Norm Facilitator Training
TIGERS Success Series provides a Manager Facilitator training with a tool box that engages employees to identify the group norms that improve both department and company work culture. It helps organizations to re-engage employees, resolve conflict behavior and builds work relationships. These same resources and tool box can be used to onboard new employees and contractors onto existing teams so behavior is understood and normalized from the get-go. The training and tool box are brought to you when eight or more of your managers are enrolled.
Schedule a business call to learn more.
