ARTICLES
3 Ways Successful Leaders Create And Implement Company Culture
Avery Blank
Senior Contributor ForbesWomen
I help people advocate for themselves and leverage opportunities.
Be the one who creates a company’s culture, not the one who destroys it. GETTY
Company culture involves more feelings than tangibles. It is more about what it feels like when you are working with your colleagues and the approach you take, than the (actual) work you do. It is this intangible element of work, which can be the most difficult to achieve.
Company culture can be destroyed easily, whether by unclear priorities, not hiring well or unintentional remarks. Culture can make or break a company. If you don’t foster an environment in which people want to work, great professionals will not want to work for the company. You have to be intentional in creating a culture that attracts, retains and grows professionals. Here are three things you can do to foster a great culture at work:
1. Demonstrate the company culture. Don’t just say it.
To foster a great company culture, you have to identify and write down the principles that make up the culture. It can be a sentence, a couple of sentences or a brief paragraph. The written manifestation of the culture you want to foster is critical to helping people understand the culture.
But be careful not to keep on repeating the language as if it is a script. You may notice that you hear managers repeat the same language again and again. Culture is not a script or a tag line. Don’t just say what your culture is. Culture must be practiced. Saying what your culture is does not remove your responsibility to foster it.
2. Make the company culture your own.
Read the written language that identifies your company’s culture, and then reflect on it. What do the values mean to you? How do you demonstrate the values? How you demonstrate one value may be different than how it manifests in others. Allow yourself to interpret the company culture in your own way to lead with authenticity.
3. Ask people what the company culture means to them.
Show that you are interested in how other people view the company culture. What aspects resonate with them? What aspects are they unsure about? Inquire with your colleagues about what the company culture means to them, and allow your peers and direct reports to lead authentically.
Every person embodies company culture differently. As long as it aligns with the basic principles, allow people to embrace how they see the company culture. Allow your culture, and along with it your company and colleagues, to thrive.
Saying what the workplace culture is or should be is not implementing a culture. Practice the culture, make it your own and ask how your colleagues interpret your organization’s values. Exude your company’s principles.
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EXTRACT FROM B. NYEMBO'S STATEMENT RELATING TO INNOVATION AT THE UNECE EXPERTS' MEETING FROM MARCH 30-APRIL 1, 2016 AT THE PALAIS DES NATIONS IN GENEVA
Dear Colleagues:
Innovation is the only way to create additional jobs and fight poverty. However, access to finance is the trigger. Donors can make a big difference in the philanthropic industry by bringing a more realistic holistic approach to enhance the global "right to happiness" of people. In order to achieve such a challenge, many elements are necessary to instill a new scope for ethical practice based on transparency and
I am personally involved with the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) in Vienna to reshape and make significant improvements to the public-private partnership (PPP) legal texts, rules, and regulations connected to sustainable development (lack of development finance, human rights, "land grab," and other issues) between developed and developing countries.
Today, philanthropists are faced with a number of domestic and international challenges in terms of funding and service delivery. In order to be effective, we propose that philanthropists should build a new era of partnerships with the people at the roots who can facilitate PPPs. It is the more responsible answer to citizens’ needs and demonstrates an accountable and effective attitude.
The direct consequence will be that donors will become more receptive to an increased demand from citizens for enhanced participation as well as more inclusive services (for vulnerable groups) and higher quality services with less resources. At the same time, the public sector will be involved to respond to complex, multi-faceted, and interdependent challenges with the philanthropists and the stakeholders. In other words, government transformation through enhanced coordination of policies, decision-making processes, and integration of services
What we wish to see in the philanthropic industry is a new direction and a new vision for becoming an engine of growth for people’s happiness.
Photo 1: Kanshi River in Mbuji-Mayi, East Kasai offers large business opportunities.
Photo 1: There are significant economic potential along the Kanshi River in Mbuji-Mayi, East Kasai.
A comprehensive strategy for innovation in the PPP-related philanthropy sector is essential and advantageous for all parties.
• Philanthropists will stop being just funders and start acting as catalysts for innovation and change.
• They will promote networked co-responsibility by enabling "social ownership," or the participation of local communities in the resolution of their own issues.
• Governments will be impacted by such a position. For instance, they will permit a competitive strategy rather than a monopolistic one for the delivery of products and services.
• They will become "social entrepreneurs" by generating revenues and promoting ethical partnerships in any areas that create jobs and improve life quality.
• This will have a direct impact and enable governments to operate in an integrated and collaborative manner across departments and agencies.
• Governments will become pro-active instead of reactive, anticipating problems.
• They will also make full use of opportunities afforded by the application of information and communication technologies (ICT) in government in order to bridge the digital divide.
• Eventually, governments will transform mindsets and build a cluster of transparency and accountability.
We have witnessed how other people revamped their sectors of activity. Steve Jobs was among them. A printout is available to you, as is a summary (draft) indicating what my team and I are trying to achieve to innovate the banking industry where it is needed. It is a critical and emergency plan that requires your assistance and commitment.
Here is an excerpt from Steve Jobs' biography:
Mike Markkula, who wrote the first business plan for Apple Computer, made a wild prediction: "We're going to be a Fortune 500 company in two years." This is the start of an industry. "It happens once in a decade." It would take Apple seven years to break into the Fortune 500, but the spirit of Markkula’s prediction turned out to be true. Jobs was a fighter!
Finally, such new paradigms in the charity and philanthropic industry will foster an organizational culture that encourages knowledge sharing and change management, as well as leveraging the potential of ICTs through an integrated management strategy, adequate ICT infrastructure, and human resources.
"If the roots are deep and strong, the tree needn’t worry about the wind." Unknown.
Thanks for your attention.
Bernard Nyembo
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POPULATION GROWTH AND POVERTY. (From Vision Template)
In its publication of October 2, 2013, the Institut français d’études démographiques (INED) indicates that:
• By the year 2050 the world population will reach 9.733 billion inhabitants.
• The level of 6 billion was reached in 1999, yet it took only 12 years in order to reach 7 billion in 2011.
• Today the world population is 7.141 billion.
• In 2050 the DRC will become the 9th most populated country on the planet, with 182 million inhabitants.
ENHANCING THE ROLE OF THE DIASPORA.
Every year billions of Dollars are remitted by migrant workers to developing countries. We explore such a niche and we convert it into an opportunity with a chain of ramifications.
Immigrants and their descendants contribute to the economic and social progress in the homeland and in the country of residence: sending money back home, setting up responsible investments, innovation, funding the key sectors, including real estate, sanitation, health care, schooling, tourism, and sponsoring families experiencing financial distress.
According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), remittances sent by overseas migrant workers to developing countries have been rapidly growing and are estimated to reach $540 billion by 2016...
But governments are missing such a terrific economic power. We explore the niche for generating win-win partnerships.
Let us keep our torch alight and wake up ready to take prompt action. It is such a type of sunshine that will complete our compelling vision.
Only time will tell.
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ANOTHER CASE ABOUT NOT TAKING RISKS:
"... It’s weird that you bring it up now. Yesterday I was chatting with a friend who had an option on Tesla, manufacturer of electric cars. Stocks were traded at $20. We tried to buy but the guy was negligent. Today stocks soared to $171. At that time my friend won a trial and he received compensation of $180,000. He could have made a fortune, but he refused to listen to me, although I insisted. Yesterday I reminded him about this, he was devastated because he has no more cash.
M. Lula, Our correspondent in San Bernadino, California September 15, 2013. (Undisclosed references.)
OUR REPLY :
In 2006-2007 I saw the crisis coming. I therefore advised close family, relatives and friends to purchase stocks of companies at risk like Citibank and Ford. If my memory is good, in January of 2007 «a source» disclosed to me that a stock of Citibank was $0.17 with the possibility of reaching $17 within the coming 18 months. I left promptly SFO for for Kinshasa and Lubumbashi in order to explain that to our business men and women, as well as some public corporations. Nobody listened...
I even suggested a «bridge loan», an LBO (Leveraged Buy Out) and a series of combinations offering a lower coefficient of risk for beta returns within a period of 12-18 months... I don’t even mention the stocks options... I suspect that in 2008 this stock price soared at $35. (Let me check this info, I’ll let you know). Gulf countries (I do not disclose names for obvious reasons) immediately took the opportunity.
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