Successful cultural leaders are all about making connections and maintaining healthy relationships with people. They begin this process by trusting people. Charles Feltman describes trust as “choosing to risk making something you value vulnerable to another person’s actions,.” He describes distrust as deciding that “what is important to me is not safe with this person in this situation (or any situation).”
Ken Blanchard and Michael O’Connor in their book, Managing By Values (Berrett-Koehler, 1997) note that this level of communication happens naturally when leaders make things safe. I also think these same leaders start with the basic assumption that people are doing the best they can with the information and skill set they have.
From my vantage point, the key is trust and what I have noticed about great cultural leaders is that they surround themselves with people who are trustworthy. Furthermore, I believe they trust people because they have discovered their own inner integrity. They have come to the point in their leadership journey where they can let the truth be told and they can speak from their truth. Therefore they can trust the people around them, because they can trust themselves.
This all happens in part because these same leaders trust who they report to. They have experienced the “presence” of good leadership and it has changed how they engage with others.
At the same time, successful cultural leaders collaborate across organizational units and functions in order to build a culture of collaboration. They do this by infusing the work with meaning and purpose for everyone involved. They recognize that the way you think is a product of your past experiences. Therefore, they are constantly trying to create “new” experiences grounded in purpose and meaning.
This week, I encourage you to discover your own inner integrity and to reengage with the purpose and the meaning of the work you do each day. The combination of the two will be culture building on so many levels.
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