OrgHealth Ascent Assessment for Individuals
Collaborative Culture
Talent Magnetism
What does this mean?
Here’s what you are likely experiencing on your team based on what you’ve reported.
High: Collaborative Culture
- Frustrations are less likely to build up over time, as there is a greater chance of team members airing their concerns and solutions being reached.
- Crises are much more likely to be avoided because early warning signs are taken more seriously.
- Budget and timelines are much more easily managed as all departments are aware of the status of various initiatives and quicker help each other for the good of the company as a whole.
- People like working here. There is less risk of losing employees who are a great fitover frustrations or disillusionment.
- People believe in your company; they will work more effectively and interact more favourably with customers, clients, and talented candidates in their network.
Medium: Leadership Accountability and Strategic Momentum
- Your leadership team is likely about to do their jobs without too much fuss. Relationships appear to be stable enough, and at least some of the staff feel the leadership can be trusted.
- If more focus was given towards clearly communicating key priorities and strategic anchors, and celebrating the achievement of goals in meaningful ways, the pace of progress would improve.
Low: Talent Magnetism
- More likely to have to over-pay good people to join or stay.
- Higher chance of disillusioned executives leaving, triggering significant costs for search and assimilation.
- Voluntary turnover of high performers is likely higher than it should be.
Action Step
Here's what you can do.
We would recommend reading through all the suggestions below and choosing either one or two to build an action plan around.
Build trust.
To be truly effective, leaders need the trust of the people they lead. A high level of trust in our organization pays off with a commitment to continuous improvement, adaptability during change, collaborative teamwork, people who are motivated to high productivity and engagement, and a great reputation that attracts even more outstanding talent. But trust isn’t just handed out to us with the job title and we can’t just assume that it will appear spontaneously on its own. We have do the actions to build it, moment by moment, day by day.
Watch for artificial harmony.
When executives always agree with the CEO (or each other), it indicates they’re trying to survive in an environment where all the signals imply that opposition is bad and agreement is good. A ‘yes person’ culture surrounds us with like-minded individuals—on the leadership team, the new people we hire, and even the consultants we work with—and then rewards them for their consistent agreement with us. Under the guise of “cultural fit”, it seems totally logical, but what’s often really happening is the culture is being decided at the top and the loss of collective intelligence, creativity, and capacity to evolve undermines our leadership performance and organizational results.
Get ‘real’ feedback on fear.
Talk to managers and team members you know will be straight with you about their observations around fear and trust. Ask questions like:
“Are we encouraging people to innovate or does it feel like they have to conform?”
“Are differing perspectives and opinions tolerated?”
“What happens when mistakes occur? How does leadership respond?” (Are leaders unintentionally undermining rather than encouraging innovation by responding in ways that make people hold back?)
Highlight, listen to, and challenge your assumptions about others; work to keep your own opinions and self-image from being your main focus.
While assertiveness, decisiveness, and projecting confidence are all tools that can be powerful for leaders, there is a plague throughout the business world of these skills being overused to the detriment of the leader themselves and their company. Conversely, by consistently focusing on others instead of ourselves, we exercise underused core competencies of leadership like self-awareness, active listening, and empathy. When an organization’s most senior leaders model these behaviours, it’s much more likely to cascade through all levels and become a natural behaviour in our company culture.
How can our team help you succeed?
We would love to help you tackle your goals and see the change you know is needed. Let's get the conversation started!