The Culture Key To Organizational Success

As I continue to learn more about organizational success strategies, I am coming to understand that the underlying culture of the organization is so very fundamental to its success.

I believe this is especially the case in terms of three critical competency areas:

– Communication – needs to be timely, constructive, multi-directional, and with emotional intelligence.

– Trust – must be be based on honesty and integrity including consistently supporting the success of everyone professionally and as a organization. 

– Collaboration – must be be anchored in respecting, valuing, empowering, and rewarding each and every person for their views and the contributions, both individually and as team members, and in treating diversity and collaboration, as a true force-multiplier. 

If any of these elements are missing or broken then it does not seem to me that the organization will be able to be successful for the long term.

Organizational success is built on ingredients that strengthen the ties of leadership and individuals and that foster contribution as individuals and as team members. 

No amount of smart, innovative, and even hard work, in my mind, will make up for shortfalls in these critical organizational success factors. 

So when planning for organizational success, make sure to build these in from the get-go. 

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Anyway You Spell It

Not to be mean or anything, but this was an eye-catching advertisement for this vendor’s services.

But whether or not you can spell what you are doing, if you are good at your job–what’s the difference.

D.C. is a funny town: some people can spell and some can Repari watches. 😉

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

EI Differentiates Us From ET

An extra-terrestrial (ET) from outer-space is alien to the human race and our culture and norms.

You wouldn’t expect an ET–despite maybe their great technology that gets them here–to understand us Earthlings and treat us properly.

They may try and capture us and even harvest our vital resources (and organs), but no, they probably wouldn’t be overly concerned with with how they act or treat us.

Hence, Emotional Intelligence (EI) is what differentiates us from ETs.

With EI we manage both our ourselves and our relationships–like (proper) human beings.

EI is made up of personal competencies and social competencies.

In terms of personal competencies–we need to be self-aware and manage ourselves with authenticity and self control–and not act like a bunch of unseemly aliens.

From a social competency perspective–we must extend ourselves to become socially aware and manage our relationships tactfully–so we don’t go chasing and laser-beaming others.

There are a number of important social skills for us Earthlings to master if we want to live nicely with others:

– Listening–that’s why G-d gave people 2 ears and 1 month (of course, aliens have the opposite–2 mouths and 1 ear).

– Feeling–showing empathy for our fellow human beings–understanding their interests, concerns, and perspectives (like no alien can).

– Giving–being selfless, giving, and nurturing to others personally and having a service-orientation to our customers.

– Teaming–developing and maintaining a breadth of interpersonal relationships and sharing and collaborating with them (this will help you fight off the invading ETs when they arrive).

– Managing conflict–deescalating issues and negotiating with others to reach agreements and resolutions (if only we could negotiate with the aliens not to eat us).

– Visioning–coming up with and championing a forward-thinking and compelling strategy.

– Managing change–influencing and leading others to adopt new ideas and change the status quo (we need to change, learn, grow, and improve–because it’s a big intergalactic world out there).

These are a lot of critical and challenging skills to master and no one is perfect at all of them.

But as imperfect as we are, it is our trust and test in life to be more than warring Earthlings fighting each other over continuously scarce resources, but instead to become social creatures as well–where we lean to gracefully manage ourselves and our relationships.

Unlike ETs, we human beings are in so many ways–with EI–better than that! 😉

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)