Mandy Haskett: Five things competitive cultures have in common

Leadership is a job.

And if you lead anyone—yourself (the hardest), others, or leaders of leaders—you have this job. It sits alongside the technical job you do so well. And it’s different.

The noble work of a leader is this: Create the conditions through which others can rise and thrive. The conditions through which change is possible. That’s the job.

And tragically, we’re pretty terrible at preparing new leaders.

More than 60% of companies spend less than $500/year per person on management or leadership development. For context, the average worker consumes more than $500 in office coffee per year. When the going gets tough, the tough really get going … on caffeine.

But the work of leading? Only 18% of organizations give coaching to leaders. And only 15% of companies take care of leaders—actively monitoring and mitigating leader burnout.

We know that organizations investing in strategic people-development initiatives post huge gains: three times more likely to exceed financial targets, 12 times more likely to engage and retain, five times more likely to adapt to change and innovate.

So, what are we missing?

The white-hot center of corporate America pulses with the notion that shareholder value is the preeminent concern of all business. And when shareholder value alone cements the metrics, operations follow its incentives—throwing sand in the gears of people-progress.

So, when the CEO says, “We need 30% growth,” culture says, “Hold my beer.”

Your culture is your competitive advantage (or not). It’s your culture that is magnetic—attracting humans aligned to your values and repelling the ones who aren’t. It’s your culture that contains the nutrients for your growth.

If you want to compete, the sticky little truth is that you need cultural advantage.

After almost four decades of developing leaders, ADVISA has studied all kinds of workplace cultures—the ones that send people running for the hills, and the ones that seem to be a positive differentiator. We’ve learned that the best cultures have five things in common.

These five elements (we call ATLAS) act as a map, guiding you to turn your accidental culture into your competitive advantage. Here they are:

1. Activation from above

My first boss used to say: “No jeans at work,” then (regularly) wore jeans! So, yes or no to the jeans? This example is benign. Unlike regularly lying. My point: It’s the executives’ behaviors and their relentless pursuit of the intentional culture that fuel value creation (or not). You can nail the forthcoming four drivers, but without executive buy-in, you’re in a well-trimmed boat without a rudder. Good execs know culture can’t be delegated, and it’s never finished.

2. Trust and shared purpose

For employees to commit to the mission/vision/values, they must have trustworthiness. Let me be clear: I’m not advocating for blind trust. Trust without trustworthiness is called gullibility. The virtue here produces teams who trust that they matter, trust that their work makes a difference, and trust that leaders will do the right thing—even when it’s hard.

3. Leader effectiveness

For leaders to be effective, they need two things: clarity on the unique job requirements (of leading) and tools to do that job. Specifically, leaders must be able to recite what effective leaders say and do in their organization (we call these leadership capabilities). And they need customized development that targets those unique capabilities. This is so different from grab-bag “trainertainment.” If you’re sending leaders to one-size-fits-all workshops or peer groups, you’re blind-bowling.

4. Actionable people data

“Data is like garbage,” Mark Twain is quoted as saying. “You’d better know what you’re going to do with it before you start collecting it.” Decide what problem people-data needs to help you solve, then use it to understand employees’ motivations, needs and experiences in objective ways; measure progress; and reduce “trial and error.” This will increase speed and visibility.

5. Systems that support leaders

Focusing on training people, without interrogating the environment in which they must succeed, is like rinsing the salt off a pickle and putting it back in the brine. Competitive cultures ensure leaders have the systems and environments to pave the path between knowing and doing.

If you’re feeling curious about the strength of these five drivers in your organization, we’re not gatekeeping: We built a free, five-minute quiz for CEOs based on our findings that you can check out.

When we see organizations bring the importance of shareholder value into balance with the important drivers of culture creation, their leaders become motivated to prioritize the job of leading—creating the conditions through which change is possible. And this is the gateway to your biggest competitive advantage yet.•

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Haskett is a leadership consultant at Advisa, a Carmel-based leadership consultancy.