COLIN ON CULTURE
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Winning
Winning is not about crushing the competition or stepping on colleagues; it's about creating an environment where winning becomes a natural outcome of doing things properly.
Cynics and sceptics
What’s the difference and why does it matter for your workplace culture?
Entitled or just badly managed?
There’s a trend for CEOs to blame ‘entitled’ employees for the resistance to returning to the office - but take a look in the mirror and you’ll see a lack of managerial skill reflected.
If you can't stand the heat
The culinary (and corporate) world has long perpetuated the myth that enduring abuse is somehow a badge of honour, a rite of passage that transforms good chefs and leaders into great ones.
Fact vs. future
If you're going to invest time in defining the key elements of your culture, do it with conviction and purpose.
Loading luggage in an ice-storm
The most memorable leaders are the ones who aren’t afraid to park strategy in order to get stuck in at the coalface.
Wearing the hat
Have you got a culture people would be proud to champion - as employees or customers?
Culture decay
Dysfunctional workplaces need intervention precisely because they're dysfunctional. Every day you wait the problems become more entrenched, behaviours become more normalised and cynicism grows deeper.
Broken promises
Promises create expectation. When we don’t deliver on that expectation, trust - and more - is lost. Make yours a culture that can keep its promises.
How can we make it easier?
When a workforce grows or a start-up scales, the culture also evolves and more structure is required. But that doesn’t and shouldn’t mean things have to get harder too.
The cost of hovering
Micromanagement is a culture-killer that can unravel even the most productive of teams. Swap hovering for trusting and watch your teams soar
Indomitable Spirit
It would have been easy to give up at any stage of my journey and you will hit roadblocks in your work too. You have to believe in yourself and your vision for your future self. If you don’t, no one else will either.
Chumocracy
Chumocracy in your culture creates an echo chamber effect leading to poor decision making and missed opportunities.
Bottling a crisis culture
Organisations need to shift from trying to mandate culture (or simply expecting it to happen!) to instead creating conditions where employees have the agency to shape it themselves.
Busting the silos
We cling to our silos because they're comfortable and familiar but the walls they build up can be hard to tear down without managers who understand the value of subcultures.