"To win in the marketplace, you must first win in the workplace." - Doug Conant, Former CEO, Campbell's Soup
There are no shortages of leadership assessment, training, and development programs available. Online searches can quickly provide organizations with various presenters and outside consultants ready to assist. Indeed, some of these leadership programs can be very impactful, especially to fill short-term leadership gaps. However, these programs often treat leaders as though they are in a vacuum and not a part of the culture and climate of the organization they lead. Understanding an organization's culture is an often overlooked and deemphasized aspect of an organization's leadership development and hiring programs.
Members of the Psyince team have supported high-performing organizations with a significant focus on a job candidate's "fitness." These assessments were not simply focused on the candidate's physical fitness, though that was important. Fitness in this context referred to how well the character and personality aspects of a particular candidate would "fit," within an organization's culture. Poor culture fits in these organizations had been found to lead to poor outcomes, making fitness assessments a high priority. These fitness assessments were successful because of a strongly developed psychological assessment program mixed with a deep understanding of an organization's culture. This leads to a question for you to ponder about your organization: how well do you and your leaders understand your culture?
Deloitte, a multinational professional services organization, also found that culture and leadership are integral parts of a harmonious whole. Deloitte published an article titled The Culture or the Leader, which described the importance of understanding and working within an organization's culture. They noted three aspects of importance for leaders:
"Fit with culture and model desired behaviors." Leaders are encouraged to understand their environment and their own strengths and vulnerabilities to help develop themselves and their team.
"Understand his or her fit with the culture and use that awareness to drive positive change." Leaders do not operate in a vacuum, and understanding their environment can assist them in developing and implementing improvement initiatives.
"Connect with employees' hearts and minds, aligning to a common purpose." Leaders who integrate into their organization's culture can then understand the needs of their team. This can help shape the environment to increase employees' investment and engagement.
The best leaders know how to engage and motivate their teams. They do this because they understand the team's culture and how they fit within that culture. Psyince can assist in helping with this often overlooked component of leadership, and support you and your team's growth and development by providing this understanding.