As I think about my recent roles within the telecoms industry and the companies that I’ve worked with past and present (and before I move on to my next role) I’d like to pose a question. How is the confidence of an organisation and it’s management team related to the culture (processes, procedures, authority and empowerment of individuals) within that organisation?
Businesses seem to mimic people in their personalities and cultures, more so when they are owner or founder managed. So when a business is doing well we enjoy working in an environment that is comfortable with the future and allows people a level of empowerment to take risks, to experiment and to innovate. The popular management books written about ‘failing fast’ all encourage to this type of leadership culture in positive commercial environments.
But when things take a turn and the future looks less certain confidence can quickly drop and the culture and leadership behaviour in an organisation can also change or adapt with a new 'safety first' but, in my view, myopic zeitgeist. When times get tough in the economic cycle, we’ve all experienced CFO’s reigning in spending especially on items they view as discretionary, like marketing or travel. This is usually in line with new policies and procedures implemented to sure up business cases to ensure spending is curbed and RoI is bullet proof. This makes good commercial sense – after all who wouldn't tighten the belt when times are forecast to be tough? But how tight should the belt buckle be pulled and how does this turn in the economic cycle impact company culture?
It’s been suggested a that a new way of thinking about these issues is that perhaps that when times turn tough and confidence is low, that this is exactly the right time to change the way we think and operate, to experiment and fail and try to new processes to overcome the new obstacles; and not to revert back to the old, safe and trusted ways of working.
The reason for this is that the added pressure on business cases, the cost controls and the internal focus naturally leaves less time to worry about customers, prospects and the new business for the future. Now's the time to empower and innovate, not restrict and internalise. Now's the time to demonstrate best practice and improve on it for the up-turn, not to internalise and politicise decisions. Corporate culture is decided by the leadership teams and the ways they behave and how they permit other to behave. Any company's strength in a downturn is always its people - let them lead.
Don’t wait for your business to fail further, for pressures to increase to crisis levels before going out on a limb, taking the calculated risks and allowing your teams to innovate. Maintain your best practices, continue to spend on your customers, encourage future projects and demand positive innovation from everyone.
It’s the people that make up your business and it's the responsibility of the leadership team to maintain a confident culture. People are so important that I suspect once corporate confidence is lost it will only be regained by bringing in new people who bring their own buckets full of confidence with them, enough to share across the organisation. And I believe a companies culture is dictated by the worst accepted or tolerated behaviours of an organisation, and not the best as described in their glossy manifesto.