Leadership

This happens all of the time-a manager in a company goes to see a well-known speaker talk about leadership-ex. Colin Powell, Tom Peters, or Jack Welch-he gets "motivated" and returns to his workplace all charged up. You have lunch with this manager-he tells you all about the seminar-he is ready to manage more effectively and change the company's culture. Then what happens? Three weeks later you have lunch with the same manager-you ask him how he has changed his management style based upon the seminar-he respond-"what seminar?" It has already faded, just like cotton candy. Why? Because the manager could not change/improve the company's culture by himself-he needed support from the senior leader of the company.

And this should be one of the senior leader's top priorities-to improve the culture of his company-change the scenario that I just reviewed-what if the senior leader went to the seminar, came back excited, determined to improve his company's culture? Could he do it? Absolutely! Because he is in the unique position to drive permanent, positive, lasting culture change.

If this leader in this particular example sees the bottom-line value of culture change, he will be committed to it-and the change will start with him.