Activating Culture Through Your Leaders - Leadership Development Exchange
In Culture RenovationTM, i4cp CEO Kevin Oakes writes that it’s critical for CEOs and senior leaders to embody, constantly communicate, and model desired behaviors. To support leaders’ efforts, organizations must measure and reward their desired behaviors. What does that look like in action? What can organizations do to tangibly renovate a culture?
In this meeting, Cetera Financial shared the story of the firm’s ongoing culture renovation including highlights, challenges, and current outcomes.
Featuring: Tina Stout, Talent Program Manager, Cetera Financial
Top things we explored.
Leaders are the lynchpin of a very healthy culture. High performing organizations are more than 8x more likely to hold leaders accountable for employee outcomes. Their leaders also lead by example, regularly communicate values, and address poor behavior immediately. Check out the latest Culture Fitness Study to learn more.
Cetera was ready for a culture renovation. A designed culture is built and evolved with the intention and ability to support and celebrate the organization’s people and purpose. Tina Stout, Talent Program Manager, at Cetera shared their story of culture renovation. Check out the Culture Renovation webinar to learn more about the steps Cetera took.
Keep the best, renovate the rest. Cetera gave their leaders the flexibility to keep the best of their teams' culture and renovate the rest. They ran a simple table exercise called Values in Action, where leaders discussed how values come to life at Cetera. Find the instructions for this exercise in the deck.
Look to the data. Cetera used the Culture Renovation process and started by conducting listening sessions, interviews, and other data gathering methods. They listened to their employees to see what was really going on in the culture of the organization. That data was used to show others what was really going on and gain buy-in from key stakeholders.
Executive support is key. The Executive team had a blend of new leaders from other organizations and leaders that had been at Cetera for several years. Everyone prioritized this initiative, including kicking off and attending the listening sessions.
Help leaders see that culture is the key to success. We brainstormed ideas to do so in The Last 30 such as: incorporate accountability into talent systems, shift ownership to executives outside of HR, and share stories from other leaders about culture activation and how it’s helping bottom-line results. Looking for more ideas? Check out the article Paint a Vision for the Future.
What a healthy culture looks like. i4cp’s Healthy Culture Index combines six key elements that together, based on analysis of the data, form the foundation of a healthy organizational culture. Learn more about the Healthy Culture Index explained and see how your organization measures up in the Healthy Culture Benchmark.
log in
