Yesterday in Brisbane noted international speaker Marcus Child presented his keynote “Leading an Engaged Culture” at All TEC Day 2011.
As I noted on the weekend, I was looking forward to hearing Marcus as I’ve long argued that corporate culture and old school face to face communication skills are being pushed aside in the rush to “be social” – so I was keen to hear Marcus’s perspective on what business leaders need to be doing so as to build an engaged workforce in this social age.
Marcus made many excellent points in his presentation – many of them being simple and obvious – yet points we often need to hear again and again.
The first key take home for me was the importance of the leader in terms of how their actions ultimately determine what behaviours and what culture manifests itself inside a company. This is critical. We rush to tell companies to be social, we talk about building tribes, fans, followers, but as Marcus noted, 80-90% of behaviour (of employees) is influenced by three key factors:
- What the leader attends to, measures, rewards, and controls
- Leader reaction to critical incidents
- Leader role modelling, coaching
But How We Communicate is Changing – Don’t We Need to Change How We Lead?
In a nutshell – No!
Recalling what Marcus talked about got me thinking about how General Douglas MacArthur led the Allied troops in World War 2. His actions, his beliefs, his desire to be a leader meant he achieved more from his “team” than anyone expected.
We’ve got all these new ways of communicating in real time, with one or many other parties involved – we’ve got dozens of shiny new mobile devices that allow us to solve the problems of the world via our finger tips.
But…
We’re setting ourselves up to fail if we haven’t got the right leadership and right leadership behaviours on display.
This is one of the core benefits I realise from being a TEC member – learning from other leaders, being able to digest the ideas from global experts like Marcus Child means I can develop and understanding of this and use this to frame my role as a leader.
Dr Helen Paige
September 19, 2011
Hi Mark, thank you for your post. I apologise as I don’t know you, but receive the TEC messages on Linkedin. I guess the overarching thought when I read through the comments and posts is – what’s new….we all inherently KNOW these things about having the right culture ‘the way we do things around here’; the inherent NEED for good leadership (everywhere) not just in organisations, the need for champions of change…nothing is NEW. The big issue is WHY doesn’t it happen? For me, that is the question that needs to be answered. I have been writing, studying, reading, modelling and mentoring on these topics for years, and in the end, I have concluded that WE can only influence those who are ready to listen. My advice, gatherer those around you who have the capacity to feel the same – see the other people in your business/organisation as the challenge – make these ‘values’ as above a priority, and don’t give up on it, and lead, really lead. Dr Helen Paige
Mark Parker
September 24, 2011
Hi Helen,
Firstly, thanks for the comment. The points raised by Marcus seemed to resonate with TEC members around Australia and New Zealand. And maybe it’s the simplicity of his message which is why we’re all enjoying it? As for why we don’t see more good leadership? That’s a whole new discussion…
cheers Mark