Yesterday I wrote about creating a leadership culture and at the end of that post, I mentioned that today, we would look at your culture document. First question: do you have a culture document, that is have you taken the time to think through and write down the elements of your work, church or even family culture that are too vital to leave to chance? A great place to start is with the three things you can control: your allegiances, your attitudes and your effort. New Life’s culture document makes it clear that we’re serving Jesus Christ, who we believe is the King of kings, and Lord of lords, so we’re quite serious about our ultimate allegiance. Your allegiance may be to your company, to your family, or whatever it is that tops your list.
When it comes to attitudes, the culture document is the place you make it clear what kind of attitudes are and aren’t acceptable. For example, our document makes it clear that we are not “hired hands,” that is we don’t have an attitude of punching the clock when it comes to our work. We believe that the Kingdom of God doesn’t fit in our job description, so we may have times when we’ll need to work through a schedule time off. In my case, I’m officiating at a funeral today, even though I’m on vacation this week. To me, I’m making the right choice, and I’ll take some time next week to make up for the off time I’m missing today. You may not have that kind of flexibility in your place of work, church or endeavor, but it’s important to decide what your attitude is toward getting the job done.
Another area where attitude is important is when it comes to whining. We have a no whining policy for New Life staff. If you receive a pay check you lose the opportunity to whine. That doesn’t mean you can’t be critical of a process or situation, only that dealing with it includes finding constructive approaches rather than whining. Again, you may have a different attitude toward negativity, but whatever it is, having something about it in your culture document will help assure that everyone’s on the same page. After all, it’s hard to stay on the same page unless there’s an actual page on which to stay!
When it comes to effort, everyone wants employees or staff to give their best, but it isn’t realistic to expect someone to be at the top of their game every minute. The key is to include in your culture document that best effort is expected, and when someone isn’t feeling well physically, or is going through a challenging time personally, the document may address the need for team efforts in such situations, or specific responses to make when a coworker is performing at less than his or her peak.
As with all documents of this type, a culture document is always a work in progress. As I mentioned yesterday, we want to include that we are great at celebrating successes, but right now, we’re not. We’re monitoring our progress and one day we’ll add it to the document when the time is right. The key is to start somewhere and move one step at a time to the point that your culture document offers a clear representation of who you are and what your doing as an organization.
Here’s to leading better by making the first step, or the next step of progress on your culture document–today!