I quickly recognized the power of
looks from a tender age. If my dad came out of the bedroom in the morning
wearing a smile, a kind of vibrancy pervaded our house. You’d hear people humming
while they brushed their teeth and laughter from the bedrooms. Morning chores
were quickly discharged and everyone, down to my baby brother, would be dressed
and ready in time to go to school. But, if he emerged from the room with a long
face, the day turned out to be a nightmare for everyone. My sisters will be at
each other’s throats like polygamous wives, my baby brother screaming at the
top of his lungs while being bathed and I will be sulking from being saddled
with a time-wasting task like looking for my other brother’s socks which had
the annoying habit of going MIA.
When I first noticed this
phenomenon, I had to be sure that it was not a figment of my thoughts. So, I sought
confirmation from my very intelligent immediate younger brother. He replied
that he thought he was the only one who felt that way and so we swore never to
look into daddy’s face when he came out of his room in the morning. Needless to
say, the others who kept looking caught the bug and tried as we did, our day
was every bit as unpleasant as theirs because we are family. I am sure that dad
never knew the magical powers of his morning visage but inexplicably it set the
tone for the day for his family.
It’s the same way that the
action or inaction of the head of an organisation sets the tone for his
subordinates and a business-owner sets the tone for his company. In business
jargon, tone is akin to organizational culture; it is the invisible but
palpable landmark that sets one business apart from another. Organizational
culture can either be enervating or invigorating. I have been to businesses
where it appeared that every worker had it in for me, from the janitor to the
manager. I have been to a company where I felt that the motto should have read something
like “Rip ‘em off”; even their door almost ripped my shirt. And I have been to
warm and efficient organisations where I wished I could get a job offer and
hand in my resignation to my boss.
We will quickly examine three
ways that you can set a winning culture for your business.
The first is by your example as
the business owner. Employees mostly reflect the kind of leadership they see;
not the kind you preach. If a business owner comes in at 10 a.m., his employees
are taught that 9.55a.m is the actual resumption time. If he leaves work by
4p.m, they will all be gone at 4.01p.m, before the fumes of his departing vehicle
even gets to disperse. If an entrepreneur screams at her customers, the
employees are inspired to take it a notch higher and add a punch to their faces.
And if she is motherly, employees learn to treat each other and customers too like
brothers.
A new generation bank in Nigeria had
a CEO who was described by everyone who met him as fatherly. It was not long
before it became a household name and an epitome of dignified, polite and professional
banking. Everyone rushed to open an account with the bank with little or no
marketing by the staff. But a few years ago, the management of the bank changed
and a new CEO was appointed. Even though the same staff, technology, capital
and customer base are still in place, this bank has lost its standing as a
household name. When I inquired from a friend, who heads one of their branches,
what was responsible for this turn of events he pointed at the new CEO. He said
that all the CEO wants is for them to make more profit at any cost and that the
bank is fast losing its soul. He continued that the hostility that customers now feel arises from the pressure workers are constantly under. “We cannot see our
customers as kings. To us, they have all become tightfisted meal tickets”, he
concluded.
The next thing to watch out for
in order to set the tone for your business is what you penalize.
In the bank where I worked for
four years, there was a terminology we often used, we called it “shredding”. It
was the act of tongue-lashing erring subordinates to the point of tears rolling
down their cheeks or making them tremble with fright. I promised that I would
be different as I climbed but I am sorry to announce that I wasn’t. The
shredding custom was so pervasive and like all bullies I know, we just couldn’t
bring ourselves to stop. It turned out that what I thought was a branch-specific
thing was actually a bank-wide phenomenon. The day the big boys from the head
office came around, instead of correcting
the bad attitude, they actually came to show us how it is done. To this day,
junior staffs still complain about the bank’s shredding culture.
It’s important that we penalize
only bad things; good things should not be. When I was still working in the
bank, (please bear with all my bank
examples, they just seem so apt) a supervisor came around and asked me why I
was keeping an electronic record of cards I handed out instead of putting it in
writing. I explained that, “It is faster and easier to manage and I thought…..”
She cut me off at that point and made it clear that I was not paid to think; she
said others had been paid to think and I was to simply comply. In effect she
was penalizing initiative. A Steve Jobs would never do that.
The last factor to building
healthy business culture is what you consistently reward.
Rewards can be in the form of silent
consent, a nod or even promotions and recommendations. A few years ago, certain
forex deals were prohibited for commercial banks and those who infringed the
regulations were fined. I heard of a CEO who perpetually disregarded the orders,
not because he was not aware of them but because of something more sinister. He
would ask how much the bank stood to profit from the forex deal and compared it
to the fine. If the fine was dwarfed by the profit, he would set the fine aside and approve the transaction. Would you believe that most
of his lieutenants down to the cashier in the branches had their crafty ways of
bending rules and cutting corners? As you would expect, a lot of the bank staff had
regular run-ins with the anti-fraud unit of the police.
So as you run your business watch
for the examples that you set, the things you penalize and the things you
consistently reward because they are the ingredients that form your
organizational culture. And also permit me to add, that if you are a parent
learn to smile more because it sets the tone for your family.
I will take heed to that parental advice... but I wonder what face Jonathan wears out of his bedroom each morning. lol!
ReplyDeleteHmn.... I left this page on for 4 weeks bcos I was busy and I didn't want to miss the message. Thank God I read this, very inspiring. The entrepreneurial tips are outstanding, not to mention the parentsl advice. God bless you richly.
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