Mission: Leaders must define and nurture culture

Leaders set the example of performance and values that build the culture. Walking the talk is the most powerful form of communication. Build your culture with purpose; don’t just let it happen. Define the elements of a successful culture and weed out the attitudes that do not fit. Be vigilant and look for cultural confusion during rapid growth, mergers and acquisitions.

Leaders need to be conscious of and proactively build their organization culture. Otherwise culture will just grow ad hoc and years later the organization's culture may have undesirable facets. Changing the culture once it is entrenched is challenging. It is easier to build it right at the outset.

Related Best Practices

• Building Trust in an Organization
• Changing Your Organization

Author

The author of this page is Terry Gardiner

Terry Gardiner is the founder and President of Silver Lining Seafoods and NorQuest Seafoods - a medium-size Alaska seafood processing company; and currently a Board member of the Anvil Corporation, an employee-owned company specializing in oil and gas engineering.

His co-operative experiences include member director of the Commercial Fishermen Co-operative association; creation of legislation for the Alaska Commercial Fishing and Agriculture Bank; and advisor to the US Dept of Health and Social Services for the state Health CO-OPs.

Terry served ten years as a member of the Alaska House of Representatives -several legislative committee chairmanships, Speaker of the House, Chairman of the Alaska Criminal Code Commission and board member on various state and federal boards and commissions.

His non-profit experiences include National Policy Director for the Small Business Majority in Washington DC; working with the Herndon Alliance and ForTerra.

Terry authored the leadership book, "Six-Word Lessons to Build Effective Leaders: 100 Lessons to Equip Your People to Create Winning Organizations".

For more check: Terry Gardiner Long bio