HR Leader on People Management (Part 3)
Building great culture through people management is not an intellectual exercise. It comes down to acting the way that others want you to act.
As a leadership team, it’s important to write down the behaviors that you expect from your peers. This process allows you to share these behaviors and call people out when they are not practicing the behaviors.
Part of this exercise is thinking about the type of workplace that you want to create. You should list five values that are most important to develop your ideal workplace. Then, you assign behaviors that will support these values. For example, if your values are “hustle” or “get it done,” you would illustrate these values by drawing on examples from your team.
The next part of building your culture is focused on how to “be it.” The most important thing for leaders to do is to lead the way that your team wants to see and to be. If your expectation is to finish projects on time, then you have to show up on time for meetings. It is amazing to see unprepared CEOs attend meetings and expect different results from their team.
It’s not easy to “be it.” One of my friends said, “we have an inclusive leadership team with three women.” I said, “that’s great – how many people are on the team?” He replied, “we have 12.” Based on simple math, the team would need at least six women to be inclusive. This serves as a great reminder of why it’s important to practice what you preach.
About the speaker
Patty McCord leads a consulting practice focused on defining leadership and building culture at many of the world’s most innovative companies. During her 14-year career as Chief Talent Officer at Netflix, Patty created the Netflix Culture Deck - which is the modern standard for on-boarding practices at today’s leading organizations.