17. Seven Tough Questions to Ask About Your Leadership Culture

I have been told by many CEOs that they have invested heavily in leadership development and are still not seeing the results. I have supported many CEOs on enhancing their organisational cultures.

These CEOs were not happy with their leaders for some of the reasons I discuss below. There was something amiss. We uncovered there were two factors at play:

1. The CEOs had not clearly articulated their vision of the culture (and their expectations of leaders.)

2. The Leaders therefore created their own habits.

I ask CEOs that I work with these Seven Tough Questions to Ask About their Leadership Culture - they will help you determine whether your leadership culture needs a refresh:

1. Do your leaders empower and trust their staff or do they deploy the more directive style where what they say goes?

2. Do your leaders actually get on with each other and work constructively with each other? (A diversity of leaders and a difference of opinions are needed, what I am asking here is do your leaders have a good working relationship with each other?)

3. Do your leaders have the full picture, or are they working in their own patches? In silos?

4. Are your leaders on the same page about the organisation’s strategic direction? Or do they have their own versions of it?

5. Do your leaders share information freely or hold onto it with the mentality that knowledge is power?

6. Do your leaders inspire their teams?

7. Are your leaders emotionally intelligent? Do they have the capacity to be aware of, control, and express their emotions, and can they handle interpersonal relationships judiciously and empathetically?

Fun fact: A study by Deloitte states “More than 80% of the jobs created between now and 2030 will be for knowledge workers, and two-thirds of jobs will be strongly reliant on soft skills.” What are you doing to develop the soft skills of your leaders?

Read the article where I initially wrote about this.

Contact me to find ways to improve your leadership cultur