Early in my career, I worked for a company that had a servant leadership culture. It was a core value, and servant-leadership behaviors were expected from every leader in the organization. The CEO often shared his leadership message through stories to bring his points to life. He also made it clear what anti-behaviors looked like; this was sometimes referred to as “saluting the flag while kicking the dog.” Nearly 25 years later, this statement sticks with me.
Saluting the Flag
As a leader, what does it mean to salute the flag? This refers to leaders who are “all in” on the mission of the organization. They want the team to win; they drive for results and go above and beyond to exceed customer expectations. Those behaviors work great—when done the right way.
But what about “kicking the dog”? (No actual dogs were kicked in the making of this story!) That refers to how leaders treat others in the process of winning. Maybe they are gaining success while stepping on the backs of others, setting unachievable expectations, berating their employees when things don’t go well or leaving a wake of carnage in their path.
Lessons From a Leadership Transformation Journey
This concept of “kicking the dog” came to mind recently as I worked with a client at the beginning of their transformation journey.
As the CEO addressed a room of key leaders in his organization, he talked about the importance of bringing their teams along on the journey; making space for them to trust, ask questions, express concerns, lift each other up, give each other the benefit of the doubt and seeking to understand.
This goes without saying, right? But these were new behaviors with this team and would take some getting used to. You see, they had been on a parallel path for some time and instead of seeking to understand each other, they were complaining, drawing boundary lines and pointing fingers. And their teams were emulating this behavior.
While these principles may seem intuitive, implementing them requires a shift in the way we think about how behaviors—good or bad—develop and are supported within an organization.
At AlignOrg, we believe culture is the product of organization design choices made, of practices and processes put in place to reinforce those decisions, and leadership behaviors that reinforce these choices and practices.
We’ve heard of examples of exemplary customer service, whether it is a teenage employee at Chick-Fil-A giving a free meal to someone who forgot their wallet (happened to my neighbor) or a hotel employee who found a forgotten stuffed giraffe and, before shipping it to its owner, sent along a scrapbook of all the fun adventures the toy had before leaving the hotel. These moments don’t happen by accident. Instead, they are designed into the organization.
When we work with organizations on transformation, we are making new choices about how the organizational system will work. We’re identify new capabilities, processes, decision rights and roles. And we are identifying what leaders need to do more of or less of to reinforce it all. We’re planting a flag that the leaders can salute, and we are creating mechanisms for them to foster trust, lead their teams to success, to support them, encourage them and give them the freedom to make decisions because we put the mechanisms in place for them to do so.
It’s the freedom within the framework that allows employees to find their voice, to make an exceptional customer experience and to lift each other. They don’t have to second guess their decisions or worry about the consequence because they know where the guardrails are and why they exist.
Practical Steps to Build a Culture of Trust and Collaboration
What can you do as a leader to make sure your leadership behaviors are reinforcing and provide clarity for your team?
- Make decision rights very clear. What is the threshold of decisions each role or level can make? Explain the “why” and risks behind the decision so they are clear what is at stake.
- Identify the key processes—how the work flows, where accountability lies and what happens when it is unclear
- Define linkages. What are the key hand offs that must occur in the organization?
- Identify behaviors you expect to see more of and less of. Do it together as a team and hold each other to it!
Let’s empower teams to make decisions. Let’s give them clear guardrails about when it is and is not OK to take risks and delight customers.
