Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn

This post from Vital Smarts is about how a personal brand relates to the perceptions of others. Your brand is co-created with your stakeholders and based in their perceptions, which you cannot directly control. People perceive your actions from their own perspective, not from yours. In many ways, organizational culture and engagement share this problem. The organizational culture (“how things are done around here”) represents a similar perception problem. Engagement (“how employees feel about and respond to the culture”) is even more perception-based.

This means that unless the leaders ask how the employees feel about the culture, the leaders won’t know. In my experience, most organization’s leaders don’t ask, because they don’t see a problem from their own perspective. Therefore, they figure everything is OK. In the current marketplace, there is no room for this kind of complacency. Your good employees are highly mobile and, most likely, won’t tell you they’re not happy until it is too late for you to retain them.

The bottom line is that the five steps outlined in the post should be applied to the culture/engagement loop.
In brief, they are:

  1. There is no such thing as a “false” perception. There are only different perceptions from different people.
  2. Accept the current perceptions. Since people’s perceptions are not “wrong”, we have to take them where they are. We will fail if our position is “let me help you correct your perception of the situation.”
  3. Understand the current perceptions. The only way you can know how people perceive the situation is to ask them.
  4. Don’t build a non-negative brand. Being perceived as “not X” is not a strong position. Figure out the positive statement of the negative and pursue that. You can’t build a strong culture if you pursue “we’re not uncaring.” “We are a caring organization” is much better. Take some active steps to change the reality that others perceive.
  5. Seek feedback on the perception of your efforts. Doing so shows respect for your employees and prompts them to reevaluate their perceptions. If they perceive a change, they will appreciate your efforts. If they don’t, you have received valuable feedback on the outcomes of your efforts.

Your organizational culture is too important to be left to chance or wishful thinking. Over time, iterating through the cycle above will produce a positive cultural and engagement “brand” for your organization.

Question: Is your organization intentional about understanding how your employees perceive your culture?

Comments

Leave a Comment

Related Posts

5 Ways to Encourage Your Team

Unlock team potential with practical Agile methods for Scrum Masters to motivate and support their teams towards success. #AgileGrowth”
March 13, 2024
Chris Sims

Daily Scrum Survival Kit

Unlock efficient Daily Scrums with our Survival Kit, featuring a must-use Sprint Burndown Excel Template. #Agile #ScrumMaster
March 11, 2024
Chris Sims

How to Conduct Your First Happiness Survey: A Step-by-Step Guide

Discover how to boost team morale and productivity with our step-by-step guide on conducting your first happiness survey. Learn essential
March 6, 2024
McCaul Baggett

Prompt Engineering for Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches

GenAI enhances Agile practices, offering Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches tools for innovation and efficiency in product development.
February 29, 2024
McCaul Baggett

The Top 5 Tools Every Agilist Should Know

Explore essential Agile tools across 5 categories to enhance collaboration, project management, feedback, and more for Agile success.
February 27, 2024
Chris Sims

Organizational AI – 5 Reasons Your Organization is Failing at AI

Maybe you’ve imagined automating the mundane tasks, uncovering insights from data that were previously hidden, or simply revolutionizing the way

February 22, 2024
McCaul Baggett

Elevate Your Agility

Subscribe to our Blogs
Select the coaching guidance you would like in your inbox.
Scroll to Top