How to improve your corporate culture

How to improve your corporate culture

Are you interested in improving your company culture? Well, improving that company culture begins with you. Sometimes leaders hinder the teamwork because they feel entitled. Today, we're gonna talk about entitled leaders and how you can shift to a place that will improve teamwork and improve your company culture.

My name is Sarah Graves. I am a full-time PCC Coach and also the Chief Relationship Officer for inviteCHANGE. And today we're gonna talk about three different stories that show an example of an entitled leader who shifted to a whole new place.

Let's start first with the story of a young executive that wanted a promotion. Well, a promotion came open and the relationship that he had with his boss felt he was going to get the promotion. The boss shopped it around other colleagues. And sure enough, it was all agreed amongst them that this person would get the new promotion. Well, HR had something different to say and that is that all jobs that come open need to be posted. So what would be the shift from being entitled and thinking that you could just choose someone for that position, shop it around to your colleagues, and have a decision? It's been done for years and years and years. But we're looking for change. And how do you change as a leader from being entitled to being available and curious with your workforce? Well, what this leader did when HR knocked at his door was to post the position and begin to interview. Lo and behold, this leader met so many different managers in the company that he had no idea were there. There are issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion that again, this leader did not consider when he was deciding on the promotion. By opening his curiosity, by opening the position before he made his decision, he had a whole new education, innovation, and the leader that he chose was quite a surprise to the organization. And three years hence, this leader has been promoted two more times. So, what can we do as leaders feeling entitled and wanting it our way, the way it's always been? We can stop, pause, get present, and get curious. And that's what this leader did.

Here's a second story, and this is a multi-generational story where a leader is a baby boomer and has a millennial on his team. That every time the millennial speaks up during the board meetings, this leader just doesn't appreciate the tone of voice or says something like, you know, you'll really understand more when you get a little older. Well as you might imagine, that entitled behavior made this employee feel very inferior or minimized or degraded. And this isn't really what the leader wanted. The leader wants to hear from everyone on their team. So the leader needed to look in the mirror and do some work on themselves. Is it the tone of voice or was I feeling threatened at the moment by this whole level of knowledge and innovation and excitement and passion this young person was demonstrating? Could I shift to that part of myself just looking for innovation, looking for something new for my company so that I don't have to be in competition, rather open myself to collaboration and appreciating the younger generation for what they have to bring to the whole of the company? What this entitled leader did was shift from entitlement to curiosity asking more questions, hearing from this younger leader, and allowing that person to be honest, to feel like they are contributing, and to add something that was ongoing for the company in a way of innovation, productivity, and creativity.

The third story comes from a client of mine who was really struggling with a promised promotion from an entitled leader. And every time she met with the leader, the promise was there, the carrot was there. Just hang on, you're gonna get the title. So this young person was doing the job of the title of the promotion without the title or the money or the promotion. For 18 months, every time she met with the leader, the carrot was put out there and every time it didn't happen. I encourage you as a leader, this is a practice that hinders really positive company culture. So to be honest and don't promise ahead of time, but use your honesty, your direct communication and work with that young leader to be ready for the promotion when it comes, but not to use it as a carrot or a way of manipulating their behavior. What ended up happening is this person left the organization. The promise did not ring true and the length of time that was put on the promotion was too long. So if you're going to use this as a way of helping someone step up into a new leadership program, give it a time bound way of presentation. And then make sure that your feedback to that young leader is specific to that job and what they're doing and how they can improve.

Entitlement is a big, complex subject. Our CEO, Janet Harvey, has done a video on employees and their feelings around entitlement.