Leadership Responsibility in Culture Development
Many executives think they’ve created a culture but, in all reality, they’ve created something entirely different.
They’ve created a pseudocommunity
Pseudocommunity is defined as 𝐚 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐩 𝐨𝐟 𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐚 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐛𝐞𝐭𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐰𝐡𝐨𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐧𝐨 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐚𝐬 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐞𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐞 observer.
Think of your organization as a community.
How do you know what you’ve created? In a pseudocommunity you’ll experience:
➞ No healthy debate
➞ Everyone agrees with one another
➞ A lot of pleasantries to go around
➞ There is little or no “caring” about each other
➞ Information isn’t shared
➞ Employees work in silos
➞ There’s no common goal or vision - each person for themself
When you’ve created an actual culture, the experience is completely different.
You’ll be able to observe and experience:
✷ Everyone being welcomed. Bring on diverse thoughts, people, and experiences
✷ Employees looking out for one another
✷ Information is shared more opening, honestly and completely
Collaboration
✷ Give AND receive - whether it be information, time, resources - they’re all in
✷ Helping one another solve problems
✷ Welcome open and honest dialogue (aka healthy debate)
✷ Vulnerability
✷ Responsibility
✷ They feel connected and care about one another
✷ Having a common goal, they’re all working towards
When you take a step back - what have you created? What is leadership's responsibility in culture development in your team?