Is it always the Big Dog’s fault when organisational culture goes awry?

So two newspaper stories caught my eye?- one about how Boris Johnson is blaming everyone else for his troubles over the culture of Covid rule breaking that went on for months in Downing Street, and the other about the number of menopausal women struggling to cope with their current jobs.?On the surface they might not be that related, but they both relate to workplace culture.

There are many definitions – but in the end culture is “the way we do things round here.”?Lots of HR people will talk about the importance of policies and procedures – trying to codify this stuff is quite tough, and for me while policies are important in showing what is most important, it is how they are applied – or not, that has a bigger impact.

A policy tells us what is most important – and what I might be sacked for not doing.?But there is no way that every organisation in the UK updated every Covid relevant policy at the start of the pandemic, and I would think a large percentage have still not done so.?Many policies talk about working within regulations, and best practice, so Covid specific language was not needed.?But policies have to be applied.

Let’s face it, while the people at the top have a massive influence of organisation culture – through policies, staff meetings, disciplinaries, and praise for doing the right thing; where things go wrong is when the layers of management lower down gently decide the rules do not apply to them – or that what they are being asked to do is too hard.?So if you have managers who are lacking the right skills, behaviour, and knowledge to do a quality job, or your staff stop believing then culture in even the most ethically run organisations can go awry – and it takes a huge shock and clear-out to change course.?Given that pretty much every other organisation across the globe managed to have a more responsible attitude to following Covid rules this is a tough argument to make.?The only obvious example of a place where there was less adherence to Covid best practice would be the Trump White House.

The story from last week that had me spluttering into my toast the most was about how Boris commuted from Chequers almost from Day One of the first lockdown .?This is a man who never had any intention in following the rules he was imposing on everyone else.?If we are talking about culture, then you cannot over emphasise the importance of leaders being role models for the behaviour they expect others to show.?To be credible as a leader you must have moral authority, and to stand on the high ground you have to be deserving of that position.?Insisting on attendance in the office when everyone else is managing to work out how to cope via remote working is not the attitude of the enlightened leader.?And yes, you could say he was being supportive of his pregnant wife, but I am sure Chequers has amazing broadband.

In my old life I was Managing Director of a large vocational training company.?We had a dress code – some of which was a sensible attempt to make sure we didn’t offend the people we met on a daily basis, and a way of demonstrating a professional approach.?Some items in the Dress Code were annoying – included by people of a different generation and outlook.?But that is not the point.?If I wanted to be able to pull others up, I had to embody the physical manifestation of that code every day.?Even if I had just bought a cheeky outfit that would have looked amazing.

This goes for every policy.?As leaders, if we think the policy is stupid, we have two choices – change the policy or get ourselves a job that is better suited to our personal culture.?So if there was mass rule breaking and drinking at desks every week it is in a large part either because Boris thought that behaviour was acceptable, or his own behaviour was such that when people were pulled up it was not credible.?

I mentioned earlier that culture can go awry when staff stop believing.?In my old training company that happened when Government imposed the requirement that all Level 3 Early Years Apprentices needed to pass GCSE English and Maths in order to pass (Thanks Michael Gove) led to a slow decline in confidence.?Not just from our staff, and not at all from the leadership team, but from the learners and employers we worked with.?And so slowly and gently over time it became something that staff paid lip service to in front of me – making the right noises to my face while doing something different when I was out of the room.?And it became harder and harder as the person at the top of the tree to keep everyone swimming in the same direction.?We had no choice – to keep claiming Government Funding and to stay in business we had to do our damnedest to achieve the impossible.?They changed the policy after two years, but a lot of damage had been done.?And this damage in the end proved fatal for the business.?

So I do have the tiniest soupcon of sympathy for the Prime Minister, because “they way we do things around here” is not entirely in his control.?But there is a big difference when you set the rules.?Why set rules you are not prepared to follow yourself??And this is a key leadership challenge that business owners will universally recognise.?There are times when we all have to do things for the greater good of the organisation.?This makes us better leaders.?And individual members of staff are in control of how they respond to the culture they find developing around them.?You do not have to have a “if you can’t beat them, then join them” attitude.?These people knew what they were doing was wrong – otherwise why invest so much in trying to hide it? This is what we mean by Diffuse Leadership .?Individuals at every level of the organisation taking control of their own area of responsibility. But in the end, this model is a decision that those at the top must make – and then they must train and empower managers to do this well.?It all comes back to the boss.

Which brings us onto menopausal women .?How are the two things related??Simple, it is all about culture.??While 63% of the women surveyed in the article noted their employer did not have a Menopause Policy, this to me is focusing on the wrong thing.?Great culture is about leaders doing the right thing at the right time – not just because that is in itself the right thing to do, but also because it makes great business sense; increasing productivity and reducing staff turnover are just two reasons. Therefore, as a leader or manager I shouldn’t need a policy from HR to tell me that I should be interested in helping a significant portion of my female staff to be happier and more effective at work.?It is in my best interests to get the most out of my staff.

This is not to say that women do not need to take responsibility for making changes to help them cope better with Menopause, and as a lady of a certain age this is a topic I now have personal experience with.?This might sound uncaring but none of us has the right to stay in a job if we become unable for whatever reason to carry it out to the required standard.?We can rail about the unfairness of our bodies once more letting us down, and pretty much just as we have managed to get past the sacrifices of bringing up children; but that is not our employer’s fault.?

Employers do have a responsibility to maximise our effectiveness – and this is where reasonable adaptations can have a big impact.?Understanding is to me more important than policy – it is the same understanding that is needed to deal with the million and one other people related issues being a good employer involves us in getting involved with.?In my time I had to deal with staff being involved with the 7/7 London terrorist bombings, examples of domestic abuse, complicated pregnancies, lesbian weddings clashing with work events, deaths of close relatives, serious illnesses, and the full gamut of reasons why someone just needed a shoulder to cry on.?90% of this was not covered by policy.?All of it was covered by my personal leadership and management style – being interested in doing the right thing by my staff and wanting to help them be the best they could possibly be.?Did I explicitly talk about Menopause??Not really, but we did have lots of conversations about who needed to sit next to a window in meetings.?And when you work with someone for many years, their job roles, and responsibilities change.?Running a business is like repeatedly doing a jigsaw puzzle where the pieces morph over time.?As people develop new skills and competencies, we need to change with them in order to keep them motivated and to take advantage for the good of the business.?

Menopause is no different – a piece of the business puzzle has morphed and to get the best out of that person we need to morph with them.?Within reason.?And while maintaining their dignity.?But in the same way as people reaching the end of their working life slow down, maybe as a generation of women used to conquering the world, we also need to accept that sometimes we just need to slow down and approach the world from a different perspective – and this can open up fabulous new opportunities which are better suited to the life we want to lead.?So if your employer won’t morph with you then it is quite frankly their loss.?So we could re-write that headline to say – Up to a million UK women might be heading off to do something better with their lives with new people who will properly appreciate their genius.

What does any of this have to do with what I do now??Well one of the things the management consultancy I run with my husband advises on is how to create a great culture, and we support business owners to develop their skills, knowledge, and instincts to do the right thing by their staff.?Which means I spend a lot of time talking about what being a role model means.

You can find out more about what we do here .?And if you would like to have a chat about any of the topics raised in this article, feel free to book one here .

???