What “Swiss-Made” Luxury Watches Can Teach Us About Organizational Culture

Would it be easy to identify suitable managers, supervisors, and team leaders in your organization with proven experience in building strong alliances and establishing mutual trust among their teams?

Would it be simple to find enough leaders in your organization who can communicate properly, assertively including convincingly new ideas??

Would it be manageable to locate fair leaders in your organization with the needed integrity and high emotional intelligence?

Would it be possible to identify plenty of managers in your organization who can balance short-term vision and long-term goals??

This article aims to help you transform your leadership culture in your organization by attracting new leaders or by identifying and promoting existing leaders within your organization.

Worthy Leaders Are in a Very High Demand?

If you succeed in locating worthy leaders in your organization and at the same time be convinced of having a healthy and positive atmosphere among your people, I would like to congratulate you and your people and wish you continued efforts to lead a robust, professional, reliable and efficient organization for years to come.?

Probably your existing organizational structure is excellent, and you don't have to fix it. Also, you manage to avoid the bureaucratic structures that many companies couldn't or most likely didn't want to avoid.?

In truth, I would like to confess to you that I have some doubts about whether you have succeeded in finding enough worthy leaders in your organization. It is a bit hard for me to go out with crazy dance and endless joy to celebrate together with you this incredible reality of having an outstanding organizational culture and plenty of exceptional team members who are happily arriving to work to deliver the best service to your customers.?

After a few decades of working with many teams across organizations in different countries, I found that many managers find it challenging and uncomfortable to develop and lead their people in a way that creates a work environment of openness, positive energy, mutual trust, creativity, unity, and loyalty to the team and the workplace.?

So with a hand on my heart, I'm quite skeptical if you tell me that indeed your organizational culture is perfect and your team members are working in complete harmonies like high quality and built-to-last "Swiss-Made" luxury watches.?

Can you even consider comparing your overall team member's performance and your whole organizational culture to the unquestioned brands and quality of Omega, Rolex, or Zenith Swiss-made watches??

Swiss watches have a magical appeal for a lot of us. Many of us are willing to pay hundreds and thousands of dollars for a Swiss watch even though we can buy a Chinese-made timepiece for only 10 dollars.?

So what is it that makes Swiss-made watches so irresistible and how you can create and maintain your outstanding workplace environment?

One of the reasons these brands are so popular is because of their rich history. The fine art of watchmaking has become extinct in most parts of the world except Switzerland. In my opinion, we can and should learn from Swiss watchmakers to develop and promote strong teams and healthy organizations.

We can copy past their determination and their willingness to build to last high-quality standards products for centuries. If we are leading people in any workplace, we really should do it with genuine care, commitment, sincere belief, and deep trust and respect for each individual on our team and beyond.?

When we manage to hire individuals who can fit appropriately into our current culture, the outcome is significant. More importantly when these new team members have the needed passion and the skills required to transform the poor and in some cases unpleasant culture and to lead themselves and many others to a higher level of happiness, creativity, and productivity, then we can say that we are genuinely leading people and building to last enjoyable organizational culture.

A Swiss-made watch is not just a temporary accessory, a fashion fad, or a trend: it can last for generations. From the movement to the case, quality materials distinguish Swiss-made watches from most other brands.?

So my question to you will be what identify your team and your organization from other teams and your competitors??

At Ford Motor Company, The Canadian National Distribution Center, our team members have fun at work at least most of them. Daily we manage to accomplish so much more with so much less. I've learned during my four years of supervision in the plant that with less manpower but with high trust and collaboration between team members and their direct supervisor even with strict timetables and under inhuman pressures, it is still possible to meet the requirements and also to enjoy the action and the right energy in the air.?

I have learned over the years that even under the extreme scale of a workload under unreasonable and inhuman deadlines, and uncompromising quality, accuracy, and departure times demands all critical tasks can be executed correctly and on time but with one important condition:

Under the state that you took the initiative and the time needed to build and maintain effective and cohesive work teams. United teams are willing and able to work together to complete essential tasks knowing that this is necessary and unavoidable for the company's customers and for the whole team and the leader who leads them.?

I believe that your primary objective as a leader, who was chosen to lead people in any workplace is to make his or her team members feel important, trusted, valuable, and appreciated at all times.

If you succeed in this essential task, then even with strict timetables and under inhuman pressures, it will be possible and manageable to meet all requirements and also to enjoy and celebrate these accomplishments with your team.

Our team members are experienced professionals with many years of proven and reliable performance in their specific fields. As a supervisor or as a manager, you don't have to watch these people working, my advice is to stay away and to give them the space needed so they will be willing to perform freely and with minimum supervision.?

In most cases, your people will surprise you with the dedication, care, and responsibility that they are taking to complete the needed tasks on time and with high quality and accuracy. The key is to trust them to do their job without watching and controlling them. Moreover, often you will see that they will excel, thrive, and perform on a high level, yes even in a unionized work environment.

Instead of watching, poking, discouraging, and annoying your direct employees, you as a leader should instead follow these 10 influential steps:

1. Allocate some time in your busy schedule to know and empower your team members.?
2. Allocate some time to promote trust, appreciation, and loyalty among your team members and move forward, transforming the culture and the level of happiness in your workplace.
3. Invest time and energy to engage with your people, communicate, and share valued information to build loyalty and trust.
4. Promote openness and freedom to create and to make their own decisions.
5. Provide positive and on-time, feedback, appreciation, and gratitude.
6. Celebrate with your people small and large-scale achievements and important events.
7. Encourage the importance and the sense of taking pride in what was accomplished on their daily tasks.?
8. Promote and encourage a safe, pleasant, and trusted workplace.?
9. Boost your people to come up with new ideas on how to improve their daily duties.
10. Inspire your people to take the initiative and pride to train and lead the new team members on the team to perform at a higher level of excellence.

Solid steel links and cases – the reason Swiss-made watches have that intense, heavy feeling on the wrist - keep the clock in great shape for a long time.?

Which links hold your teams cohesive, collaborative, engaged, and robust in your niche market?

Our team members work and perform much better on precise shifts and under specific supervision. For many years they have seen numerous supervisors and managers "running the show" in our national distribution center. In my four years of supervising these incredible unionized team members, I've learned from them a lot about their past and current experiences with the leadership team.?

For too many years, they have been under inadequate direct supervision, which was based on the wrong concept of how to lead people. From my observation and after endless hours of talking and listening to these individuals, I've learned that they have been mentally bitten, discouraged, underestimated, punished, and poked by their superiors.

Reliable union representation and occasional great leaders among the management team somehow managed to maintain our facility for more than six decades of financial success and served more than 400 dealerships across the nation.

In the past four years part of our leadership team trying to link and hold our team members cohesive, motivated, collaborative, engaged, and robust to be able to support ever-increasing demand in our niche market.

Also, solid steel is very resistant to rust and can be re-polished when scratched. Most Swiss-made watches feature a synthetic sapphire crystal facing with incredibly high scratch resistance, to keep your watch clear for many years.?

What kind of rituals, shared goals, past events, types of friendship, and team spirit hold your teams and your organization competitive, engaged, collaborative, and resistant to all challenges in your niche market?

It is hard for me to believe that your organization and your teams communicate and work in full cooperation and collaboration that helps the organization win the competition and lead the market in your field.?

Why?

Hence in too many companies, business leaders often overlook their organizational cultural reality, in which managers, supervisors, and team leaders forget their primary duty toward their people and towards their organization.?

"Swiss-made" luxury watches, such as Omega, Rolex, or Zenith, and their unique look, extraordinary quality, unquestioned prestige, and popularity can teach us endless powerful lessons about organizational culture and team performance under rapid changes, high demand, and tremendous competition.

Eventually, it is really up to us to create, promote, and sustain a high culture and cohesive teams in our workplace.?

An essential part of our leadership responsibility and our determination and willingness to Build To Last great products, services, cohesive teams, and healthy organizational culture for centuries to come.

It is our responsibility to maintain happiness, kind spirit, positivity, quality, and a high level of service for years to come.?

It is our duty and our commitment to create and maintain unquestioned, trusted, cohesive luxury teams and a united and harmonized luxury organizational culture within our companies similar to Omega, Rolex, or Zenith Swiss-made and built-to-last watches.

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My name is Rafael and I'm a harmony creator and a meaningful workplace fanatic who loves people, teamwork, results, and high-quality coffee. I'm helping companies transform their workplace culture by promoting a positive, collaborative, meaningful, resilient, and healthy atmosphere.

I crave to create a more meaningful, purposeful, and enjoyable workplace together with you!

Please join me!

Rafael