Cultivating the Team Everyone Wants
Do you want a “me first” team? Do you want a team filled with politics and positioning? Do you want a team that does the minimum necessary? Few of us want a work culture like this.
The word culture is derived from the middle English word cultivation. When I work with teams, I see the results of a leader’s cultivation efforts. The good and the bad cultures are a direct result of the efforts or lack of effort from the leader.
What are you cultivating?
The Lazy Farmer Is Hit and Miss
A lazy farmer is easy to identify. You will find weeds choking out the productive crops. Once productive fields are no longer productive. High potential fields are left untended and overgrown.
The lazy farmer’s equipment needs maintenance or needs to be replaced. But, the lazy farmer continues to get by with what he has. He may plant some good seed intitially, but because of his neglect, the crops he produces are sub-par at best.
The Good Farmer Is Intentional
The good farmer is up early tending to his animals and to his crops. He knows what he wants to grow. He prepares the ground, and he plants only the seed he wants.
The good farmer understands the work of farming does not end with the planting. He irrigates the fields when they lack rain, and he protects the crops during a frost.
The good farmer understands that if he is not active every day tending to his crops, even the best seed will not produce the best crops possible. He does not allow anything to grow in his fields that will hinder the growth of what he planted.
The good farmer knows that some plants that produce pretty flowers are in fact a detriment to a field if they take valuable nutrients from the primary crop. He knows what he wants growing in his fields, and he cultivates and protects that every day.
The Good Leader Cultivates The Desired Culture
If culture is the noun, then cultivate is the verb. That means, a leader must take action. To cultivate means the leader is active and intentional in his/her efforts.
The good leader follows the path of the good farmer.
- The good farmer decides the crop he wants to grow. While the good leader defines the values he wants his team to live by.
- The good farmer prepares the ground for the seed. While the good leader intentionally and frequently communicates these values to the team.
- The good farmer is careful which seed he chooses to plant. While the good leader hires people who demonstrate values that are already aligned with the team’s values.
- The good farmer waters, fertilizes and protects what he is trying to grow. While the good leader provides positive feedback when behaviors are aligned with the values and intentionally coaches behaviors that are not aligned with the team’s values.
- The good farmer eliminates anything growing in his field that will hurt the health of the crop. While the good leader fires people who behave inconsistently with the team’s values.
For more on the specifics on the steps to building a winning culture: Click Here
The Bottom Line:
A leader who does not take the time to cultivate the values the leader desires to see, should never expect to see something good and productive to grow on that team.
The leader is ultimately responsible for the state of the field he/she owns. The only way to insure the most productive culture possible is to intentionally take action and cultivate it.
The tyranny of the urgent can often prevent the overwhelmed manager from taking the actions necessary to actively cultivate a team that everyone wants to work with.
But just like the farmer, the leader must be intentional and be prepared to work hard to cultivate the kind of team we all want to be a part of. If the leader is not ready for that type of effort, the weeds will take over and the culture will suffer.
The issue comes back to whether the leader is ready to put in the work. If not then the leader will have to deal with the weeds that grow without cultivation.
For more blogs on culture click here: alslead.com
P. S.
My goal is to develop tools and resources for overwhelmed leaders at all levels of an organization, which can be implemented in the whirlwind of the urgent.
These resources are in development and should be available online in the next few months. I want to help the overwhelmed manager eliminate the politics, bad attitudes and distrust from his/her team.
Please help me help other leaders by answering the question below.
Question:
What prevents most well intentioned leaders from actively cultivating the culture they want on their teams?
I think you have hit it on the head-lack of intentionality! Often we are buzy getting things done or dealing with a
crisis. We need to learn to be intentional about our day and use every opportunity to prepare the soil, plant, water, give it time to grow, weed, observe and celebrate the fruit! I need to think of ways I can do each of these things as a part of my everyday life! Time is like money. You invest it! What is my investment strategy today? What can I do at each meeting, each personal encounter, each plan I make for tomorrow to grow the culture we say we want. I agree that hiring people that have the same values you want your group to have is the first thing we must do! Investing time in the people you already have makes a huge difference. There also comes a time when you realize certain people won’t get it no matter what you invest in them. That’s the time to weed and pluck up those that are not able to produce the fruit you thought you had planted! Thank you, Dave, for a very insightful article! I’m going to take it to heart!
Thanks for the input Jeanie. I will take it to heart as I develop my resources for the overwhelmed manager.
Hi Dave No Task Too Great!
This is a great article – now, the question is, how do you get the people who need to read this to read it?
I would love for my boss to read it, but if I just sent him a link I am sure he would be insulted.
Send the link to a group of people and include him. It will be less obvious. If you would like me to delete your comments prior to that, let me know and I will.
Great article and superb lazy farmer analogy. So true!
I think the answer is fear and lack of transparency.
A great leader is not afraid to cultivate and grow their employees to become great leaders themselves. They surround themselves with team members that have skills and abilities in areas that they are lacking. They are not threatened by this, instead they embrace it.
Leaders not only need to have a vision, but more importantly, they also need to have complete transparency about that vision. If they can’t communicate their vision outward then they can’t hold anyone accountable. This can lead to a high level of confusion and competition among employees because they will make up their own vision about the culture they think their leadership team wants and start competing for time, attention, projects and resources instead working towards a common goal which is to make the company successful.
Thanks Liz. I appreciate the input.
I agree that you get what you cultivate. I believe that culture is like the soil that your team grows in. Like the farmer or the gardener, a leader must ensure that soil is healthy by continually renewing it.
What prevents most well intentioned leaders from actively cultivating the culture they want on their teams? Senior Management who insist upon not allowing the well intentioned leader to weed appropriately.
Weeding is tough in those situations. I have had that same issue in my past. I will take that into consideration as I develop these resources.