When Tom Stofac accepted
the position of CEO at
Lutheran Social Services of
Central Ohio in 2005, one of his
first priorities was getting
employees to laugh.
Adding laughter to the work
environment was part of
Stofac’s plan to change the
organization’s corporate culture
from one based on fear to one
based on trust, he says.
The revamped culture at
LSSCO has led to more productivity from Stofac’s 750 employees and a greater focus on the organization’s mission of people
in need. And while changing a
culture may sound simple,
Stofac says it takes discipline
as you start by recognizing
what your current culture is,
then establish a new one and
get employees to buy in to it.
“Clearly define the culture that
you want, what you expect and
ways in which and examples of
which that would play itself
out,” he says. “Then, go and
communicate that to people. At
the same time, listen to how
they might want to make their
lives better in the work world,
and deliver.”
Smart Business spoke with
Stofac about how to change
your culture.
Recognize the culture.
The
biggest thing is you have to recognize that there is a culture,
whether you want to create it
[or] shift it. But a culture is
going to be created, with or
without you as the CEO. So you
need to just recognize it and
then develop the culture that
you want because it’s going to
be created one way or another.
Culture really comes down
to, in its most basic format, a
trust-based culture or a fear-based culture. In a fear-based
culture, people are not willing
to make decisions even for fear
that they might get fired or get
written up. They’re paralyzed.
That’s the first key piece of
what a culture can be: Is it
trust-based, or is it fear-based?
A simple way to recognize
the culture of your organization is to walk around.
During the walk-around, listen and take in all the behaviors and attitudes that exist.
In essence, observe your culture with your ears, eyes and
mind. Look for behaviors
that will tell you how people
are communicating.
As you talk with people, look
for how they react to you as
the leader. Are they comfortable? Are they genuine? And
most importantly, are they
enjoying what they are doing?
If you don’t hear any laughter, it might be a good sign
you live in a fear-based culture and people are not having fun. Then turnover is
probably around the corner.
Gain employee confidence in your
leadership to produce change.
Establishing the baseline of
trust begins with the leader
trusting his or her own ability to lead as well as being
comfortable with who they
are as a person. Then the process becomes easy.
Meet with groups of staff,
ask what could make the
organization better, and pick
the ones that work best and
do them. Also, be available to
meet with your employees.
But most importantly, trust
begins and ends with how
your organization’s employees
see you act, talk and respond
to different situations.
Once you establish a trust-based culture, then you can pick
up other pieces of that culture,
like I expect everybody to talk
to one another and communicate between departments. And
how do you do that? You model
that as the CEO.
As the CEO, I always get
out. I’m forever out in our
programs or out and around
the corporate office talking to different people and getting different people to talk
to one another. That creates
again, that trust-based culture that goes beyond one
that people can have more
trust between departments
and share that vision.
