Culture, consistency, and confidence.
Culture is how people think and act. It’s what’s accepted and not accepted; what’s approved of and disapproved of.
To the extent that you tolerate people in the organization that violate the standards of the culture, you lose the confidence of every other employee.
In a recent new York Times interview (11/13/11) Robert L. Johnson, President of RLJ Companies and Founder of Black Entertainment Television said this about the need to be consistent with culture:
“Culture is like a circle, and great companies won’t tolerate even a superstar going outside the circle. I can have the greatest sales guy in the world, or the greatest marketing manager. If they go outside the circle, they’ve got to leave because it is a direct threat to the cultural confidence you’re trying to build. And you can’t carry out a vision or go on a crusade without the total confidence of everybody who’s going on that mission with you.
If you really want to build something that’s going to be around for a very long time and be stable and grow, culture has to be paramount. People have to know how your culture operates and works. And once they get it, they adopt it, and it becomes second nature to them that certain things are not done in this company.”
Upholding the values of the culture with consistency is one of the greatest responsibilities and obligations of leadership.
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