When it comes to organisation culture, it really becomes difficult to define and explain. It is complicated, generally misunderstood and hard to change.
There are lot of writings on building the culture of organisation and moving on to excellence. Words cannot weave excellence. It is something like fragrance. You can feel it. It’s presence in the environment of the organisation can be felt through demonstrative passion, attitude and mindset of employees while discharging their functions. Excellence is something more than perfection. Stakeholders, be it internal or the external, get delighted when enter in the zone of the organisation having culture of excellence.
It is a myth that talent alone can bring excellence in the culture of organisation. Talent also brings hidden arrogance. It is not necessary that talent is always embedded with mindset to excel. It is desire to excel in a person that makes him performing with excellence. It is something like that one is smoking addict and he has to stop and leave smoking. Why efforts of bringing excellence in organisation culture failed many times are because of the fact that very few leaders of organisation purposely work on developing culture of excellence. They just kind of let it happen.
You cannot handoff this sensitive matter to anyone. Making the changes that lead to excellence is not an overnight pursuit-it is cumbersome, psychologically tough and long process. It is mistaken that attractive workplaces, weekend parties and get together, outbound adventure training in the name of team building and motivation create workplace culture of excellence.
None of these initiatives work if there is an element of disrespect, mistrust and achieving results by bulldozing the human dignity. What people prefer who have desire to excel at workplace is authenticity, trust, transparency in dealings and commitment to employees growth and well being along with organisation’s prosperity. Managers at all levels who are only functional experts in their domain should also be developed as organisation development experts. It will make easy for the business leaders to get the culture of excellence accepted at the root level.
CHANGES WILL IT BRING IN THE ATTITUDE OF THE WORK FORCE
1. An Organizational Vision is Communicated and Understood
To achieve a Culture of Excellence, every employee must understand not only the company’s vision, but also know their own roles, responsibilities and the specific actions they need to take in order to help achieve this vision.
2. Clear Purpose and Meaning
In a Culture of Excellence, employees feel that what they are working on is meaningful, significant, and purpose-based.
3. Focus on High Performers
Many managers actually empower their low performers by focusing their time and energy on trying to solve their problems—while ignoring their high performers. Those high performers leave because they aren’t being rewarded for their hard work.
Companies with a Culture of Excellence set an expectation of high performance organization-wide. Every employee is supported and encouraged to become a master in their role and area of expertise. High performers are nurtured, rewarded, mentored and recognized, and average performers are coached to move into the high performance category.
4. Change and Challenges
In most organizations, when change or challenges occur, employees become distracted and lose focus on the organizational vision and goals.
In a Culture of Excellence, employees develop the flexibility and resilience to deal with change, challenge and uncertainty. Even when there are obstacles and challenges that may seem impossible to overcome, the motivation to achieve the organizational vision is higher than the urge to avoid the discomfort. Managers support their teams in staying focused and on track, despite difficulties and challenges.
5. Collaborative Teams
A key feature of a Culture of Excellence is collaborative teams. Because every employee and all teams are working together toward a common organizational vision, they feel they are on the same side. And because this collaboration is encouraged and rewarded from the top down, there is no more reason to protect individual roles, projects or expertise.
6. Rewards and Recognition
HOW CAN WE ACHIEVE CULTURAL EXCELLENCE?
- Promote a positive and happy environment.
- Giving effective feedback
- Clear & Consistent Communication
- Teamwork
- Growth Opportunities
- Know your customer
- Keep employees comfortable
- Plan your action