Corporate Culture based Leadership – Affecting Corporate Culture through Leadership Psychology

This post was written by RogerR on July 6, 2010
Posted Under: Business Reviews

By Arthur F Carmazzi

In a world where information travels faster than ever, the anticipations of work and leaders have changed significantly in just a few years, and with those expectations, the feelings and motivations that help us to move towards greatness also influence our productivity and our longevity in a job.

When emotional requirements of the people are being met on outside of work on varied plains of social networking, productivity tools, and prompt, convenient interaction and information conveyance across the world, a new form of leadership must be applied. A psychological aspect of leadership that affects Corporate Culture is known as “Environmental  (Corporate Culture Based) Leadership”.

Each person has different environments that bring out different aspects from their own Identity, and each aspect is handled by emotionally charged perceptions within each environment. The Environmental Leader creates a platform through education and awareness where individuals fulfill each other’s emotional needs and become more conscious of when, and how they affect personal and team emotional gratifications. This is realized through the knowledge on why people “react” to their environment instead of act intelligently.

Environmental Leadership is not about changing the mindset of the group or individual, but in the nourishing of an environment that that helps the individuals of a group to give their best and motivates them as well. It is not the ability to influence others to do something they are not committed to, but as an alternative to nurture a culture that motivates and even excites individuals to do what is needed for the interest of all. It is not carrying others to the end result, but setting the surrounding for building standards in them to so they may carry each other.

The role of a Leader has been forwarded to an individual or group who can infuse passion and direction to a group and the dynamics of that group. This leader implements a psychological support system within a group that fills the emotional and developmental requirements of the group.

The procedure of becoming an Environmental Leader however, is grounded on a bed of self discovery and laid with the tiles of group psychology. Only when we get the feelings of how “we”, as a leader, affect the “system” of a group, and how that system affects us, then it is possible for us to progress towards Environmental Leadership.

At a glance it may seem a frightening journey, yet this path has a structure, a structure in the exercise of Directive Communication Psychology to influence the group’s system. And as with any structure, it can be followed to have a particular result.

The first step is to realize that every action you take, every decision you make, no matter how small, will influence the group. Whether it is positive or negative, there will be an effect.

Second issue is that when any individual in a group reacts, it will affect you and each of the other members of that group.

Since a leader’s actions and reactions not only affect the psychology of individuals, but affect the entire culture of the organisation or group, an Environmental Leader manages 7 key psychological influences (2 keys of personal awareness and 5 pillars of transformation) to cultivate a group and culture that effectively assists the greater abilities and fulfillment, even passion, of the members of that group, workforce or team.

Trust has always been the foundation of any form of leadership. And while there are many facets of trust and how to build it, one relevant area is in knowledge sharing. First, start with this article. The “group” dynamics are best suited by getting the “group” involved. The Environmental Leader does not develop followers but nurtures leaders and leadership in their group or organization. To aid this, the knowledge of how to be an Environmental Leader must be circulated throughout. The more people know, the easier it becomes to nurture a Leadership enriched environment, and the better results everyone will attain.

Two (2) Keys of Personal Awareness:

Self awareness leads to the recognition of the keys, which must be accepted before the Environmental Leader can build the final 5 Pillars of a transformational environment. The first step is the ability to realize that we will consciously or subconsciously make others wrong to support our ego, which leads to blame and away from development. Learning about our “Encoded Assumptions”, our “Rules of Engagement”, and our “Circle of Tolerance” helps us to identify the reactions that are hindering a speedier growth for ourselves and those around us.

Key number 1 is: Concentrate on progress and outcomes, do not blame or make others wrong.

The next step is making others right, making leadership decisions and taking actions that help others to succeed and develop their capabilities. And when they do succeed, the specific recognition of their success and what was the reason behind their success. Learning the “Colored Brain” and how our genetic processing affects the way we perceive the world and approach tasks and decisions and what that means in manifesting our “natural” talents not only makes this easier, but gives us a better platform to understand, cooperate, and communicate with others.

Key number 2 is: Create opportunities to make others successful and positively acknowledge their specific actions that lead to that success.

 Building the 5 Pillars of Transformation:

 The 5 pillars are the cornerstone of a leader’s capacity to modify group dynamics, to nurture an environment that inspires and brings out the best in others. And, it is the process of building the five pillars themselves that facilitates the leader, and his team, the ability to embrace the two keys of personal awareness. This course of creation acts as a leadership catalyst to the keys implementation and the modification the leaders own behavior that advances that leader into a more powerful, Environmental Leader.

You Must Have a Greater Purpose:

The team must have a purpose that is greater or nobler than the personal objectives of each individual. Yet recognition of this greater purpose, would be equally fulfilling to the individual.

Consider the human condition, what is it that we all want and yet struggle with every day? This is our desire to become efficient on what we do, we want to be successful! But trying to work in perfect harmony with multiple people and systems, and additional internal and external influences, in order to complete a task without any difficulty is seldom possible. Hence, we as human beings, get frustrated with our environment and intermittent failures and setbacks from our success, form being our greater selves. We KNOW that change must happen, frequently we point to others and say they must change, yet, one thing remains constant, we all expect to be in a work environment that supports and nurtures our success. And this is a greater purpose that most would consider noble.

The role of an Environmental Leader is to inspire this noble idea. To make the group or team want it, and be willing to take action to achieve it for the cause, for the promise of a greater working environment and a greater self.

You Must Have a Methodology You Believe Can Make a Change:

It is important for a team to believe that change can happen, and that they as a group, can make it happen. They must believe that their own behavior can be improved, that they, as human beings can be better people. They must believe that there is a way, through a common wisdom in the group, they can be powerful enough to change organizational culture to a more fulfilling environment for the betterment of their own life.

But to believe any of this, the people must have, and recognize a psychological methodology that is capable of making the change effectively. If change for the better seems like an impossible dream, few will take the effort. So the first pillar is having and demonstrating a methodology that is capable of making changes, a methodology that affects the environment to give everyone a greater sense of fulfillment and progress in their work. While many methodologies exist such as Peter Senge’s Learning Organisation or Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits, the one specifically configured for corporate culture change and environmental leadership is Directive Communication (DC).

The personal and organizational awareness components of DC such as the Colored Brain, Encoded Assumptions, Emotional Drivers, the 5 Postures, and the Force multiplication System, unite individuals with a greater understanding of how and why their work environment is the way that it is while creating an opportunity to the real possibility of change. The role of the Environmental Leader is first to know the methodology, and second to coach key individuals in the methodology so that they can teach others in turn.

Through the awareness process, change begins to be evident and perpetuate the cultivation of the desired environment.

You Must Speak a Common Languag:

The methodology carries with it a specific language. The language reinforces the learning and the higher purpose. It enables greater communication with fewer words. It allows emotions to be expressed without being expressive. It sets a foundation to understand and explain awareness, change, and a higher level of living in a concise and effective way.

This is the duty of Environmental Leader to use and reinforce the use of the language in the group. To set the example of applying communication that supports the greater cause.

You Must Have a Unified Identit:

There is already a greater purpose that the team wants, a methodology everyone is applying (or at least concerned of) to achieve that greater purpose, and a common language that the team is speaking to reinforce that methodology, so a common identity already exists.

The role of the Environmental Leader is to solidify that identity, to give an opportunity to the group or team so that they can associate themselves with that identity and everything it represents. To detect those who are a part of the greater purpose and give them a group vision.

In a case where Emirates Hotels and Resorts applied the Directive Communication methodology to evolve its leaders and its culture with a “Corporate Culture Revolution” program, the 300+ staff embraced the identity of “Patriots” for the Revolution. The “Patriots” improved productivity and quality of service by over 32% in an Emirates assessment.

You Must Maintain an Internal Supportive Environment:

As an elite team with its unique identity that shares and applies a methodology for the development and mutual benefit, a Supportive environment will appear as a byproduct of the process. And when it is lead by an Environmental Leader who focuses on the continuous progress and perpetuation of that environment, the ultimate success as a Leadership Enriched Culture comes to light. The duty of the Environmental Leader becomes to nurture and develop environmental leaders within the teams and the organization.

At this stage, the environment created will accomplish much of the gradually expanding emotional gratifications of security, diversity, belonging, personal growth, significance and achievement. This environment will compete and exceed the allure of the modern world. Yet it cannot be developed without the right leadership. And, an environmental leader must go in to this knowing, that as the process matures, he will no longer be as requisite as when he commenced.

 

By

Arthur F. Carmazzi, Founder of the Directive Communication  Organizational Development Methodology and Ranked as one of the Global Top 10 most influential Leadership Gurus by Gurus International. Arthur specializes in psychological approaches to leadership and corporate culture transformation. He is a renowned International Speaker and bestselling author of “The 6 Dimensions of Top Achievers”, “Identity Intelligence” and “Lessons from the Monkey King”, "The Psychology of Selecting the RIGHT Employee", and "The Colored Brain Communication Field Manual".

More on Leadership Development from Arthur can be found at:
Leadership Development and Leadership Training - www.directivecommunication.com
Carmazzi Leadership Development – www.carmazzi.net


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