“Culture eats strategy for lunch every day of the week.” ~Peter Drucker
Last week I was teaching the Course for Presidents at Aileron in Dayton, Ohio. If you haven’t heard about Aileron it is an amazing vision come to reality by the former IAMS owner and philanthropist, Clay Mathile. Aileron is a place for business owners to go and grow…not just their businesses, but as leaders and human beings. I am blessed to be a small part of this gift to the world.
Anyway, on the second day of the course the attendees were given the opportunity to spend an hour with Clay and ask him any question they desired to ask. This is always my favorite time during this two day event as I get to sit with my journal and capture “nuggets” that Clay shares with the group. I’ve done this a half a dozen times and it never ceases to amaze me how I always pick up another nugget from Clay when he speaks.
The new nugget from this session came from a question that went like this; “Clay, how did you motivate your people?” Clay responded, “You can’t motivate people. I never motivated people, but I created an environment that motivated people.”
You can’t motivate people but you can create an environment that motivates people. So simple and so true, but it takes work.
In my work with business owners we are finding that the 21st century competitive advantage is not as much about leveraging technology and building a better mousetrap–which usually transforms from a unique service offering to a commodity pretty quickly these days–but by creating something within your organization that can never be replicated or stolen by a competitor and will endure no matter what new industry gadget comes about. What I am talking about is the culture (i.e. the environment) of your organization.
The culture is how you behave. The culture is how you treat others. The culture is how you expect to be treated. The culture is how you communicate. The culture is how people get rewarded. The culture is the Spirit of the organization that runs the organization in the owner’s absence. In essence an organization’s culture is the values and beliefs as demonstrated through the real behavior of the organization.
The quote from Peter Drucker at the beginning of this blog was made by Drucker decades ago but holds truer today than ever before. In today’s business world culture wins.
If you feel as though you are having trouble motivating your employees, step back and take a look at your culture. As Dave Sullivan-Aileron co-founder always says, “culture is by design or default, you don’t have a company with a culture but a culture with a company.”
“If you are the owner, you own the culture and it must be managed and given as much attention as you give to the bottom line”…another “nugget” from Clay.
Thanks for the “nuggets” Clay and thanks for your gift to the world.
Jay Meyer, RPH, CPC
EagleLaunch Consulting
