But great employees are inspired by something more. Everyone is motivated to collect a paycheck. The overall goal is to inspire transformational tendencies in employees by reflecting their personal goals and values.Ĭulture of inspiration. Why? Aligning organizational and individual values improves morale, which has been shown to improve productivity. Then, leaders align the organization's goals and values with those of its team members while also charting a course for positive organizational change. Employees identify challenges and opportunities, as well as personal goals and aspirations. Transformational leaders begin by bringing team members together to provide honest feedback. Transformational leadership is all about exploring what defines your organization’s culture-and making changes to improve it. Transformational Leadership: A Culture of Inspiration Unfortunately, this is not a characteristic of directive leadership, which emphasizes top-down organizational change. Additionally, team members are more likely to “buy in” to whole-system change when their voices have been heard in the planning process. Research showsthat team members need flexibility and dynamism to meet changing market forces or circumstances with innovation and creativity. However, that organizational consistency comes at the expense of organizational agility. The result is predictable, consistent employee performance and overall organizational culture. Leaders establish specific values and behavioral patterns, and others are expected to follow. Directive leadership is known for consistency. That’s why this leadership style is sometimes called “coercive management.”Ĭulture of consistency. Rewards and punishments are used to control workers-and the overall organizational culture. Instead, directive leadership creates class distinctions based on each person’s position in the organizational hierarchy. This style doesn’t encourage an organizational culture of collaborationin which leadership is characterized by dialogue, openness, or collaboration. Those at the top give those at the bottom specific instructions and tasks. Directive Leadership: A Culture of Consistencyĭirective leadership utilizes a pyramid structure, with power flowing from the top down. Here are five different leadership styles that can define your organizational culture. Or, they can choose to lead using components of the New Leadership Paradigm, including egalitarian structures, transparency, and purpose-driven values. Leaders can direct culture using traditional “command-and-control” traits like top-down leadership, class systems, and profit-driven values. But it’s how they do this-their leadership style-that ultimately shapes the culture of an organization. The best leaders strive to influence culture through their leadership.
And what is one of the biggest influencers of organizational culture? Leadership. It also sets the tone for relationships between people in an organization. Culture is now an employee recruitment and retention tool because HR directors know the right culture fosters productivity, engagement, and innovation.Ĭulture refers to the working environment created by an organization’s values, strategic vision, and mission. For years, “organizational culture” was considered a trendy, transient buzzword in the corporate world, but it has become much more than a passing phase.