If you think making your numbers is the most significant mark of your success as a boss, you are missing out on what is really most important.
Don’t get me wrong, making Friday’s payroll is essential. You won’t be in business long if you don’t.
But, the real reward, the long-term one that transcends even your monetary goals, is your role as a leader in establishing a sustainable growth culture for your organization. The right culture will set your organization up for growth and success far into the future.
3 Steps to Create a Growth Culture
In his book, Unconventional Leadership—The Bible’s Pathway to Wisdom, Influence, Results, and Growth, Dr. Dave Alford says,
“It is not enough to merely fulfill your mission; you must also establish a culture that reflects the vision God has given you.”
Achieving your mission is important, but leaders often neglect that the real reward of being a Christian leader is the opportunity we have to shape the culture of the organization.
Dr. Alford suggests building an organization’s culture results from three distinct steps. First, we define the culture. Then, we demonstrate it as leaders. And third, we defend the culture by enforcing its values.
1. Defining
As the leader, you define your organization’s culture. If you don’t proactively define your culture, it will be defined for you by the outside world.
In its simplest terms, defining the culture establishes guardrails that determine how you interact with employees and how your employees will interact with each other and with outsiders. From an environmental standpoint, do you value production over people, or do you invest in your people’s growth? Establishing ethical standards and moral guidelines is a second and equally important aspect of defining the culture. Too often, companies develop rules and policies that negatively state what we should not do. However, power in an ethical, moral culture comes when positive ethical behaviors define your culture.
2. Demonstrating
Once you define the culture expected in your organization, the next step is for you, as the leader, to model your values. It is not enough to define your culture. As a leader, you must demonstrate and model the culture by how you live it out daily.
If employees look at you and see someone whose walk doesn’t match the talk, they will have no reason to believe you are serious about the culture you are trying to establish. This is a weak point for many leaders in our businesses, governments, churches, and non-profits. The boss makes a big speech about their expectation for culture and then behaves in ways that directly contradict their stated goals. If the boss doesn’t model the organizational culture, employees will have no reason to model the desired culture themselves.
3. Defending
The last step in establishing a growth culture for your organization that endures is knowing when and how to defend the culture. We are living and working in a fallen, secular world that has turned further and further away from God.
A culture that attempts to bring honor and glory to God will surely be attacked by those who oppose God’s principles for right and wrong. When these attacks come, and they will, you will either stand firm and affirm your cultural values, or you will submit to outside pressure and weaken the culture.
You may be tempted to ignore the assaults on your culture or even give in to outside pressure, but this is a huge mistake. If the last few years are any indication, the folks who oppose God are never satisfied. They are hungry wolves crouching at your door, waiting for any sign of weakness to exploit. If you give a little today, they will be back tomorrow, demanding even more.
For our Biblical growth culture to endure, we must take a stand. We must, paraphrasing Joshua (Joshua 24:14-15), 1) fear the Lord, 2) serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and 3) stand against those who oppose God because, as for me and my organization, we will serve the Lord!
More Articles
I have written several articles on values. You can find them by typing “Values” in the search bar. Meanwhile, here are a few of my favorites.
- #431: What Is a Christian Response to Woke Capitalism?
- #242: An Instructive Letter from My Back-to-the-Future Self
- #228: United We Stand, Divided We Fall
- #188: Your Values Aren’t Your Values Unless They Cost You Something
- #187: The Principled Patriot Who Refused to Kneel
Join the Conversation
As always, questions and comments are welcome. Which aspect of developing a growth culture, defining, demonstrating, or defending do you find most challenging? Why?
I’d love your help. This blog is read primarily because people like you share it with friends. Would you be kind enough to share it by pressing the share button?
Category: Personal Development | Values
Modeling the correct behavior and professionalism is so important. As for defending the work culture, I think of the past attacks on the Christian fast food chain Chik Fil-A. Secular protestors didn’t like the restaurant owner’s conservative political views, and tried to boycott them. But Chil fil-A stuck to their principles, and survived the attacks. I’ve noticed their training program is excellent because all the young people working there are so friendly and engaging.
You’re right about Chick Fil-A sticking to their principles. I had the pleasure of meeting Dan Cathy at a college event. He and his whole team were absolutely wonderful folks. Getting to know some of their managers, it’s clear their values and principles extend down through the organization!