CREATING A DISCIPLINED CULTURE
Excerpts from “WINNERS ARE NOT LONELY AT THE TOP”
THE TRUE JOB DESCRIPTION OF THE CEO: CREATING A DISCIPLINED CULTURE ESSAY 4
THE TRUE JOB DESCRIPTION OF THE CEO is a series of five white papers highlighting the “Five Star Process” that a CEO needs to focus on to drive a team to peak performance. These white papers correspond and mirror the main chapters of the book “Winners Are Not Lonely At The Top” by Carl Phillips.
The book describes and highlights the use of the “Five Star Process” by Garland Group who as a result of the process, delivered an EBITA improvement of 175%, a cash flow improvement of 254%, an employee satisfaction of 85%, a reduction in absenteeism of 16%, an improvement in safety of 54%, and an organic sales growth of 52%.
This is essay four of five essays entitled “Creating A Disciplined Culture”. The Five Essays are listed below and each one represents one of the five stars in the Five Star process to which peak performing CEOs must adhere, and to which provide the framework for The Real Job Description of the CEO.
Star 1 – Start Operating In The Real World
Star 2 – Articulating The Common Vision
Star 3 – Assembling Mutually Supportive Teams
Star 4 – Creating A Disciplined Culture
Star 5 – Seek and Seed Leaders
We hope you enjoy the essay and be sure to read all five essays, and if you are a Board Member or CEO looking to drive your team to peak performance please reach out to us on CEO@tpgleadership.com
CREATING A DISCIPLINED CULTURE
Star 4
“Man has two sets of needs; his need as an animal to avoid pain, and his need as a human to grow psychologically.”
– Frederick Hertzberg in his book,
“Work and The Nature of Man”
Frederick Hertzberg explains animal needs as the basic needs for food, shelter, safety and social support, and he explains psychological needs as self- esteem and self- actualization. When a company enables a person who works in the organization to effectively address these needs, the organization will find it easy to embed a disciplined culture in the work force. There are three main types of discipline:
- Self-discipline
- Task discipline
- Group discipline
In Stars 1, 2, and 3 the CEO has focused on being a role model for the change in behavior that is sought, Star 1 – facing reality, Star 2 – to articulate a common vision, and Star 3 – by assembling mutually supporting teams. Having done all this, there is a need for the teams to follow a code of conduct that instils discipline into the process in which the company’s goals are achieved.
As H. Jackson Brown Jr, the famous American author, very vividly explains: “Talent without discipline is like an octopus on roller skates. There’s plenty of movement, but you never know whether it’s going to be forward, backwards or sideways.”
Again, this phase sits squarely on the CEO’s shoulders. The CEO’s action dictates what people do in the organization. Self- Discipline is the starting point for this star. The CEO helps his direct reports to articulate a code of conduct and a detailed description of how it will be implemented, covering self-discipline, task -discipline and group- discipline.
These details should clarify the consequences of following the code of conduct, both positive and negative. This process is taken further to their direct reports and so on until all the people are on the same page regarding the code of conduct for the organization. Starting at the senior most level of leadership, the CEO enforces the code of conduct meticulously.
I have seen CEOs terminate their most senior leaders who have repeatedly refused to role model the code of conduct. This has sent a strong message to the rest of the organization that the CEO is serious and failure to subscribe to the code of conduct will be a fatal mistake. This is the price of embedding discipline in an organization. It is critical that every person clearly understand and accept the fact that being disciplined in every action is a matter of life and death for the survival of the organization.
Self-discipline is often not very obvious: such as a CEO arriving late for a meeting. In most companies, this action is tolerated because most CEOs explain their actions away by the fact that they are very busy. By being so busy that you are late for a company meeting, you are signaling a message that you are too busy to respect the time of the employees. This is a clear case of lack of self- discipline by the CEO.
The same applies to the fact that several CEOs take phone calls when they are already engaged in conversation with a person from the organization. This type of behavior becomes a norm in the company where leaders automatically assume that a leader being late for a meeting or being preoccupied when dealing with employees is an acceptable practice. There are many little incidences like this in which a CEO can show a lack of self-discipline. Accordingly, you will find this practice being followed by other leaders in the organization.
Ensuring that leaders are self-disciplined in the work place is hard work for the CEO in the initial days. The CEO has to constantly have meetings with the direct reports and point out how the direct reports must be the role models for the exercising of self-discipline.
The CEO ensures that the rules of the code of conduct are displayed in prominent places in the work area, constantly reminding everyone of the rules. Of course, the only way in which the CEO can get others to accept feedback on their behavior, is for the CEO to personally invite feedback and respond positively to the feedback.
People in an organization need to treat each other as they would a customer. For in reality every employee is a customer of another employee. Isadore Sharp founded the world famous five-star chain of hotels, The Four Seasons, based on the principle that every employee was the customer of every other employee. His theory, which worked extremely well, was that if you treat the employees like customers, they would in turn treat the customers with the same respect, discipline and courtesy.
Isadore Sharp followed the sayings of an old Japanese proverb: “If they work for you, you work for them.”
I have asked this question of several companies and have never had the answer that every employee is the customer of every other employee in the organization. Somehow people in an organization believe that the customer is to be treated with more respect and concern than their fellow employees. They are missing a very important motivational vehicle for service in the organization, and a perfect way to embed discipline in any company.
Interestingly enough, as William Feather says, “If we don’t discipline ourselves, the world will do it for us.” Self-discipline is all encompassing; it is more than just being on time for meetings. It’s how you conduct yourself when dealing with other people; how you dress; the state of your health; your daily habits; the integrity and honesty of your daily behavior; I can go on. As CEO you are unknowingly signaling to the people of the organization the code of conduct in self-discipline.
What you say often does not matter so much; the people in the organization will imitate what you do. Accordingly, the leader’s behavior will be reflected in the lagging performance of the organization. Most importantly, as CEO you will not be respected and trusted. You will not be seen as transparent in your actions.
Discipline in performing tasks in the organization, is like meticulously following the rules of the road. The moment you break a rule, you have an accident, and things come to a standstill. A smoothly functioning operation will have a disciplined crew who will follow the rules of the code of conduct very closely. Anyone who has seen a disciplined crew functioning will know what I am talking about: tasks are performed like clock- work. Similarly, an undisciplined crew will remind one of an octopus on roller skates.
Group discipline is best defined by the fact that every member of the group leverages the other members of the group by reinforcing their strengths and by assuming mutual responsibility and accountability. A simple example that I often use is that when a team member makes a mistake in a game, the next member does not berate that member for the mistake; instead, the team member automatically fills in and immediately tries to correct the mistake. This is mutual supportive behavior in spades. The team member automatically assumes accountability and responsibility. That is a true example of group discipline.
How does a CEO embed these three disciplines in the organization? Firstly, the CEO has to engender trust in the organization and free association of the employees where everyone is open to feedback and to use the feedback for self -improvement. The CEO must role model this behavior by inviting feedback and responding positively.
The CEO must lead the way in recognizing disciplined behavior at every opportunity. People respond very positively to the fact that their efforts at imbibing discipline in their day-to-day activity are being recognized.
Also, the leader’s responsibility is to correct undisciplined behavior by drawing attention to the behavior on the spot. People should know that it is critically important for everyone to adhere strictly to the code of conduct in the organization. There are no exceptions.
The best way to make people aware of the positive impact of following the code of conduct is to have them tell their customers and suppliers the rules of their code of conduct. When they do this, they are reinforcing their own belief in the code and this makes it easier for them to follow the code. For in a way they are making a commitment to the code every time they promote it.
Discipline and efficiency go hand- in-hand. An undisciplined organization is an inefficient organization; and no one needs to be educated to what happens to an inefficient organization. The graveyards are full of them.
Having completed the fourth star of the true job description of the CEO, the next star is the organization needs to assemble a strong cadre of leaders. This brings us to the fifth star, seeking and seeding of leaders at every level of the organisation. This star addresses the central issue of the CEO’s responsibilities.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
CARL A. PHILLIPS
Chairman, The Phillips Group
Location: Toronto, Canada
Carl has been consulting to CEOs and Leaders for over forty years. He is an Industrial Psychologist, an Entrepreneur, and an Author who has written two books on leadership. Carl was the Head of Global Organization Effectiveness for Watson Wyatt Worldwide, which is now called Willis Towers Watson, one of the largest management consulting companies in the world with over 14,000 employees.
Carl Phillips is a Certified Management Consultant who has created several assessment instruments and tests on leadership which he has been applying effectively on a variety of global companies located in North America, Europe and Asia for over forty years. Carl’s book, “Winners Are Not Lonely At The Top”, is a live case study of the proven application of his “Five Stars” model for experiencing exponential, sustained growth in an organization.
Carl has co-authored a book called “Global Literacies”, published by Simon and Schuster, New York. The book is a summary of his interviews with seventy-five global CEOs located in twenty eight countries wherein the lessons learned by these CEOs on the challenges for running a successful global company are documented in detail.
Carl Phillips has been keynote speaker in several international conferences on leadership and he has written a number of articles on The True Job Description of the CEO, a unique insight into the critical force in an organization that is often neglected.
SHANE PHILLIPS is Carl’s son and is currently the CEO of The Phillips Group based in Dubai, UAE.
The Phillips Group has been helping companies align, focus and build their leadership teams since 1984. Driving organisations and individuals to peak performance has been our raison d’etre for two generations.
Please contact us for your CEO Assessment Guide at CEO@tpgleadership.com
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