A culture of connection, commitment and community has a strong appeal when you seek to attract high-paying customers and clients.
“Each day when you walk into your office, are you giving consideration to what type of culture you are cultivating?” asks leadership speaker Jason O. Harris. “Are you and your team of leaders aware that your actions will dictate whether you are cultivating a culture of compliance or a culture of connection, commitment, and community?”
Harris is a leadership and trust speaker, consultant and certified character coach. As a decorated combat veteran, he shares unique perspectives gained from his battlefield experience.
“Your organization’s culture will ultimately determine what kind of experience your customers and clients will have,” says Harris.
His methodology for creating no-fail trust cultures was crafted from his own harrowing, life-altering experiences, and conveys the importance of cross-generational communication and mutual trust.
“If you were to be placed at the helm of a multimillion-dollar Air Force cargo jet or commercial airliner, under stress and other challenges, there is an absolute necessity for cohesiveness, communication, and commitment in order to be the high performance team required to operate these jets,” says Harris. “In order to cultivate cohesiveness, connection, and commitment in these fast-paced, high-performance teams, there are seven critical skill sets that are always present and encouraged.
Here are several skill sets Harris recommends to build a high-performance culture of mutual trust:
Communication. “When it’s crunch time and critical decisions need to be made, whether in flight at 35,000 feet in the air flying at 600 mph, or when a major deal is on the table for your organization, communication is absolutely essential,” says Harris. “When it’s time to make decisions, given the time critical scenario, you want, need and expect your people to communicate.”
Leadership. “Every organization, especially high performing organizations, need true and authentic leadership,” says Harris. “Leadership in your teams and organization has to be further defined as the people that influence others to accomplish the team and organizational objectives in a manner that makes the team more cohesive and more committed to each other, the mission at hand, and the organization.”
Assertiveness. “Assertiveness is being self-assured and confident without being aggressive,” says Harris. “When it is time to make business decisions and the fate of your organization is on the line, like flying a commercial airliner with hundreds of passengers onboard, it is imperative that your people are trained, ready and willing to speak up and assert their voice to avert a disaster.”
Decision-Making. “When you look at decision-making and its application to your environment and how it relates to high-performance teams, you need to be ready and able to make important and significant decisions,” says Harris. “Sometimes these decisions will have to be made in very short order, without supervision. In order to make these time-sensitive decisions, your people will need to be empowered, knowing that they are prepared and trusted to make decisions that can be very critical to the operation and success of the organization.”
Adaptability. “When your organization or team is moving at the speed of success, it is imperative that members are adaptable.,” says Harris. ”The organization has to empower its people to be ready and prepared to adapt to many different scenarios. When flying commercial jets across the world, there is likely to be some turbulence and there is likely to be some weather formations along the route. In order to get to the intended destination safely, the crew has to be adaptable to go over, under, and around the turbulence and thunderstorms. Being adaptable can only happen when the people have been empowered.”
In my opinion, culture doesn’t happen by accident. First comes core values. Then comes rewarding people for exhibiting the core values in action. Next comes using stories in onboarding and training to reinforce the culture. Teaching leadership skill sets like Harris advocates goes a long way toward building an attractive culture of trust.
