In episode 6 on Leaders, Leadership Systems and the Impact on Culture Walt Carter, Pat Romboletti and John Vinyard will discuss how to use a leadership system.

Leadership thoughts:

• The culture you are trying to promote must be embodied in your Leadership System, and in every leader
• The Leadership System allows the senior leaders to deploy their 'wisdom' all the way down the organization
• Personal 'styles' and a Leadership System are not the same
• In a strong culture everyone is entitled to have an opinion, and is encouraged to 'speak up'
• In a strong culture if you know about a problem it is unacceptable not to 'speak up'
• You cannot tolerate the person who makes their goals, but do not embrace the organizational culture

Importance:

• A consistent approach to leadership is critical to repeatable organizational success
• The team must understand:
  • What we are attempting to accomplish?
  • How?
  • Who will do each part?
• In high-performing organizations bad news flows up FAST
  • Leaders do not take action to suddenly 'micro-manage' because they know:
    • The people who 'own' the bad news know the leaders know about it
    • The owner is working to fix the problem
    • The owner will ask for help if they need it
• How Do I Reflect on Myself as a Leader:
  • Do I know the aspects of the Leadership System which are my strengths and opportunities?
    • How do I know?
    • Do I have a tangible approach to improve each of my opporunites?
  • Do people in my organization feel safe in speaking up?
  • Do I give any (even subtle) signals that I don't want to hear bad news
  • When bad news flows up, do I ask "What happened - what process failed", not "Who did this"

In episode 5 on Leaders, Leadership Systems and the Impact on Culture Walt Carter, Pat Romboletti and John Vinyard will continue the conversation on Leadership Systems.

Leadership thoughts:

• Leaders must always be a role model
• The leadership system should include:
  • Our 'table stakes' of what you should have if you are in this organization, both personally (i.e., integrity) and organizationally (i.e., VMV and behaviors) 
• Who you serve and their requirements
• What a leader must accomplish
• What no leader can delegate

Importance:

• If leaders are going to have a consistent approach to leading?
• If you do not have the responsibilities clearly defined, every leader will 'lead from their gut' and this will drive the workforce crazy.
  • Everyone will have a different approach and think it is 'personality" driven not process driven

How do I reflect on myself as a Leader:

• How was I taught to lead?
• Do I understand the customer requirements of those people I lead?
• Do I demonstrate the characteristics of leaders which no leader can delegate... such as:
  • Being a role-model
  • Building commitment
  • Empowering leaders and teams
  • Analyzing performance
  • Making course corrections
  • Motivating employees
  • Continuously improving 

In episode 4 on Leaders, Leadership Systems and the Impact on Culture Walt Carter, Pat Romboletti and John Vinyard will discuss the behaviors behind culture and what constitutes a genuine change in culture.

Leadership Thoughts:

• Culture of the organization must be clearly defined
• There are lecturing cultures and listening cultures
• Leaders must make a commitment to a path forward
• Are the leaders collaborative?  Do they like and respect each other?
• Culture drives behavior
• Behaviors must support the culture
• The core value of a culture must be that you care about your workforce
• Does the leadership team have "simplifiers and multipliers?"  You need both.

Importance:

• This is pivotal to all aspects of an organization's performance
• What is being done is more important than what is being said
• Key staff will leave if the culture is not what high performing leaders expect
  • Pay alone will not keep some of your key leaders
  • This cost of senior leader turnover is extremely high

How do I reflect on myself as a leader?

• Do I understand how the culture is deployed on a day-to-day basis?
• Do others in the organization truly believe I care about them?
• If I ask someone to describe the culture, does everybody describe the same set of beliefs and behaviors?
• Are people waiting for me to make a decision - am I holding progress? How do I know?
• Am I able to describe our complex environment simply?

In episode 3 on Leaders, Leadership Systems and the Impact on Culture Walt Carter, Pat Romboletti and John Vinyard will take a deeper dive into the conversation on culture.
Key themes:

• Culture - what is it and what do I need to do?
• Leadership systems - what is a leadership system and how is it used?

Leadership thoughts:

• Changing culture is a very difficult process, and can only be done with the support (air cover) from the top leader
• Mentorship programs must be focused on the Mentee, not the mentor

Importance:

• Leaders who try to disrupt the culture MUST have 100% of their leaders support while they are trying to "tilt the culture"

How do I reflect on myself as a leader?

• What am I doing which is in conflict with the culture?
  • Do I have leadership support?
• Do I know the requirements of my direct reports?
  • Do they TRUELY feel I care about them?
• Who mentors me?
  • Do I have 3 mentors?
    • One that is outside the organization
    • One that is inside the organization (higher level)
    • One that is inside the organization
      • Someone that sees you everyday
      • A millennial to learn from each other

 In the second episode on Leaders, Leadership Systems and the impact on culture we start by answering the question at the end of Episode 1: 
How do you get teams to align and get in step with each other and be willing to be open to ideas outside the organization?
Leadership thoughts:

• Leaders must have humility to want to improve
• Leaders must know where to improve
• Organizations must have a documented Leadership System
• The definition of a Leadership System
• There must be a clear "code of conduct" documented for the organization, which is clear, communicated and enforced

Importance:

• "There is a tremendous proximity between excellence and dissatisfaction" (quote by Joe Anderson)
• The Standards of Behavior must be documented and not violated EVER

How do I reflect on myself as a leader?

• Do I evaluate myself in my ability to lead?
• Do I have clear measures of my leadership?
• Am I tough on myself and how I can improve my leadership?
• Do I have somebody who will "tell me the truth" about what I need to improve?
• Do I really have a passion for results?
• Have I earned the peoples trust
  • How?
  • How do I know?
  • How am I doing?

Episode 1 on Leaders, Leadership Systems and the Impact on Culture:
How do we define who is a leader and what are their responsibilities?

Leadership Thoughts
·   Leaders are at all levels
·   All leaders must set direction at their level
·   Beliefs and actions MUST match within the organization
Importance
·   Everybody needs to lead
·   We must have a common definition of what is the responsibility of every leader
·   Whoever you bring into the organization must have matching Vision, Mission, Values (VMV) and behaviors
How Do I Reflect on Myself As A Leader?
·   Do decisions come to me which should be made at a lower level
·   Do you see leaders who pass the buck, and don’t make decisions within their span of control
·   Have we developed a Leadership System
·   Have our Vision, Mission, Values been defined and Universally Communicated -  You must have Behaviors, Tactics and Measures of these