Leading culture

We celebrated this year’s International Women’s Day at the National Association of Women In Construction (NAWIC) Great Debate lunch. As always, celebrating the day with other inspiring women (and men!) who are making it their mission to champion equality for everyone in the workplace, is always inspirational and thought provoking.

The challenge to not just attract, but retain, women in the workforce was a key topic in the debate with the culture of workplaces sighted as a driving factor for women (and anyone else affected) leaving their workplace.
This really made me reflect on our culture at LKB, and my role as a leader in not just creating but continually protecting and nurturing that culture.

Culture should sit firmly on a leader’s agenda. It is our responsibility as leaders to set the tone of the organisation we lead, to instil the values and the beliefs of that organisation into our people, and to nurture and fiercely protect that culture.

Above all, our culture in action must match what we say it is in words, no matter what.

The ‘no matter what’ is often what brings leaders unstuck. The inability to make the tough decisions or have the hard conversations or opting to turn a blind eye, begins to poison a culture and leaves teams feeling unsafe, disengaged and at its most poisonous, forcing people to leave.

At LKB we do pride ourselves on our culture but there is always room for improvement. IWD was a reminder to me to put culture firmly back at the top of my agenda, and to get super clear on where my focus should be to create and retain a safe environment where everyone can thrive. These are my top four focus points:

• • Open communication and transparency – between team members and between the leadership and the team. Addressing problems early, having the difficult conversations, acknowledging and appreciating different views, asking the questions and facilitating discussions on the topics that matter to the team.
  • Values that are embedded in the business and the behaviours we expect from each other, and most importantly, values that we act on if we see behaviour that doesn’t fit with who we are.
  • Acknowledging each other’s ideas and input and celebrating the work we do, our achievements both as a team and as individuals, and supporting each other through the tougher projects and busy times.
  • FUN – pure and simple joy in getting to work with talented and wonderful people, spending time together, sharing laughs and getting to know each other in a more meaningful way (you can see this in action at our LKB retreats!).

I’m taking action to let my team know culture is at the top of my agenda and we’ll be working together to fiercely protect the unique LKB culture we have created.