Today I bring you a fascinating and insightful conversation with Michael Henderson, corporate anthropologist, culture expert and my latest guest in conversation for the Rawthentic Leadership podcast on ‘Leading with Culture’.
Michael has overseen or supported over 300 company culture transformations in countries around the world and in many different sectors, and our conversation delivers fascinating insights into organisational culture, what it is and isn’t, surprising statistics about levels of proactive investment in building culture and much, much more.
Here are a few of the golden nuggets gleaned from our conversation:-
- The percentage of organisations that are aligning culture to strategy
- The culture/strategy chicken and egg problem
- The ‘speaking about’ versus ‘knowing about’ culture conundrum
- The staff/leadership knowledge and awareness gaps
- Why culture isn’t top of the strategic agenda
- One word that makes all the difference when defining culture
- What culture really is
- Brining culture to life
- What cultural anthropologists do and how it differs from other culture transformation specialists
- An insight into cognitive anthropology
- How humans ‘think’ about culture
- How to broaden your ‘schematic vocabulary’
- Problems versus perspectives
- The value of uncovering perspectives – a case study
- The impact of leaders on culture
- Michael’s take on leadership
- Culture considerations in mergers and acquisitions
- Maintaining culture in a hybrid world
- A great example of a remote culture working well
- How leaders can leave a legacy of maintaining culture
- Case study of a real estate business that wasn’t in real estate – what business are you in?
- What leaders must get clear on to succeed
Michael’s book 'Above the Line: How to Create a Company Culture that Engages Employees, Delights Customers and Delivers Results' can be purchased here
You can connect with Michael on LinkedIn here
In the new year Michael will be making his culturing programs available for individuals (currently only available to organisations). For more information please follow this link https://www.culturesatwork.com/culture-programs
Rawthentic Leadership has been ranked number 4 in Australia’s top 25 Leadership Podcasts https://blog.feedspot.com/australian_leadership_podcasts/
We are on a mission to get the message out to the business community about those 21st Century leadership skills that engage, inspire, motivate and develop people to be their very best and achieve their potential so if you enjoy the podcast, please head over to Apple podcasts and give us a rating and review or is Spotify is your platform of Choice please follow us - thank you!
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