Leading & Guiding Core Values during Cultural Changes – Nu Leadership Series

“An intellectual is a man who takes more words than necessary to tell more than he knows.
Dwight D. Eisenhower

Has does an organization balance its core values against the changing cultural climate? Balancing organization progress while maintaining consistency in core values represents a difficult task for any “forward-thinking” organization. Consequently, numerous consultants promote to their clients faddy solutions to very complicated problems. First, leaders need to be strategic in planning while transparent in their values so that followers can trust them.

Borek, Lovett, and Towns, authors of The Good Book on Leadership, advocate leaders to do the following: (a) recognize the wrong in the world and commit to doing what’s right, (b) learn to discern the right things to do, (c) build credibility by convincing others you know how to solve the problem, and (d) measure and report organizational progress to strengthen your followers’ resolve. Second, organizational leaders must communicate regularly with followers so that they won’t feel betrayed by changes. Malphurs, a leadership guru, argues that rapid change can hurt an individual’s personal health; it can also damage an organization because of a sense of uncertainty and lack of clarity from within.

Therefore, a leader must think strategically during these rapid, turbulent times and continually communicate with followers. Start today!

Reference:

Borek, J., Lovett, D., & Towns, E. (2005). The Good Book on Leadership. Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers.

© 2006 by Daryl D. Green