Front-Line Leadership

CHAPTER 11Engaging and Empowering Others to Lead Cultural Change

Driving cultural change is a deliberate effort to reshape the way people think, act, and interact within a group. This could be a group of 10 people on your team at work or a companywide cultural shift of over 1,000 people. The need for change is often driven by a recognition that the existing culture may no longer be conducive to the organization's goals, or that changes are needed to adapt to evolving external factors.

In the last two chapters, we've talked about creating a culture of accountability and building a positive workplace culture. In this chapter, we're going to bring those ideas together and examine how we can engage and empower others to help us lead cultural change in our organizations. I'll share some experiences of mine that have shaped how I view cultural change and why I believe we all can impact our organizational culture in a meaningful way. We're also going to explore some examples of organizations that have engaged and empowered leaders to drive cultural change while also providing some practical takeaways aimed at helping you to do the same in your organization.

Engage and Empower

I'm a big fan of alliteration but it's important to understand the difference between engagement and empowerment. Both of these concepts are related—they each help create a positive and productive environment at work, but they focus on some very different aspects of the employee experience. A simplified way ...